“You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.”
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I got my first ‘point and shoot’ film camera on my 8th birthday, I was already obsessed with cameras and images and this put the creative act of taking photographs into my hands for the first time. It took me another 19 years to pursue photography as a career, via many different paths and life experiences, and as a self-taught photographer – who has also had to take long pauses due to motherhood and injury – I believe the professional experience and personal perspective I have after 12 years as a photographer brings me to two conclusions about what I do:
1) photography is important, essential even, in a multitude of ways
2) photography should not feel like an unattainable ‘luxury’, whether as an investment in your own pictures or as a hobby/craft. I know this goes very much against everything that the industry marketers tell me to say. All creative entrepreneurs are being sold the idea that we should create a luxury brand that ‘feels’ expensive so we can charge a lot more and build an empire…but I’m just not someone who wants to build an empire. I don’t really believe in empires, actually. What I do want is to take great photographs and give people beautiful, meaningful images they can treasure for a long, long time.
For this reason I try incredibly hard to keep my pricing as simple and accessible as possible. In my typical family shoots I include all final images plus a selection of prints in the fee. I also hold regular minishoot sessions which are much shorter than a standard shoot and include a small number images, with the option to buy more if desired.
I also believe that people can take incredible photos themselves using their phone cameras these days, with just a little education into the basics of lighting and editing, and I have previously run a phone photography course to help people take photography into their own hands and create their own beautiful images. I hope to relaunch this again soon.
I’m a self-taught photographer with over 12 years experience capturing all kinds of humans and emotions, from weddings to festivals to corporate events, and from newborns to small business owners to music artists. I love so many art forms and am firm believer in the importance of creative hobbies and creative expression at all ages.
I currently live on the edge of the Cotswolds with my husband and two daughters and am lucky to be able to easily travel to so many beautiful places to do photoshoots. I’m a big music lover, I make music myself in the other half of my life, I’m also a film fanatic and would have liked to have been a (kind) film critic in another life. I enjoy watching football, long walks with good conversation and having my feet in sea and sand.
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