By Darcy Tharp
It was later
when he took a media course that covered design,
photography, film production, and journalism
that he first started taking pictures and bought
his first manual 35mm SLR. A lot of things have
changed in the industry especially over the last
10 years and Christopher feels very lucky to have
learned to use a camera in the good old days of
film. Fortunately he learned Photoshop in one
of his design classes, which proved to be a vital
skill later on when he switched over to digital
cameras. In 2004 he turned these skills into a full
time business and has since traveled the world as
a commercial photographer for many high profile
clients. Due to his background playing Ice Hockey
for Great Britain, fitness has always been a big
part of Christopher’s life. Becoming a fitness and
bodybuilding photographer is something that has
then just naturally occurred for him over the last
few years. He started with a few brand names that
spread to magazine and private portfolio work,
and now fitness is around 90% of his work load.
However, working alongside some of the world’s
best fitness models, athletes, and bodybuilders
each day rubbed off on him a little more than he
would have originally expected. With a push from
fellow bodybuilder photographers Gillies Crofta
and Mark Coles at M10 Fitness, Christopher took
it on himself to go through the shoot process first
hand. “I like to think this benefits the position I am
in now knowing what everyone I work with goes
through. I now have the utmost respect for the
dedication of my clients”
58 ||
FITNESS
M A G A Z I N E || JUNE 2015 || EDITION 2
FMM: You started with film-do you recall a
particular moment you knew you had to make
the change?
CB: I started with film at college. I was studying
media design because I wanted to be a graphic
designer back then. It was design, photography,
film production, and a little bit of journalism as well,
but I really sunk into film photography actually.
FMM: Do you still miss dark room photography?
CB: It was really getting back into the dark room
and actually developing your own image and
seeing it all come through. That was the highlight
for me, and that’s what got me addicted. After
that I did take quite a break from photography; I
did a second college course, which I didn’t finish
because it was quite repetitive of the first course.
Back then I was a professional ice hockey player
for Great Britain and competing all over the world.
FMM: When did you discover photography is
your future?
CB: One summer my dad started giving me a few
jobs through his company doing photography.
Back then it was just turning over into d igital, so I
did quite a few jobs and managed to get enough
money together to get my first digital camera. I
kind of knew a little bit of Photoshop anyway
because of design class and it kind of sank
in together really well. I did commercial work,
and shot everything like trucks, forklifts, cranes,
and that was the majority of my work. When the
recession hit I switched and started doing a lot
of wedding photography and sort of found new
avenues as all my commercial clients had cut their
marketing budgets at that point. It started building
back up over the years until about five years
ago when I did my first fitness shoot. That led to >>>