After the HWP building caught on fire and his job was made redundant in 2012, Jevaughn (Squirrel) Simons was determined not to get discouraged.

Instead he found a way to turn his passion for photo retouching into a career, with some of his work landing a spot into well known magazines here and overseas, including Women’s Health, Essence and FHM Magazines, along with local publication This Week In Bermuda.

These days Mr Simons is getting used to seeing his images in print, but the first time proved to be a major milestone in his life.

“It was really, really exciting seeing my work in FHM about three years ago.” he said. “I was dancing all over the place and jumping for joy.

“Then I was able to get a copy of the spread and I was like ‘Ok, let me see what else I can do to push this forward’ and started to set new goals.”

Mr Simons is steadily building a client base within the industry. He said most of his connections have been built online or through workshops he attends in the United States.

And by landing more gigs, it has given him more confidence and belief in his retouching skills and talent.

“It gave me a boost to keep going and know I am really fine tuning the photographs I work on,” he said.

“I’m really nit picky about who I choose to work with.

“I want to make sure I get into the best magazines like Vogue, Elle and Zink, which is a high fashion magazine in the US.

“It’s known for being completely different because they don’t sell everyday clothing, but the kind of pieces you see at New York Fashion week.”

Mr Simons has excelled in some of his other hobbies as well. As an avid motorcycle racer, the 30-year-old devoted ten years to the sport and reached the pinnacle in his sporting career when he won a US National Championship. “Once I did that I felt I needed a new goal,” he explained.

Always a keen lover of drawing and art, Mr Simons started dabbling in photography in 2008. He then switched his focus to the photo editing side of the craft a year later.

“I decided ‘Let me see what this feels like’,” he said. “Bermudian Ivan Outerbridge showed me the basics of everything and after that things took off.

“I ended up bringing in Pratik Naik, one of the top photo retouchers in the world, to Bermuda.

“He came down from Houston, Texas and a few of us signed up for the training. I really enjoyed it and decided to keep at it.”

With retouching, a photographer will send him images from a photo shoot and make suggestions on what part of the picture should be enhanced or changed.

It’s then Mr Simons’ job to make it picture perfect by evening out her skin tone, sliming a model’s thighs or lightening the shadows under her eyes.

However, there are some challenges that come along with the job.

Mr Simons said it can be extremely time consuming — with one image taking anywhere between 45 minutes to ten hours to complete.

But the rewarding part for him comes when people see the image and give him positive feedback.

“Its good to know I could take their image and even though it’s a great shot I can turn it into an amazing shot,” he said.

“That’s the rewarding part when people say ‘I didn’t know the image could go that far’, or ‘I thought I had it at its best, but you made it even better’.”

Mr Simons has been studying retouching for four or five years now, but said he looks forward to getting more experience under his belt.

“Some of the people I work with have been in the industry for 15 or 20 years,” he said. “I have a ways to go before I really can get my foot in the door. I just have to be patient and chugg along.”