Back in 1992, when I was studying photojournalism at Stradbroke College in Sheffield, a TV mini series called Frankie’s House was first broadcast in the UK.

It was based on the renowned war photographer Tim Page and was a faithful recreation of his autobiography Page After Page which focussed on his time in Vietnam.

It starred Iain Glen as Page and Kevin Dillon as Sean Flynn, the son of the actor Errol Flynn, who later disappeared while on assignment in Cambodia in April 1970 after being captured by communist guerrillas.

As I recall there was a memorable scene early on in the story where Page witnessed the scene of a bombing in Saigon but did not have his camera with him at the time because he was shopping at a local market.

The incident was being discussed at the office of the news wire service where he was working and he inadvertently disclosed that he had witnessed the events but, when asked where were the photos, he humbly admitted hat he did not have his camera.

Needless to say his boss was not terribly understanding and tore a strip off him by repeating the mantra “I always carry my camera” – I do not recall if there were any cuss words but, if it was a faithful recreation of a newsroom of the time, then you could guarantee there would have been plenty and they would have been used as punctuation.

I wish I had seen this scene before my first interview for the NCTJ photojournalism course in Sheffield but unfortunately that was two years before it was first broadcast.

At the time I was working at the Newcastle branch of the camera shop Jessop’s and I was gradually building up my collection of Nikon kit.

Working in the camera shop had proved very useful to me because, as well as the access to affordable camera equipment the other staff were all keen photographers, so that was a valuable source of inspiration and there was the opportunity to try out different films and processing techniques.

I thought I had thoroughly prepared for the interview beforehand as I had worked on what I thought was a decent portfolio which showed a selection of my photographs.

I travelled to Sheffield with my carefully curated A3 portfolio and headed to the college to meet tutor Judith Towell, who had previously been a photographer on my local paper The Shields Gazette, and the course leader Paul Delmar.

At this point I should say that Delmar is a legend in the industry and is directly responsible for inspiring and launching the careers of numerous successful press photographers myself included.

Nervously I entered the room and presented my work but Delmar verbally disarmed me with his opening gambit – “Where is your camera?”

Clumsily thinking on my feet I tried to bluff my way through it by saying I did not want to be carrying too much luggage on the journey but he was having none of it and the game was up. Having said that it was a valuable lesson which has served me well over the subsequent years.

And I was not deterred as I was successful in getting a place the following year and it goes without saying that I took my camera kit to that interview. I think I did I must have got the place because I had put in a lot of work on improving my portfolio.

While I was studying in Sheffield I did buy an autofocus compact camera which could take decent images and was easily fitted into a jacket pocket so no excuses.

But having said that, with the advent of digital cameras and cameraphones, carrying a camera all the time is a lot easier these days and most of us do that as a matter of course.

As a photographer one question I am regularly asked is “what is the best camera?” and my answer is always the same: “The one that you have with you.”