Spotlight: Neil Shelby Long

"The words 'can't do that' are an alien concept to Neil Shelby Long and although said with tongue firmly in cheek, his Twitter account describes him as 'The Worlds Best One Armed Photographer'."
(taken from Neil's website)

I first encountered Neil and his work a few weeks back when I'd started surfing the net to find other photographers in the UK with disabilities. His work is focussed clearly on people and I found it refreshing and full of life, and you can tell from the images that shooting with Neil must be a lot of fun.
I emailed him to say that I found his work quite inspirational to me, as he was the only professional photographer with a disability I'd found at that point in the UK. I'd explained how I'd been feeling a lot more inspired and positive having seen the work that photographers like Neil, Tony Beck and Christopher Voelker could produce and that I was reconsidering my position on a lot of my own work because of it, for the better.
He was nice enough to take the time to write me back and point out a couple of things.
"I think generally, as a creative, it’s hard to stay positive 100% of the time, but that’s usually because we’re our own worst critics. The only thing I’d say, is not to worry too much what other people are doing and just enjoy what you do."
You can tell from a quick browse of Neil's site that he clearly enjoys what he does, and he's damned good at it too!
http://www.neilshelbylong.co.uk/

Craig
ps Read the about section. The 'two stories' section is pretty chuckle-inducing!