EACH week we profile a member of The Northern Echo Camera Club. This week it's the turn of Shannon-Jo aged 18 from Stanley, County Durham.

I have attached my best six photographs I've taken to this email as well as my headshot.

The Northern Echo:

Shannon-Jo Dixon

I've always loved taking photographs and so I decided to take up photography as a hobby as I loved it so much. I started to earn a few pennies from doing mini shoots of family and friends and pets.

I live by the quote "do more of what makes you happy" so that's what I do. I do photography because it makes me happy.

My first camera was a Canon 1200d DSLR.

I really enjoy photographing flowers as I can capture the detail and all the different shades of colours there are and they look so beautiful. I also love to photograph dogs, in particular my grandparents dogs who are Rough Coollies because one of them is quite old and my grandparents love the memories to cherish in photographs.

Of all the photos I've taken, my favourite is the photograph attached of some pink artificial flowers in my grandmas dining room as they look so real and beautiful. The colours are stunning!

My go to kit at the moment is my 50mm lens because it gives the most beautiful photos with a blurred background and I'm able to capture detail on certain things. It's my favourite style of photograph to take.

I do spend a lot of time editing my photos, getting the brightness and colours right. I use Adobe Lightroom to edit my photos and I like to use certain presets that tie in with the photo I've took. For example, a warm preset for a photo of some autumn leaves.

My advice for budding photographers is to just keep clicking so you don't miss a good photo! You can never take too many photos and therefore have a bigger variety to play with after and work with.