As a professional photographer I depend on the flawless performance of my equipment.  From my camera bodies and lenses to my computers and software, each tool is critical to delivering quality photographs to my clients. This absolutely holds true for my memory cards as well, which is why I've used only SanDisk CF and SD cards in all of my cameras since I bought my first DSLR way back in 2004. Interestingly, I actually still have in my camera bag the SanDisk 1GB Extreme III CF card that I bought for a whopping USD$250 when I purchased my Nikon D70 nearly eight years ago.

Using only SanDisk cards has benefited me in a number of ways over the years.  For example, I've never lost even a single photograph due to a damaged or corrupted memory card.  And on a couple of (tense) occasions, I've even been able to successfully restore photographs that I mistakenly deleted from my camera.  Recently, however, my loyalty to SanDisk paid off the most when I was asked to join the SanDisk Extreme Team, "a group of professional photographers whose vision is as uncompromising as their equipment".

I feel extremely honoured to be part of this small club and I look forward to working closely with SanDisk and my fellow Extreme Team photographers to create the most exciting and compelling photography I can in the years ahead.

As anyone who's shot with me already knows, Lightroom is easily the most important piece of software in my digital photography workflow.

So, as I have written before, it was a great privilege when last year I was approached by Adobe, the makers of Lightroom, with opportunities for creative partnership and collaboration.

It started with an interest from Adobe in licencing the rights to use a selection of my photography on their Photoshop.com website, and it then progressed into working with Adobe's digital marketing agency, to be profiled in the "Spotlight" section of Photoshop.com.

I am extremely proud of my association with Adobe, which is why I am so pleased to share "Believe". Alongside talented and accomplished photographers Kelly Castro and Emily Ibarra (both of whom have also been profiled on Photoshop.com here and here respectively), "Believe" is an electronic direct marketing initiative by Adobe to promote Lightroom 3 and demonstrate how photographers like Kelly, Emily and I use it in professional photography environments.

Download Lightroom presets: "1970's Nostalgia" by me; "Polar Cream" by Kelly; and "Contrast & Vignette" by Emily.

As I mentioned in a recent post, I have been partnering with Adobe in the U.S. over the past couple of months. They were initially interested in licencing some of my photographs for use on their Photoshop.com website, which I was more than happy to agree to.

Then, while we were finalizing the details and licencing agreements, I had an opportunity to speak a few times with an employee in Adobe's Digital Imaging group.  One day we talked at length about Adobe's suite of imaging software and how, specifically, Lightroom is such an integral part of my digital workflow.

A short time later, Adobe asked if I'd be interested in being a profiled photographer on the "Spotlight" section of Photoshop.com.  I had a few telephone calls with Adobe's PR agency in San Francisco so they could learn more about me and my business, the type of photography I make, and how I integrate Lightroom into both my editorial and commercial photography workflow.  The agency then drafted a profile and I prepared a small portfolio of work to be uploaded online.

The result is the "Choosing a New Adventure" spotlight that went live on Photoshop.com this morning. I am extremely proud of this association with Adobe, and look forward to sharing more of my work as it appears on Photoshop.com in the future.

I was recently interviewed by a journalist from Asian Photography Magazine for the "Pro-Profile" section of their October 2010 edition.  The magazine is on newsstands now, so I thought I'd share a bit of the article here.

The journalist had some very good questions for me, and it was enjoyable to speak with her about photography.  We covered many topics during the hour we chatted at my studio in September, such as...

How I got my start in photography: "Scott learnt photography from his father when he was very young.  He grew up in a house full of photography.  His dad taught him how to compose [an image] and how to interpret light."

How I began taking photography more seriously in the mid-to-late 1990s: "'[W]hen I came to Asia, I had a film camera with me and this whole new world opened up to me'.  He fell in love with the colours, the foods, the rituals, the religion and everything that was a part of Asia... He started capturing everything on film."

And the catalyst that pushed me from the corporate marketing world to establishing my own creative photography business in 2004/05: "[His] plunge into

photography started in 2004.  'On my [30th] birthday, I was having a kind of mid-life crisis… and I felt like my 20s had just slipped by, I didn’t know where they had gone.  I went to this dinner and there were all these people who I didn’t know and... somebody asked a question... if you had enough money that you never had to get out of bed to go to work, what would you do then?  And my answer was [that I would] travel around the world and take pictures.  And I had never said that out loud.  I had thought of it, but I had never verbalised it.  That was my answer to what I should be doing with my life.'"

The writer goes on to explain more about my transition from working for a multinational company to working for myself: "Scott has no regrets of working in the corporate world for eight years before his photography career hit-off.  He treasures [that] experience... and the relationships that he made.  It gave him an opportunity [to learn] how to build a brand."

She explains how I first started commercializing my photography, and eventually was able to monetize my hobby: "His philosophy when he started off was, no job is too small... and you never know if you'll like doing a certain kind of photography until you try it."  This approach actually ended-up landing me my early

commercial assignments.  As the author explains, when I first started my small business, I used to take a lot of family portraits, to practice photographing people and earn some money. "Shooting families and kids actually got him one of his first advertising jobs, which was for Johnson & Johnson.  He mentions that, 'I had a certain style that they liked; it was a sensitive, intimate approach to that type of work"'.

The author touches briefly on how my style and approach to my work differs depending on my various assignments, from editorial reportage: "Choose your own adventure... just me and my camera".

...to fashion: "Cinematic... what I want to do is tell stories... separately, [they are] beautiful pictures, but if you look at them together, you will find a bit of narrative, a bit of a story".

...to advertising: "Extremely collaborative... [but] the creative process is not meant to be easy.  It is filled with conflict.  It is push 'n' pull.  I like someone pushing me to get better at this".

Finally, the writer wraps-up with some of my advice to aspiring photographers: “Keep practicing, because there

is nothing that is perfect. ‘This keeps me going: the desire to make the perfect photograph.  But you never can.  There is always something when you look back at it, you feel, I wish that was different’.  So he [recommends] practice and to find a genre of photography that you like and create a style [for yourself].  Have a signature.  Try not to get discouraged.  It’s a competitive market.  Look at the works of people you admire and try to emulate [them], and then develop your own personal style.  At the end of the day, you have to be passionate about what you do, because if you don’t have passion for your work, nobody else will.’”

In a word, I guess that's what photography is all about: passion.

It's why I left my comfortable corporate life to chase my dream.

It's why I struggle with the uncertainty and challenges (big and small) of running my own business.

It's why I push myself to be more creative, to try and make better and more compelling imagery.

And it's why I love every minute of it.

Yesterday, WideWorld Magazine, a British online adventure magazine, published a short Q&A with me where we talked briefly about travel, music, sports, books and, of course, photography.

It was an enjoyable interview, and I had fun answering WideWorld's questions, almost all of which were framed within the context of 'adventure':

Who’s my adventure hero? Photojournalist James Natchwey

What's my favourite book by an adventure athlete, explorer or traveller? Rory Stewart’s The Places in Between

And what’s the best piece of travel advice I have been given? “You never know if you never go.”

Click here to read the entire interview.

It is, indeed, a wide world out there.