Sophie Mitchell

London-based freelance, shooting for charities and promotional events. Studied economics, before working as a TV producer. Foundation degree in professional photography at City of Westminster College. Assists wedding photographer Christian Keenan.

"I wasn't one of those people born waving a Polaroid camera", says Sophie Mitchell, 32. "I've always been creative and visual, but something hap- pened when I got my first digital camera and started getting a positive response." Wirral-born, Mitchell came to photography late, moving across from a career in television, although she recalls that she had a Fisher Price camera as a child. She went to boarding school, and would cover the walls around her bed with photos of her friends. "I took a lot of pictures, and I used to prance around in front of the camera as From the Glasto Head series well", she says. "I did a degree in economics, which I hated. I should have done broadcast or com- munications. I had an A level in economics, and stupidly thought I'd do a degree in eco- nomics, make a lot of money, and that would make me happy – absolute rubbish.

"I literally fell into TV. I'd been offered a job as a headhunter. I was about to take it, when I had a call from one of my friends, who said, 'I'm speaking to the production manager of Robot Wars. Do you want to come for an interview?' I went, because I didn't really want the other job. Everyone was down in London having fun, and I wanted to have fun. I ended up at Mentorn, the independent production company, which does everything from Question Time to Robot Wars, for a year.

"I started on the production side - budgets, management and coordination - but quickly moved across to editorial, because I wanted to be more involved in the creative side. I'm a 'can do' type of person, which is pretty essential if you want to do well in TV.

"I just took to it, really enjoyed it, and had a lot of fun. But before I knew it, I was getting into entertainment, and instead of taking a step back, I got sucked in. I didn't say, 'These are the kind of programmes that I want to make, so I need to do this, this and this'.

"I'd done a lot of travelling at university and in my gap year, and I thought that I would love to get into making travel pro- grammes. It was at this point that I took control of my career. I wrote to Pilot Productions, which gave me opportunities and put me on the road to being a producer. To be a successful producer there are certain qualities which are pretty much essential: calmness, dogged determination, tenacity, coming up with lots of ideas, trouble shooting, persuading people to do things to give you access - which they don't necessarily want to do, and doing it for no money - all of that stuff came quite naturally to me, and being a producer was perfect for me at that time.

"I got into making films in the Globetracker series, which is huge, especially in Asia. I was happy. I was making travel programmes. I went to Australia, Borneo, Malaysia. But soon it all began to seem just a bit formulaic. I was making stuff for Discovery that was on its 13th series. Yes, you are exposed to different cultures, but you don't get that kind of contact and depth of story. You're doing three-minute segments where the presenter meets the character, who goes through some tradition; and then trav- elling onto the next thing.

"By contrast meanwhile, the people I'd been working with at Robot Wars were making Cutting Edge documentaries for Channel 4, and directing – things I would have jumped at, but for which I just had the wrong CV.

"I started doing production stills when I became a producer. I did it because, on budget documentaries, there often isn't money for a stills photographer, but I found that when shooting stills, I was actually excited for the first time in quite a while.

"I decided to leave TV for a bit, and got a job with the charity Action for Children, writing case studies and photographing serv- ice users. The charity dealt with all the release forms, all the permissions. All I need- ed to do was get a rapport going with the young people, and that was pretty easy for me. I did that for two months, then realised that I wanted to train and take control of photography right from the start.

"I had previously gone backpacking in Australia, taking a Canon G7 digital compact with me. When I came back, everyone was complimentary about the pictures. I used those images, along with production stills I'd done and stuff I'd shot for Action for Children, and put together a portfolio of about 20 images.

"I checked out degree and foundation courses, and ended up starting on the two year foundation degree in professional photography at City of Westminster College in 2007. I went from taking pictures that looked nice, to creating something with a concept and a really strong narrative.

"Westminster really pushes the conceptual side of photography, which completely threw me, but in the best way. I think of myself as a technician as well, but being exposed to all these different influences has helped to push me further and give my work more depth.

"There were only 10 of us on the course, so we had our hands well and truly held. Half of us were mature students, so we were all total geeks – devoting huge amounts of time to our personal projects.

"I taught myself Photoshop as, beyond the basics, the course didn't teach you anything about that. I tried reading books about it but, being dyslexic, they were too much to handle. The best way for me was going on YouTube and watching other people's actions, then breaking them down to see how they created the different effects.

"Totally Rad Actions (www.Get TotallyRad.com) is amazing for that. Then there's a guy who has a massive fan base on the web called Joey L (www.joeyl.com). He does master classes online. The look and feel of his images is very bold. He breaks down how he gets different looks, and I take some things and leave others.

"I work extensively on my images. I do a lot of shading - it can change the whole shape of someone's face. If you have the right exposure and you've used some interesting lighting, you can get drama out of nothing.

"We did a business module at college, in which you had to interview a professional. I decided to interview people who were pret- ty much at the top of their game. I interviewed the editorial photographer Phil Fisk. He's great, and has got a cool style. I also interviewed Christian Keenan, who is a very successful Jersey-based wedding photographer. He runs CKP Weddings (www.ckpweddings.com). "I liked Christian straight away. He was hugely generous with his advice, and has an accomplished background as a photojournalist. He asked if he could see some of my work, and said he was impressed, which was a great boost, as at that point I'd had very little feedback on my wedding work, and I really respect his opinion.

"I invited Christian to my graduation exhibition, and I put at the end of the email '... and if you ever do need an assistant, then please have a look at my new stuff and see what you think.' He rang up and said he was going to fly me over to Jersey and put me up in a hotel. I was to meet his wife, kids, and current assistant, and we'd talk about getting me on board.

"He's expanding the business, and wants associate photographers. This is a great opportunity for me, because it means I don't have any of the overheads of running a business. I can go and do it at the weekends, and then concentrate on my personal work and getting commis- sions in advertising, TV publicity – all the commercial stuff that I want to do.

"And I'm learning a lot from him as well. The way that he does a wedding is so active; he's always moving round his subjects. You see a lot of wedding photographers and they're just shooting, and it's not right: you've got to get the right background and be where the light is good.

"There's a huge difference between being an assistant, where you're setting up lights, making cups of tea, and being a smiley person that gets release forms signed, to being a second shooter for a top wedding photographer. You've got all these things going on, and you don't want to get in his way. I don't think that I've performed to the best of my ability with him so far. I need to step it up and make sure that we can work together. Personality-wise we get on well, and he has said that he took quite a long time to get into the groove of working together with his old assistant. So I think it's just a matter of time.

"Christian charges about £4000 per wedding. I do weddings for friends, but I charge something like £1500 for 250 images. I did one last week where I was on my feet for 20 hours, which was exhausting. Working for Christian has really brought home the importance of presentation to the wedding photographer, especially if you are working with the top end of the market. Being polite, well turned out, relaxed and unobtrusive, are all crucial."

Mitchell has two Canon EOS 5D Mk II bodies. "I love shooting with them", she says, "but, although they have the facility to shoot HD video, I don't shoot video footage when doing weddings. There's too much to think about just doing the stills, although I did one wedding video for a friend, which I shot on a Sony Z1. I shot it fly on the wall style: social documentary, and very different from what I've seen before: no soft focus or cheesy music montages!
"As for kit, I have a pair of Bowens Gemini 750 heads, but I often just use a couple of Canon Speedlites – they're extremely practical, and it's amazing what you can do with them, especially if you're not shooting at really small apertures. I spend a lot of time on Strobist.com, and I've got homemade snoots and a load of pulsars, which are like Pocket Wizards. All my lenses are L series, so they are really good quality glass. That's pretty much my kit, and then I hire in anything else."

Mitchell graduated from City of Westminster College last year. "I was registered as self-employed in the TV days, so I stayed self-employed all the time I did my course for the weddings that I did", she says.

"I got some interest off the back of my graduation exhibition. Then I had an image in the Foto8 exhibition at Host Gallery. Imperial College commissioned me to cover its Freshers' Ball and Freshers' Fair. A lot of my work so far comprises portraiture series, which I've entered into competitions, or it's for the portfolio. I've got the book and I need to work on it, edit it down and change the order. Then I'll be ready to crack on and get myself out there to do more portfolio reviews.

"I fill my portfolio with personal work. I get ideas frequently, and often write them down. I'll be watching TV, or reading something in a magazine, and an idea will just jump out. I was reading Time Out, and I saw an advert for Baby Loves Disco. It's an American concept for under 5s. They go to a full on London nightclub at Clapham Grand, where there's a DJ, organic food, bright lights, and the kids boogie away. You can't get in without a child, so the parents are there as well.

"The kids love it. I rang up the woman that runs it, asked to come along, and they still use one of the images that I took for all of their advertising. I went to a couple of the events, and after the first one I knew exactly how I wanted the final series of images to look when I went back. I fully research my subject, including a recce, and then the vision is pretty much there, so I can work out how best to shoot.

"I'm London-based, which at this point of my photography career is perfect. I own a two bed flat in Brixton, where I live with my boyfriend. I bought it about four years ago. As a producer, I earned between £800 and £1000 a week, so was in an ok position to take time out to retrain.

"I'm at a point now where I need to really rein it in and start to think seriously about what I'm going to do for work, and make a business plan. That's partly why I started doing the weddings. It's a stable income while I focus on setting myself up as a freelance commercial photographer. It's also a great training ground, putting the hours in so that all the technical stuff is second nature, and there is 100% concentration on being a storyteller.

"It's very hard to go from living on a dual income to suddenly having one income. I know what Pot Noodle tastes like - which isn't a good place to be when you're in your 30s! I have a very supportive boyfriend, and just enough savings to make ends meet. However, it's now time to really make a go of the photography.

"I'm not averse to taking on TV jobs still, especially if the opportunity is right. I had an interview for a TV job the other day. It was a three month contract, and I'd get to visit 10 Asian countries, with a presenter and director with whom I've worked before. They said that they would commission me to do the production stills as well; and I've just been commis- sioned by Channel 4 to do the stills for a new documentary, which is great.

"I'm just sorting my website. I'm doing it with Live Books, who've been incredibly helpful. I've had long chats with them over the phone, in which they've made it all very simple and easy to understand. The design looks good: just plain colour, picture in the middle, name in a decent font, galleries, and a client area.

"Making a career change in my 30s wasn't the safest choice, but I think this in itself gives me the determination to succeed. I'm quite brazen about being a commercial photographer. I like creating atmospheric environmental portraits, bold images with a bit of a dark edge... a style to which I hope the advertising world will respond. Knowing what direction you want to go in is half the battle."

Top Tips
•Don't get sucked into something you don't want to do just because it's the easy option
•Be a 'can do' type of person
•Build up a rapport with your subjects
•If reading technical books is not for you, try watching other people's actions on YouTube
•Use interesting lighting for dramatic effect
•Always experiment
•Research your subjects
•Have a vision of what you want to achieve
•Communicate clearly with your client. Maintaining expectation is the easiest way to avoid disappointment