This is me!

I've sat with a blank computer screen for the last 20 mins trying to work out what to write on the first blog post on my new website.

I want to introduce myself to you. Who am I, where have I been and where am I going.

I am a 41 year old, mother of two children, two lurchers and happily married to my husband of 19 years. I have always loved photography and used to run my very successful business alongside being a full time teacher and senior leader at a local independent school.

I first realised my passion for photography during a visit to Venice in about 2002. I couldn't get enough of the architecture, the friezes, and the beautiful surroundings. I used a film camera and I couldn't have been happier.

The years progressed and I had children, I began getting joy from capturing living life to the full AND it gave me the opportunity to be behind the camera rather than in front of it. Somewhere I was really uncomfortable to be.

The turning of the Earth continued and friends began to ask me to take photographs of their children. I began taking training courses and devoured the information given to. My business was born in 2013, with my sister buying me my first set of studio lights.

I tried my hand at most things, studio, location, children, newborn and weddings. Through this I discovered that the thing I loved most about photography was the people I was photographing and the change in them as their confidence grew.

One of the strands of my photography as "empowering confidence". This isn't just boudoir images - although I do love them but it could be building up a mum who is always behind the camera rather than in front of it, or a teenager uncomfortable with themselves. It could someone who has been asked to provide a headshot for work but needs me to build their confidence to produce the perfect image.

Yesterday, I was asked "why is it so important for you to make people feel better about themselves?" It took me a while to respond, of course some of it is in relation to my teaching background but much of it also stems from how I feel about myself. I have always had a rather vicious voice inside my head, it criticises everything from my weight to my decisions and when it is given too much credence it gets too loud. I want to help my clients to ignore that voice! That voice has no right to speak to us that way. I want my clients to see themselves in their images the same way as their loved ones see them