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!!

Back in Granada...

All dancers are, by and large, a photographer's dream. They communicate with their bodies and they are trained to be completely responsive to a collaborative situation. -Annie Leibovitz

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!!!