Join the Army they said...

In 2004 I did just that. Ok, it was in a fairly limited capacity as a student but hey they gave me a uniform and paid me so it kinda counts and for 4 years I got a lot from it.

Then in 2008, it fell apart. I couldn't get a job with my Engineering degree (cheers recession), all my friends were moving away/on with their lives and I found myself alone, broke, unemployed and slipping away into somewhere dark. I left the Army.
2 years passed and as luck would have it I had a chat with one of my friends who had risen to a position of authority in my old unit and a deal was made. If they let me take photos of their training I will provide all the imaging material they could ever need for about 10 years. "Feed me, house me and, don't leave me behind on exercise and I will make you fuckers famous" was my pitch to him at the time.

It was an oversell.
It worked.

Now let us be clear, the British Army has an excellent group of photogs who form a part of what is known as the Media Operations Group. Check out some of their work on Instagram here:- @Britisharmy . They really are some of the best photographers in the world and would have been able to do this project a lot more justice than I could at the time with one crucial difference, they didn't care. They really did not give a damn about the day to day operations of a (very) low priority, undeployable and, not very sexy training unit. Sure they might show up to the odd event but why the hell bother when regular units would always have much better opportunities. This was to my advantage. Instead of covering 1 event I would cover EVERYTHING from training nights on Wednesday to formal functions right up to field weekends and overseas training exercises. I covered 4 years of that unit which meant I tracked some recruits from entry to commissioning as officers into the British Army. I made my coverage personal.
It was Awesome.

You spent a lot of your time in a ditch waiting for something to happen...why?
Ok so yeah, there were bad times. I once spent 4 hours waiting in a puddle in the Pentlands for a section attack that had actually been cancelled. I managed to stop an entire company of troops in my second year there because I had become a "combat indicator" and if they could see me they knew their "shit was about to sideways". Then there was the winter of 2010 and the infamous 'Charlie 6' exercise where it got so cold I had to take out the battery in my camera and put it next to my body to keep it working!
I did all this and more to find my limits. I did it because no one else would. I did it to learn.

What did you get from it?
4 years of consistent challenge in a field you enjoy provides an accelerated learning path. I think I got about 10 years experience in 4 and a portfolio from it that was nearly unmatched at my level. I got a job from that portfolio. I made friends. I made contacts. I gave back to a unit that gave me a lot in the first place.

Problem with being in the ememy position is your abit of a target…

Would you do it again?
Yes.

Be polite
Be efficient
Have a plan to shoot everyone you meet