WHITEHOUSE, Westmoreland — Lighting just right, camera ready, mood set. Then, like a million shutterbugs, he shoots. His aim? Seven frames per pose at different angles. When he finally stops to inspect what he has captured only those that meet his impeccably high standards will remain. But that’s OK because, unlike the average photographer who merely takes pictures, John McBean captures emotions and turns them into works of art.

As Sandals Resorts International’s wedding photographer of the year (2016) and resident lead photographer at Sandals South Coast, McBean has come a long way from his uncle’s photo studio in Black River.

Growing up, he wanted to become a firefighter. That was until he turned nine and developed a notion well beyond his years, that he wanted to work with people in love.

“I just didn’t know what that job would be, nor did I have a name for it,” McBean says of his idea.

It all started to come together when he was 17 years old and held a camera for the first time. He was visiting his uncle’s photo studio to get a portrait of himself.

“When I went there, there was a problem with the printer. My uncle was pre-occupied trying to fix it and his relief photographer was out for the day, so he asked me to take a few photos of the next client who came in, and he quickly showed me how to use the camera,” he tells the Jamaica Observer.

The young McBean was supposed to take a few test shots and call his uncle to take the others.

“But I never called him, and when he came and looked at the pictures I had taken, he was very surprised. He said I seemed to have an eye for photography.”

Wanting to develop on what he saw to be a natural talent, McBean’s uncle invited him to come back and work in the shop on the weekends. “My uncle taught me the basics of photography and shooting in film, but it was still just a developing hobby for me, certainly not something I planned to seriously pursue,” he admits.

However, anxious to find something to keep himself occupied upon graduating from high school, and with few options available in the town of Black River, he took his uncle up on the offer and went to work at the studio full-time.

As his images continuously met with positive feedback from clients, photography began to grow on the young man. “Eventually, I was reading film boxes and everything I could find about cameras and camera operations, and the more I read and researched the better I got.”

“Working in my uncle’s studio was okay. I was making some money and it felt good, but it wasn’t until I went to Sandals South Coast that I started looking at photography as a career,” he tells Career & Education.

He joined the Sandals team in 2005.

“At that time the hotel was using point-and-shoot cameras. Having learned to shoot in film, which was more technical, made the switch to point-and-shoot a breeze,” he says. His knowledge and experience also gave him an immediate advantage.

Even back then, the Sandals team saw something in him, perhaps the same thing his uncle did.

“They [Sandals] decided to invest in me. When Sandals first switched from point-and-shoot to digital DSLR cameras, I was the first photographer at Sandals South Coast to receive one.”

By then, photography was becoming more than just a thing for McBean. “I knew I wanted this as a career.”

If there is one thing his journey can teach anyone with a passion for something, it’s that you don’t develop by comparing yourself to your peers.

“I was studying the works of prolific photographers from around the world; their work was my measuring stick,” said John.

McBean has been on many assignments at other resorts, including Sandals Emerald Bay in The Bahamas, where he trained junior photographers to become wedding photographers. He has won numerous company awards for his work as well as his uncanny ability to increase sales at whichever Photoshop he is assigned. He has had his work featured in publications like the UK’s OK! Magazine.

Over the years, McBean has created a solid reputation for himself at Sandals, and a very marketable personal brand. But he will admit that his passion for people remains his secret weapon.

“Really listening to your client, to their expectations, is important, but sometimes what is even more important is appreciating what is not said. Finding those emotions with my lens and having them frozen in time for the client to see continues to be my most defining moment,” the award-winning photographer says.

“I don’t believe you can truly succeed as a wedding photographer unless you feel deeply and you know what it is to love,” says the self-proclaimed romantic, “and before you can capture images that speak to people’s soul you must first understand the human soul”.