Sam
33 years
married
no children
podiatrist & photographer
I’m Sam. I love music. I love art and I love to physically challenge myself.
Born in Hobart
I was born in Hobart, Tasmania. I’ve lived almost all of my life in Hobart, but I have spent a small portion of time in Sydney to do my undergraduate degree. In terms of heritage, I guess I’m like most people, from a mixture of descents. Mainly European, including some first fleeter heritage and most recently the Leitch family, where I have two lovely parents and three sisters.
A pretty balanced position
I’m working full-time, basically, as a Podiatrist. I’m doing a little bit of work as a photographer. My wife and I have a photography business. I’m obviously still living in Hobart, as I said before, and loving it.
Where am I now? I’m at home and I have every Monday morning off. I really enjoy thinking and writing in my diary, which I only started recently. I enjoy the freedom of a Monday morning, because I can just have a coffee if I want or I can just sit and write or I can get some serious work done. I like that balance.
So I guess if you were to ask me where I am now, I’m in a pretty balanced position, because I get to do a bit of everything and I’m very happy.
Many roads
In terms of my main profession, Podiatry, I’ve done a few different qualifications. My undergrad, which made me a Podiatrist. Then some sports medicine. An initial Post Grad Diploma in Sports Medicine through a group at Otago Uni, which was really interesting. I did that by distance and then I wanted to do some research, so I did a Masters by Research with the University of Melbourne. We worked with people from other universities, which was very stimulating. It was great.
In terms of the creative side of life, I guess I have always liked art as a child and music. I guess I always liked music, but I wasn’t so passionate about it as a child. I didn’t do a lot of it for a very long time. I listen to music now, but I don’t actively create music.
In terms of photography, art, that has only been since probably 2010-11, when I played around with my wife’s camera, which was her first digital SLR. We did some traveling and enjoyed experimenting with it and I ended up getting my own digital SLR in 2011 and only a couple of years later, I guess, I got a little more serious about it and we decided that we wanted to shoot some weddings. But really, most of the photography that we do isn’t weddings. It’s day to day photography of what we’re doing and the people around us, so I guess that explains how I got to where I am now in terms of my interest in my work and art.
The journey forward
I’m not 100% sure. More of the same I guess. More travel with Grace. More experiences and hopefully capture some of it in images. Hopefully we can keep the same balance going. Kids may change that!
What do you like and what would you change about yourself?
My enthusiasm and passion. Most of the time I like the fact that I can stick to routine and discipline to be able to follow through on things that I want to do. I like the fact that I feel that I can express my feelings, like my love for friends, family and people close to me.
I would like to be more aware of how my actions make others feel. Sometimes I’m blinded by my passion and enthusiasm and forget to look at the effect. You know, there’s a good and bad effect with everything and I think sometimes I miss the down side of it.
I would also like to model what I do less on what others do and spend more time reflecting and thinking with less of an influence from things that are external to me.
Describe yourself in just one sentence
Passionate, willing to take on a challenge and determined to move forward and if needed, make change. Was that one sentence?