about us (and the site)
We'll be honest: this is (or will be, we hope) a commercial site, i.e. we want to make money out of it. To this end, we've
set up The Photo School, which is a mixture of free and paid-for information -- a cross between a
book, a magazine and an on-line tutorial course. You can subscribe to the site for $29 a year.
Otherwise, there are lots of pictures, and free modules, and more, so there's plenty to look at even if you don't want to subscribe.
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Roger William Hicks is a Cornishman who took up photography in Bermuda in
1966 and trundled along as an amateur until about 1975 when, tiring of a
hitherto respectable career (law degree, teaching, articles with a
firm of chartered accountants) he started working more and more as a
photographer in a London advertising studio -- though admittedly
interspersing it with producing self-instructional audio-visual
material, writing technical advertising and other forms of
journalism. His first book appeared in the early 1980s and he has
been a full time freelance writer and photographer since Christmas 1981.
Photo by Marie Muscat-King
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Frances Eugenia Schultz was born in Rochester, New York, home
of the Great Yellow Father (both her father and her uncle worked for Kodak),
but she moved to California in her 'teens. Her first degree (at USC) was
in theatre; she worked in retail for a while to pay off her student
loans; and then she took a Master's in theatre management.
After that she worked in a series of theatre-related jobs until she
met Roger in early 1981 and came back to the UK with him in early
1982 to get married. Since about 1990 she has worked increasingly in
the same field as Roger: most of our books
appear under our joint names, and we both write for many
magazines.
Photo by Roger Hicks
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Because we get paid to do what most people have to pay to do -- photography and
travel -- people assume that we're rich. We aren't. But we aren't complaining.
Well, not all the time, anyway. There's an old proverb that we believe to be of
Arab origin, which says, "Take what you want, and pay for it, saieth the
Lord." We have a lot of fun, mostly on a shoestring, and we precariously
support our photo and travel habits by writing books and
magazine articles. We've also thought about workshops, but the
main difficulty is working out the logistics as well as what people actually want.
We believe that our readers have a right to well-researched and rigorous books
and articles, so we try to avoid waffle, and because our income tends to be
miserably low (sorry to keep harping on it!) we always keep a very keen eye on costs;
few things annoy us more than journalists who rely exclusively on borrowed kit and
free trips, and forget that most people have to pay for such things with their
own hard-earned money.
The site adopts the same philosophy, which is why it is hard for us to make money out of it: our readers are as concerned to save money
as we are, and may be hesitant.... Obviously the photo school is our main hope here.
You may be interested to read more about the financial background to
writing books and to see our policy on 'freebies'. You may also want to
read about the equipment and
materials we use.
Click here to return to home page
last updated: 21 Nov. 2005
© 2004 Roger W. Hicks