Hello . . . my name is Derek Schultz and I started Canned Photography about 2 years ago in the summer of 2006. I am a designer by trade and have been involved with the graphics industry for over 25 years.

I started out as a time served lithographic printer, with long stints in the studio and darkroom and I can remember dish developing halftone negatives in an icy room and trying to control the temperature of the chemicals with a kettle of hot water! A nightmare as you can imagine.

A major event occurred in the mid 80s with the advent of desk-top publishing. I was lucky enough at that time to be working for an extremely clever artist and photographer who was farsighted enough to purchase the technology. This consisted of a PC, an A4 black & white laser printer and a copy of Aldus Pagemaker. I was given the task of learning said equipment and I took to it like a duck in water! I was entranced by the endless possibilities.

Eventually, in 1997 I started up my own company Design By Storm Limited and was fortunate to be able to work for such clients as Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser and Allied Domecq to name but a few.

I sold the business in 2003 to a large reprographics company who wanted me to forge a design operation in their business. The one good thing to come out of the experience, was to be able to work with a great photographer. Without going into detail and to put it simply, things didn’t work out as I had envisaged them! So I left 2 years later and formed my new company Five Fingers Design Limited.

Let me just back track a little bit, because I want to explain where the photography comes in. Back in 1978 when I left school, there were not many jobs around for school leavers. Maggie Thatcher and all that! I took a job at the Norfolk County Council as a filing clerk, basically out of desperation. I maintained contact with my careers advisor though, who sat in her office in central Norwich thinking up ways for me to progress my first choice career path . . . which was . . . photography!

After about 18 months at the Council, the said careers lady called me up and said there was a “camera job” going at a local print company. Would I like to go for it? I went to the interview (a pint in the pub) and accepted the job even though the camera involved, was one of those large flatbed enlarging cameras - nothing really to do with creative photography! However, it provided the ideal get out from the maddening boredom at the Council.

It also continued a life long love of all things graphic. Everything I have done has only added to the graphic knowledge pool I have acquired over the years. I have always taken photographs. I have directed on photoshoots and designed enormous numbers of all sorts of items requiring photographic images. In short, over the years, I have worked with images until they they have come out of my ears!

So a couple of years ago I decided that I would control my own images! I would visualise them, shoot them, direct them, develop them and print them! Of course at one time this would have been impossible due to the time constraints involved - but, with the advent of digital cameras capable of competing with the quality of traditional film - everything is now possible! And consequently I’m like a kiddy in a sweet shop!

So welcome to my sweet shop - Canned Photography is my play area! I love images and making them. I would love to make some images for you. You can benefit from all that experience in the image making process.

I’m not out to change the world and I’m definitely not out to buy it! All I ask is a little bit of recompense for my time and creativity and the permission and opportunity to get on with what I love doing. Thank you in advance and may I give you my personal assurance of providing you with a great service and some fantastic images.