Originally born Lord James Patrick McIntyre (true story). Understandably I moved over to the standard ‘Jimmy’ naming system soon after birth. And to make things somewhat more comical, I was born in Wankie. That’s right – when I was born a place called Wankie existed. The proof of such a place can be seen under the ‘Place of Birth’ section of my passport, right under my name:
Full Name: Lord James Patrick McIntyre
Place of Birth: Wankie.
Airport officials love those two pieces of information. I know that because they laugh almost every time. The area I was born in is now named Hwange (it’s in Zimbabwe). It changed its name about a year after I came into being.
Shortly after that, my family immigrated to the UK and lived in a poor council estate. Lord, Lady and Duke were not names one usually finds in a council estate. And yet, there we were, me, my sister and my brother. The Royal Family.
Since then things have been great.
In 2012 I made a terrifying decision. I quit an uninspiring job and jumped headfirst into the abyss: AKA travel photography. Even then it was an over-saturated industry where photogs battled it out for smaller contracts and hard to find jobs.
But it was too late for me to turn back. I was gripped by that addictive excitement at being behind the camera as the sky set ablaze with pinks and oranges, and I knew this was the only thing I wanted to do. I also knew I’d need my images to be head and shoulders above the rest if I was to survive in this industry. I searched long and hard for a solution that could give me that edge but couldn’t find one. Turns out it didn’t exist yet.
So I created the solution myself.
The result was Raya Pro – an extension that extracted the hidden joys of Photoshop and dragged the quality of my photos to new heights. With Raya Pro I had a solution for every challenge in my digital workflow.
Since then, I’ve had the good fortune of becoming one of the most followed photographers in the world, I’ve worked with global brands (see below video for the advert in which I featured for Nikon), I’ve been interviewed for major publications and radio shows, I’ve taught photography globally, and have immersed myself in the beauty of this wonderful world of ours.
Above all, I was able to become the travel photographer I’d desperately hoped I would be. From the Martian-like landscape of the Wadi Rum desert to the lofty peaks of Dubai’s megastructures, I’ve pointed my camera towards subjects I only dreamed of.
And today Raya Pro has become an essential weapon in the arsenal of thousands of talented photographers worldwide, is used as part of university curricula in various countries, and is one of the most popular and powerful Photoshop extensions in the world.
I’m a photographer who built software to become a better photographer, not a developer simply trying to fill a need. In other words, I practice what I preach, and Raya Pro is at the heart of all of my imagery and career.
I’m also an author with two novels available and ready for curious eyes.
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