Three men in a boat...

This month's Cornwall Life article 'A Taste of Cornwall'... photographed a local boat maker in his studio. Go buy it!!

My social entrepreneur fairy godmother...

...amateurs worry about equipment, professionals worry about money, masters worry about light, I just take pictures...

- Vernon Trent

Exciting things have been happening and I haven't had a chance to post about them yet... I was contacted by the lovely Trudy Thompson, of Bricks and Bread (@bricksandbread), who has offered to be my business mentor for a year! As well as free business advice and all round mentoring magic, she works in partnership with the Start-up Loans Company who have just granted me a loan to help with my photography!! So, out of the blue, I have found myself with the most amazing support and a massive drive to take my photography to the next level!!! It all came about through social media. I have never been fantastic at networking but since this has happened I think I have officially been converted... I am never going to doubt the likes of twitter and Facebook again ;-) Trudy contacted me after seeing a link to my blog and website and she liked what she saw and wanted to help. We had a great talk about what I could get out of the services she offered and it went from there. I was a very happy girl having been offered help that I hadn't even been aware you could get!  Trudy and her trusty sidekick, Josh, help all sorts of different people; have a peek here at some profiles of the young entrepreneurs on her website (including me!). In the evenings Trudy does free advice sessions for young entrepreneurs aged 18-30 and she does a free saturday advice clinic for anyone so if you are at any stage of setting up or starting as an entrepreneur check out the links. Josh (@JoshingTalk) has also started running online google hangouts where young entrepreneurs can get together over the internet and bounce ideas off each other, another great way to network and he helps provide them with a base for business advice and progression through support from Trudy. As you can imagine I'm also over the moon I have been able to get a loan from the Start-up Loan Company. It has meant that I have been able to get all the right kit to compete with other professional photographers and not be held back at all by what camera I am shooting with. Unfortunately, photography is quite reliant on having the right gear and it can definitely improve your photographs if you have good tools to work with. I have just invested in the very swanky D800 Nikon camera, a quality flash and some lovely, lovely lenses... obviously, I realise that fancy equipment does not a photographer make but it helps!!! I had my first 'post-loan' job, with new camera, the other day and I really think I can see the difference in the quality of the images already. I just need to get to grips with it all and hopefully my photography will just go from strength to strength. So, just so this post is not all writing here is one of the shots. It's a photo from the 'Taste of Cornwall' series (probably won't make it into the magazine as it's not the smiley type but I just kind of like it)... Phil; one of the ferry men from the Fowey/Bodinnick crossing. Of course, I just want to say a huge thank you to Trudy for making all this possible x

3 page spread...

I've been away for a couple of weeks but have come home to find the first in the 'Taste of Cornwall' series published in Cornwall Life which is quite exciting. Looks great and great article by James. Go buy a copy!!!

Baked bread, malteser muffins and cheesy feet...

So, as I have posted before, I have been photographing the 'Taste of cornwall' series and last week we were with Tom and Nicky at the Quay Bakery in Fowey.
Freshly baked bread, rather tempting malteser muffins and tasty cheesy feet biscuits; some great things to photograph. It was a small space with not so much light and as it was mid morning the place was buzzing with customers and bread baking but the end result is great and I am looking forward to going through the shots today. It's going to be quite tricky to choose for the magazine this time as I like a selection of the photos for different reasons... I've got to narrow it down to 5 and, as usual I took far to many photos! For now I thought I would just post a couple of my favourites and, considering I'm all about portraits, this time I'm all about bread. It's making me hungry!

for the ladies...

Photography was a licence to go wherever I wanted and to do what I wanted to do. - Diane Arbus

Just a quick post to say happy International Women's Day! 

I had a lovely shoot today with the first woman in our 'Taste of Cornwall' series too so I thought I would post one of the photos... Jane owns Pinky Murphy's in Fowey; a gorgeous lady who runs a gorgeous cafe.

Anyone who has been to Pinky Murphy's will know how amazing and unique the setup is inside, it is a cafe in a refurbished boat house and filled to the ceiling with eclectic knick-knacks, the veggie platter is scrumptious and the staff are fab but the best thing for me is that upstairs there is oodles of natural light pouring in the windows. It was such a great space to shoot some portraits in and I'm really pleased with the photos. Jane is such a special lady and has created a really special environment...so, hopefully she will be happy with the photos too!

A taste of cornwall...

A portrait photographer depends upon another person to complete his picture. The subject imagined, which in a sense is me, must be discovered in someone else willing to take part in a fiction he cannot possibly know about. - Richard Avedon

I am going to be doing a series of portraits for Cornwall life magazine. Local business owners will be interviewed about what they do, with a focus on local produce, local life and community, and then I will get a chance to photograph them in their environment.
It's a great project and I'm really excited about it. Obviously the magazine will prefer the 'happy, smiling people' kind of shots and I doubt they will want something overly arty or serious. Since I will be meeting an interesting selection of people though, who are all ready for their portrait to be taken, I thought I would take the opportunity to capture the images I want to capture at the same time.
So, we had our first interview this week and it was great fun! Glynn, the chef and owner of the Bistro in Fowey, was a fantastic model and I got some shots I'm very happy with... and some scrummy lunch to go along with it!
Here's one of my favourites (vegans look away now!);

Been busy since the restaurant and have done a couple more. Boat building and steam railway... again, a few of my favourites;