About me

“Photography is an itch that won’t go away. No matter how much you scratch it.” —Dara McGrath

Hi and welcome to Shoots Photographs, I'm Sharmaine or more commonly known by friends and family as Shiney Shoo. I am a Graduate BA (hons) qualified photographer and I am about to embark on the Masters In Visual Journalism and Storytelling. I'm based in Oldham, Manchester but I am known to travel all over the country on various assignments.

How did I get into photography I hear you say, well... I'v always had a camera in my hand, from as young an age as I can remember. Starting with a film camera and moving onto digital in the late 90's. Although I was never concious of having a camera in my hand, the only reason I realised that I did was when I collated the huge amount of pictures I had accumulated over the years, some would call me an image hoarder.

I decided to take photography up as a career after attending a workshop at Oldham University for my twins as they are both keen photographers.  (Yes I have a set of twins, karma for all my previous life sins). The twins are home educated and I booked them on to the photography workshop and this is where my journey into photography as a career more than an unconscious hobby really begins.

One of the lecturers, Anne Fox convinced me that joining the Fda Arts Photography degree the following September would be a good idea, so naturally I closed my Accounting Practice down and became a full time University student, at almost 50 years of age, this was a perfectly rational thing to do of course. (to see Ann's amazing work go to https://annefox2020.wordpress.com/)

So here we are, a few years down the line from closing the doors on my accounting practice, and after graduating from the Fda Arts Photography course as a fully qualified photographer, and then going on to top that with a 1st class BA (Hons) degree, I will be embarking on my fourth year of study on the Masters Visual Journalism and Storytelling and my life has literaly changed unrecognisably,  I now consider myself a competent fully fledged photographer.

Life has become all about photography, I live, eat, sleep and breathe photography, my camera has become glued to my hand and I am enjoying and living life like I never thought I ever could by doing something I love rather than doing something I hate daily just to merely exist in life.

My gratitude goes out to Anne for having more faith in me than I did in myself and allowing me to join the course, she literally changed the path of my life and I will forever be in gratitude, and of course thank you to Kevin Linnane my constant throughout my studies, I could never have imagined I would get so lucky with such a great Lecturer and supervisor, who has put up with me rumbling on for the past few years and bending his ear for every drop of knowledge that he could possibly share, he has made me a much better photographer than I thought I ever could be, and I owe my rapid metamorphosis into becomming more of a photographer than an accountant to him, and his unwavering support.