WHY PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY?

I pride myself on telling the story or journey behind photos, so even though its not an easy one I’d like to tell you why portrait photography is so important to me.

I have always loved looking through our old family photographs, you know not just the snaps but the legacy photos that we treasure, the formal portraits, wedding photos, baby photos etc. The ones on heavy weight card, they feel sturdy in your hand, really feel able to stand the test of time (many of the photos I have are over 100 years old).  They have that old smell, a smell that immediately reminds you of a cupboard or drawer in your grandparents house where inevitably these photos once sat. They show us images of happy times, of relatives we have known and loved or of those whose stories we have heard many times, whilst these precious photos are fondly thumbed at in the hope their stories and the memories will live on.

I laugh at how silly and playful my grandad was as he took photos onboard the HMS Implacable during WW2 and am immediately grateful that he returned home safely after his great adventures around the world. 

I smile at my parents wedding photos admiring the fashion and happy, loving faces of my family. Some of those faces a little different now but still recognisable, some still just the same and some remembered just as they are were.

I look back with happiness to our wedding photos too, but its the images taken exactly a week before our wedding in April 2009, that are perhaps the pictures that I treasure most now and are the biggest influence to me in photography.

Our legacy photos, from our “girls day out”! Auntie Lorna couldn’t make my hen party so arranged a little family celebration in London the week before the wedding, “just the girls” she said.  Lorna, my mum, my sister Emma and I started the day in a studio with makeover and photoshoot. I’d never had a photoshoot before, I was normally behind the camera, so I was a little apprehensive, but Lorna was so excited and her excitement was infectious. We had a great shoot, lots of giggling and sillyness, being really girly, none of us had every really done anything like this before. We had individual and group shots and they were fab. Once they had edited and presented our images and we then met my other aunt and cousins at the mexican.  We had a fabulous evening with great food, lots of delicious cocktails, hen party banners and silly games and lots of laughing it really was such a fun day.

Lorna was quite often the life and soul of the party, she was loved by so many people and although I have many lovely photos of her, these I treasure, that memory of us all together having fun, sharing that experience together is a big part of it.  Despite being fit and healthy in May 2016, a few weeks after her 60th birthday, Lorna tragically died in her sleep.  Losing Lorna deeply effected everyone who knew her, it just seemed so unfair to everyone and so painful.  She has two incredible sons, a doting husband, and a loving family, it still seems unfair!

I think about Lorna pretty much everyday and whilst I still feel a loss, I remember silly things like dancing to Moves like Jagger with her, or her using my video of knee operation for a class and talking about tattoos in the back garden. I also look back on my life and realise Lorna was there for so many things, she was always there cheering me on from the sidelines and I will always be so grateful. I only wish I had taken the opportunity to say thank you to her.  What I do do is look at her photo. Often. So I never forget her bright eyes and beautiful smile.  I treasure those photos and think back to a world that was much better because she was still in it.  I know these photos have been just as importrant to my mum and sister too.  Lorna, Pete and the boys had just had a photo shoot done for Lorna’s birthday and I am pretty sure they treasure those pictures too.

This has been a huge influence not only do I want to make her proud, I want to give my clients a first class experience and enable them to have actual legacy photos to pass on to their families and not just a bunch of digital images that sit on a disk somewhere.  Actual photographs that stand the test of time!