An 18-year-old sixth form student from Dereham has taken his love of photography and technology and turned it into a successful business.
Jack Barker, 18, who attends Dereham Sixth Form College, began saving up money earned from his part-time job at the local pub to buy his first camera, a Nikon DSLR.
Once he realised photography was more than just a passion, he began saving up for a drone to start his business, J2B Films.
"I love all that sort of thing with drones and seeing what nobody else really sees", said Mr Barker.
"Once I’d bought my first drone I made an advert for a holiday let in my village for basically no money. Then I started making more videos and photos with my drone for various people we knew.
"My first big job was filming for The East Anglian Game and Country Fair. From then I did a gin company advert and from there it has grown to me working for multiple estate agents in Norfolk shooting photos of houses worth over £1m and working for supermarkets."
After posting footage on websites such as YouTube and SkyPixel, he was contacted by the Discovery Channel asking to purchase his footage for a programme they were working on.
He also won the Newcomer Award of an international photography competition held by SkyPixel, the world’s biggest drone and aerial photo and video sharing platform.
The award-winning picture was taken of Loch Eyre in February 2020 while Mr Barker was on a trip in Scotland while attending a photography course.
He said: "The highlight for me is that everything I have, I have earned from working. I’ve never borrowed money from parents for my camera gear – it all comes from my business.
"The biggest highlight from me is that now I don’t have to contact companies, they contact me, and my name has been associated with high quality and quick turnaround."
After finishing sixth form, he plans to grow his business as big as possible and would "love to film a car commercial".
He said: "I have already hit my old goals of making it [my business] my only source of income which was a big step for me."
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