the unconventional route

I didn’t go to university. I didn’t have a career plan. I tried a lot of different things, got a little bit lost, and somehow ended up here.

If you’d asked me when I was 18 what I wanted to do with my life, I genuinely wouldn’t have had an answer. I didn’t have a dream career, I didn’t have a university lined up and I definitely didn’t have a five-year plan. I just knew that I wanted to do something I enjoyed. For a while, I thought not knowing what I wanted to do meant I was falling behind. It felt like everyone else had some sort of direction while I was just making it up as I went. Looking back now, I realise I was just taking a different route.

I didn’t go to university and I don’t have a degree. I left education without really knowing what I wanted to do, so I worked. A lot. My CV is probably a pretty good representation of how little idea I had what my future was supposed to look like. I’ve worked in supermarkets, customer service, call centres, cafés, pubs and bars, sales and field marketing. I even spent a very short and slightly rogue amount of time training at a casino as a croupier. I’ve worked festivals, made coffee, served pints, picked supermarket orders, answered customer complaints, worked in marketing and managed social media. There wasn’t really a grand plan connecting all of those things. Most of the time, I was just trying to figure out what I actually wanted to do for the rest of my life.

And honestly, I’m glad I did. There was nothing wrong with any of those jobs. They taught me how to talk to people, how to deal with difficult situations, how to communicate, how businesses work and how to make people feel comfortable. Hospitality in particular taught me a lot about people, and I think that has followed me into photography more than I realised. I’ve always enjoyed meeting people from completely different backgrounds, hearing their stories and having those random conversations you never expected to have. I still work in marketing alongside photography now, and I genuinely love the creative side of it. I’ve always been someone who needs to be making something, whether that’s taking photographs, creating content, designing something, working on a new idea or figuring out how to make something work a little better.

Then, somewhere along the way, I stumbled into photography. In 2024, while working at a café, I borrowed a camera from a customer and started taking photographs. One of the first proper photographs I took was an iced coffee in the café where I worked. It was just a coffee, but I loved taking the photograph. Then I took another one, and another, and eventually realised that I really, really enjoyed it. What started as something I was messing around with slowly became something much bigger. I started photographing businesses and people, then events and eventually weddings. I began building a portfolio, learning everything I could and figuring out how I could actually turn photography into a career. Somehow, the thing I never planned for became the thing I now do almost every day.

One of the hardest parts of finding my place in photography was thinking I needed to fit myself into a box. I thought I needed a niche, a particular style and one very specific type of photography that I could become known for. But the more I photographed, the more I realised that just isn't me. I love weddings because of the people, the intimacy, the nerves, the ridiculous laughter and all the little moments that happen between the big ones. I love photographing businesses because there is always a person behind them, with a story, a vision and a huge amount of work that has gone into building what they've created. I love events because of the energy, the people mingling, old friends reuniting, families coming together and strangers becoming friends. I love all of it. So I've stopped trying to choose.

I think I've finally realised that my niche isn't really a subject. It's authenticity. I love the photographs where people aren't thinking about the camera. The laugh that wasn't planned, the hand squeeze, the look across the room, the slightly chaotic bit that wasn't on the schedule, or the tiny detail that means everything to someone. I don't want to manufacture moments just because they look good in a photograph. I want to be there when they happen. My style is probably best described as natural, relaxed and storytelling-focused, but really, my style is that I don't have one. I just capture the moments whilst you live in them.

I think that's why I don't really regret taking the long way around. I know what it's like to not have a clue what you're doing. I know what it's like to try something, realise it's not for you and start again. I know what it's like to feel like everyone else is moving forward while you're still trying to work out where you're going. But I also know now that you don't have to have your whole life figured out at 18. You don't have to go to university. You don't need a degree to build something you're proud of. You don't have to follow the same timeline as everyone else, and you don't have to settle for a career you know you'd hate just because it seems like the sensible thing to do. The education system didn't fail me. It just wasn't for me, and that's okay.

Now I'm a photographer based in Sherborne, Dorset, working across weddings, events, businesses, brands and content creation. In 2026, I was incredibly proud to be named Freelance Photographer of the Year, Dorset 2025/26 through the Prestige Business Awards, which still feels slightly surreal when I think back to that borrowed camera and the iced coffee that started it all. I still don't know exactly where I'll be in another five years. I still change my mind, try new things and probably overthink everything. But I think I've finally stopped seeing that as a problem. Maybe you don't need one straight path. Maybe you just need to keep trying things until you find something that feels like you.

And somehow, this is where I've ended up. A photographer, a creative, a marketer, a dog mum, a car enthusiast, a music lover and someone who still gets ridiculously excited about the tiny moments in every day life. I never planned any of it. But honestly, I think 24-year-old Ash is doing pretty bloody well.