Isn't it funny how some things go full circle and it seems that this has now happened with my photography
In the late 80's I moved to the beautiful city of Bath, which was at the time in the county of Avon, but now is part of Bath and North East Somerset (BANES), which is when my professional career started. For the few years before I had been a keen enthusiast of the craft, but after shooting my brother's wedding and showing the results to friends, soon found commissions coming in for their weddings and portraits, plus commissions from their friends and families.
Since then my career has snowballed and it had installed on me early on the importance of doing a great job and getting referrals from those that had used my services or had seen my work.
Here we are, over 20 years later, having moved away and spent many years in North wales, back down in the South West, living in Keynsham, just a few miles from the City of Bath, where it all started.
Like the cities of Bath and Bristol, in my photography some things remain the same, whilst other things have changed since those days. My principles have remained, the client has to come first and if you do more than a good job, then the work will keep coming in, although the focus of the types of work I do has moved on.
Weddings are now something I tend to do for friends or people that know my work, rather than being the forefront of my photography, instead commercial commissions now accounts for a high volume of my work, where I have been able to specialise in providing imagery for businesses and the creative industries, which includes buildings, both inside and out, products, people and PR.
Along the way I have met some great people and been very privileged to be involved in some exciting projects and see some fantastic developments. I've seen many new architectural creations and had the pleasure of photographing them in great detail, as well as meeting the amazing people behind them. Looking around the area, there appear to be some exiting developments happening now and in the future, so look forward to working with the team behind them.
I have also worked with many a local and national organisation along the way, such as the publishers for N Power and the National Lottery, supermarket chains including One Stop and the Co-operative, plus many local and national charities. Most recently I was working with the charity ChildLine, who are now part of the NSPCC, and was honoured to meet and Photograph Esther Rantzen CBE, who is their Patron.
Our onsite studio for Events, including our live view and print system, has proved very popular as guests get to view all the images instantly. Prints are produced in just 30 seconds should they decide to purchase a photograph to take home. We have gone from having to look for events to being booked up 6 to 12 months in advance of an event.
We hope to now replicate this success down in the southwest, so if you know anyone holding a Charity Ball, please pass on our details and we would be delighted to support their event at no charge and help them raise much needed money at the same time.
One thing that remains the same is our passion for people and capturing their lives through lifestyle portraiture. Styles may have changed, but having such beautiful cities and local areas, there is no end to the creative portraits we can create on location, giving you more than just a photo of yourself or family.
There are of course new opportunities too and we have some exciting announcements coming up over the next couple of months, so keep a watch out for those and we look forward to a wonderful New Year
Take a look at one of our sites to view our work and if you like what you see, feel free to get in touch, even if just to have a chat, or maybe share this blog with someone you know. You can also tweet it or link it to all your friends on Facebook.
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Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a successful new year
Andrew & Dawn
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