By Mike Tedesco, Pro Photo Community

It all started with a college graduate travelling to Europe looking to experience a part of the world that he had never seen. "I had never really shot with an SLR before." He borrowed a camera from his father and went to Europe with four rolls of color negative and one roll of black and white film. "I had never travelled before and this is what I thought you were supposed to do; See the sites and capture the images. Put that crosshair in the middle, press the button, and advance the film."

After travelling around Europe for a while, Colin's grandmother became upset that he hadn't yet visited his homeland of Northern Ireland, so he booked a ferry trip to Belfast. "I remember showing up to the Europa Hotel and was shocked to see that it was surrounded by walls and barbed wire, and that I had to go through security to get in. I had no idea, but at that period in time the Europa Hotel was the most bombed hotel in Europe."

At the end of his stay in Belfast, Colin and his friend were on their way to the train station, heading for their next destination. As they were walking, his friend was carrying a guitar which prompted a group of British soldiers to approach them. "One of the soldiers quickly jumped out of the back of their truck, lifted his rifle and aimed it at us. My friend quickly ran out of the way, but my first reaction was to lift my camera and point it back at the soldier. The soldier was looking through his scope and I was looking through my viewfinder, and I snapped the shot." The unfortunate part was that when Colin returned home and developed the film, absolutely nothing was there. The film had never advanced to the first frame.

But this entire experience, in conjunction with a timely viewing of the blockbuster movie Dances with Wolves in which Kevin Costner tells the stories of the native Indians through his journals and writings, is what shaped Colin's career and propelled him into the world of documentary photography. "It was like a lightning bolt went off in my head. I had always thought I was going to become a teacher, and was actually in the process of getting my masters when I decided that I wanted my life and career to be about telling the stories of people." Colin had been looking for what set him on fire, and he had finally found it. "Giving people the ability to speak through my camera is what charges me."

Colin decided to go back to Belfast so he could capture the stories of the lives and experiences of the people living there. This time he was armed with an old Canon SLR and a 100mm lens. He went back to the Hotel Europa and spent a lot of time on Falls Road where most of the turmoil had taken place. "While I was there, I was adopted by some street urchins and they took me around and helped me survive among the locals." Unfortunately, upon his return and after developing the images from this trip, Colin was completely disappointed with his results. "I was still learning about my equipment and what I needed to do technically to achieve the results I was looking for." He returned to Belfast again, this time with a 24mm lens on his Canon body and felt now that he had stepped into the space, the wide angle view, from which the majority of his images would soon be made.

All of these experiences, and powerful stories led to Colin's first paying job. "Believe it or not, I wasn't sure how I could go about selling my work so I purchased the very popular book titled The Photographer's Market." From that book, Colin contacted the Scholastic magazine. It happened to be an opportune moment as the magazine was closing an issue and the editor was interested in Northern Ireland. They used a 500 word article along with the images Colin had captured of the story of boy named Patrick who was one of the street urchins that had been helping Colin during his stays in Belfast. The success of this story led to Scholastic sending him back to Belfast for a cover story on the street urchin children and their involvement in the 'Battle of the Boyne' that happens every July. From there, Scholastic sent Colin to cover stories on children in places such as Bosnia, South Africa, Cuba, Chernobyl, Poland, and Ukraine.

Back in the U.S., Colin began taking on commercial advertising work which led him to start shooting digitally. In 2003, a client dictated that the job was going to be digital and Colin had a few months to learn what he needed to do. Having grown up with no computer experience, this was quite a challenge, but Colin jumped in with both feet and learned everything he could about digital cameras and processing images on the computer. "I found the best thing about digital imaging is that the interpretation of the image is in the hands of the photographer. I can create a specific look with a specific palette." Digital capture and software has allowed Colin to go into that digital darkroom and create images as he saw them rather than be restricted to what a particular type of film dictated.

So what does Colin have to say to aspiring photographers? "They have to have the passion. They have to have a work ethic, a strong level of commitment, and of course the talent." Colin feels that the schools can teach you the rules and mechanics, but experiences teach you your style. He says you need to get behind the lens in the real world doing something different. "I feel like I've been on an exploration for the last 17 years, but those 17 years have been filled with 16 hour days and dreaming of photography every night. This industry can be tough, and you have to commit yourself to it. Photographs can be a catalyst for change. One image can make a difference in the lives of the subjects and your own."