This weekend, I have realized how far I have come as a photographer.
Every now and then I go through photographs I've taken and reminiscing of how I met the musician/band. Sometimes it's through a friend, sometimes it's been the band contacting me saying they've seen my work and would like to hire me for a shoot.
Recently I was told I was a 'publicly recognized figure' for my photography and I brushed it off as the person trying to get a couple of free shoots out of me. However this weekend I have realized that maybe they were right. So I naturally questioned some of the people I've worked with in the past year about if they had heard of me for my work before I'd worked with them. A couple of people had said that they had, and when I met them it was good for them to put a face to a name; another said that he hadn't heard of me beforehand but was truly grateful for everything I had done for his band. Hearing this warmed my heart to know that people knew of me and are genuinely grateful for the amount of time and effort I put into my work to help promote their bands. I see most of the people I work with more as friends than clients, which is probably why I feel the need to go above and beyond when promoting bands. From doing this and treating my clients more like friends, I have met some people that I genuinely could not live without because they have become such a huge part of my life, for that I thank you!
The following people have made a huge impact on my life and photography work (In a good way!) and have given me their continued support which does include using photographs I've taken of you as your profile photo.. Just to clear any possible confusion if we've never spoken!:
Sarah Jones, Chris Jones, Jan Jones, Ellen Moore, Stan Moore, Nan in Norfolk, Debbie & Lewi Clarke, Joshua Sykes (You are my rock, I absolutely adore you!), Claire Peacock, David Tudor, Steve Weston, Lee Yates, Toby Gore, Glow Worm, Greg Taylor, Tim Raggett, Josh Jarvis, Chris Wilder, Richard Lord, Carl Logan, Everybody on the BND Photography course I done, Jenn Peacock, Jack King, Anthony Johns, Mark Stillwell, Michael Myers, Johnny Thorpe, Matt Richards, Gary Whitington, Ben Maskell, Tony & Linda Thrope, Kerry Fortune, Robert Smith, Hayley Thorpe, Ben Selleck, Adam Wright, Paul Beddow, Alice Belcher, Gal & Jannene Osborne, Daisy Deakin, James Khan, Luke Smith, David Khan, Lloyd Coombes, Phil Lamont, Dan Vinnicombe, Dean Claydon, Marc Bartholomew, Andy Tobin, Alex Graver, Jonno Bones, Lee Pasifull, Chris Robson, Michael Hawes, and many many more. Also a quick thank you to anybody that has taken an interest/liking to my work.
Andrew Gooding, Gabriel Valentine, Russell Sams and Sam Panter deserve their own little thank you right here.. You guys have been absolutely amazing to me and without you all over the past couple of months, I'd probably have just given up on my photography due to personal matters, but your support means a lot to me. Thank you for believing in me and helping me get through everything recently. You all deserve copious amounts of freshly baked products and things!
Now here's my fun announcement..
For the rest of 2013, I will be charging £00.00 for a shoot. Yup, you read that right.. Absolutely nothing! (Live shoots and portrait shoots only.. As much as I'd love to photograph weddings for free, it's my main source of income! Sorry!) I have so many ideas for portrait shoots, they're spilling out of my ears. All you have to do is arrange a date and time, agree on the location and then the photos will be on the interwebz a few days afterwards.. Free to spread like wildfire.
