Introduction: Pieter Saayman

I’ve been hooked on photography since the first time I’ve used a camera, which was at age 8! But only when I got to high school did the bug really bite me, and at the age of 14 I decided that I wanted to make it my career.

In high school I started taking pictures for the school newspaper. One day the school sent one of my pictures to the local newspaper, which they published the following week. Seeing my name under a published picture was like a drug, and I was hooked, instantly! All through high school I was on a mission to get my pictures published. There were days that I would leave my books at home, but never my camera! My camera bag became my constant companion! (I suppose I was a bit of a geek… and I still am)

I matured a bit from my by-line chasing high school days… now my passion is more concentrated around evoking emotion and telling stories with my pictures. Although, I must admit, I still enjoy seeing my by-line... at the moment there are very few things that can compare with the excitement of seeing FRONTROWIMAGE.COM under a published picture!

One big lesson that I have learnt over the past few years, especially since the conception on FRONTROWIMAGE, is that photography is more than a job, more than a career even… It is a lifestyle!

With this blog we aim to give you some insight into that lifestyle… picture by picture.

Introduction: Pieter Swanepoel

I became a photographer while I was travelling in the UK. I bought a small Nikon Coolpix 775 point-and-shoot camera and the photography bug bit me. I could not get enough so I started to learn photography over the internet.

It took time, but it was the best time of my life. My second camera was a Sony Cybershot F717. I made few upgrades as time went by and I learned more. The Canon EOS 10D was next on my list and now I was in the DSLR market.

The first picture I sold was of Jennifer Ellison taken with the 10D. She was not very famous, but famous enough to sell. From there onward I took pictures of celebrities on a regular basis, and in London there were plenty. I went out mainly at night and knew all the celeb spots

Most of the time you will have at least a couple of other pap's (paparazzi) on the same job. Everyone knew one another, but when you saw a celeb you were enemies. All of us fought for a picture and the quickest and luckiest got the best. Sometimes you have to make your luck and sometimes even luck does not give you a picture.

I started to miss images because of the speed of the EOS 10D, so I decided to splash out and buy the Canon EOS 1DM2. The 8.2 frames per second was definitely what I needed. What a camera!!!

In the paparazzi industry speed is everything. You need to be quick to get the shots and you need to get your images to the agency faster. The quicker they get the frames the better your chances are of making some sales. After that I worked for a newspaper as a press photographer. That lasted for almost 2 years.

I decided to start my own business and January 2008 Front Row Image was started. A partnership between 2 photographers who believe they can change the world, one image at a time.

My name is Pieter and I am a Professional Photographer. What do you do for a living?