Your "Hire Me" page lists you as a public speaker. What is the core message you hope your audience takes away from your talks?
I love sharing my journey with people, which is why I wrote the book. However, in my past life as a robotics engineer, I have taught people how to use our products, helped them design stuff, and even trained rehabilitation engineers and Occupational therapy staff on wheelchair controllers on how to get the best for their clients.
I want to do more speaking arrangements, but until I had written this book, published two magazines, and a calendar, I did not have the "credentials" to back up my story; now I do.
As a consultant, what are the most common mistakes you see organizations or media outlets make when they try to cover or engage with disability sports?
The main mistake that organizers who are not disabled make when commissioning photography from non-disabled photographers or writers is that they view the sports from a standing position, rather than a sitting position. It's a challenging one to explain; however, my mindset was changed when I photographed a wheelchair rugby game at the 2023 Invictus Games. All of a sudden, an urge came over me, and I said, ‘‘Concentrate on the person, not the game.’’ I was mid-shoot when I changed my perspective, and WOW, my photography has changed for the better from that moment onwards.
However, an able-bodied person will never get this, as they are not disabled; they do not see it from my lived experience of limited movement, pain, and a host of other things that make me disabled.
How have technology and social media changed the game for the visibility of disabled athletes, for the better?
Yes, technology has made my life a lot easier, but it has also made it a lot harder. As I can take a photo and see it straight away, now an editor around the world wants that within the hour, all captioned, keywords, and corrected if necessary..Now I am capturing 800-1600 images in 1 hour of gameplay, which is a lot of images to go through. I can do it and pick out 10 good ones and get the fans excited around 35-40 minutes later.
However, I cannot get an entirely correctly captioned one done in that time, I have now learnt. So next time I am at an event, I will probably upload all the images to a server, and let a trusted person check that everything is OK and can caption those images for me, then upload them to the editors, stock libraries, and social media channels, which are literally under no time pressure. As we quite often say in wheelchair basketball games, there is less than 45 minutes from the end of one game to the next.
So, in short, I need an assistant who can do that for me. Well, all the other large agencies, such as the Press Association, Getty, and others, have staff; why not a single-person operator?
Then, when I get back to the hotel, all I need to do is back up my photos to an external hard drive. Charge batteries and sort out various memory cards ready for tomorrow's challenges.
However, I did get a shot of a British guy being punched in the face, and in these 35 minutes between games, I got it up on my Instagram and others, and by chance, my teammate was in my path, and I said Have you seen this? NO, it was an instant hit. Then the organiser walked through and said he saw it, and said, 'Great, so that was less than 5 minutes after I had uploaded the shot.
However, with digital photos, I can instantly share them with anyone around the world. This is crucial, as evidenced by the American big teams, which are seeing images within a few minutes and accessing them on their phones while still watching the game. This will encourage people to share and chat about this as they walk out of the venue and into a restaurant, on the train, or a car ride home, and so on. Excited fans are leaving the stadium after the game.
What advice would you give to a young disabled athlete just starting and seeking a community or recognition?
Just like any sport or work job, do your best to show up, train, and get a good mentor, as they will teach you a lot more than you think.
Also get some decent photos of you for your social media not because its my business, as good photos can show the world you mean business, I have seen some awful photos and some of these people are so called professionals yes it costs money, but remember the photographer does have lots of contacts across the sports field and if you need more advice on how to get to your next stage ask him or her, they may be able help. Or at least point you in the right direction.
However, also get someone good at social media. It's not all about getting likes on Instagram; there's a story to be told. For example, what obstacles did you have to overcome to reach your next level? Newspapers and other publishers look for these kinds of stories, also get a website, and show where you are doing your sport. No one else will publish you; that's up to you, with some planning from people who know about these things.
I don't know everything in detail, however, I can take and choose the best photos, but I need someone to add "context & interesting words" to promote that person or sport. Yes, it costs a little, but it's well worth it. If all else fails, you will have a great set of photos and a story about the time you did this. It's an achievement, and not everyone makes it. But one day, someone will come across the photo/article and say, Well, if they could do it, then I can as well.
