Celebrating 10 Years of Photos by Pennie

I can’t believe it – I have now been in business for 10 years! I would never have thought that all those years ago, when I started doing local family photo shoots that the business would grow to become such a huge part of my life. Now, I get to work with an enormous variety of commercial clients – everything from sole traders, right up to global corporates.

And with the year coming to a close, it’s time to sit back with a frothy coffee and review where my business has taken me and the variety of clients I have got to work with. So, here goes:

Every one of the ten years, my business has grown in terms of turnover. I put that down to consistently working with regular clients, but also working hard behind the scenes to attract new clients. With that in mind, I am hugely grateful to be able to work with Lisa Vassallo from One to Three Marketing Solutions. Lisa turns google gobbledigook into plain English and guides me in all my online marketing activities. This year 40% of my clients were from direct google enquiries.

For the numerically minded, here are a few more stats:

· In 2019, I carried out 102 shoots

· I worked with 43 new clients

· On an average full day shoot, I take approx 2000 photos

· I drove over 3,500 miles to shoots in 2019

· The final edited photos of all the shoots I did this year amount to 1Tb of storage space

· If I were to include all the thousands of photos I took, but edited out, that would be nearly 2Tb!

I am always amazed at the variety of clients I get to work with – one minute I’m in a formal, corporate office environment, the next, I’ve got a hard hat on and I’m up ladders and scaffolding!) .

Here are just a few of the different types of clients I have worked with this year: Property developers, Schools, Accountants, Software Companies, Charities, a car Leasing company, Care Homes, Colleges, a Pharmaceutical business, Three mobile network, sports turf consultants, Solicitors and a Facial Aesthetics company. With this mix of clients, you can just imagine that every day is different!

If I had to pick specific highlights though, it would have to include whizzing along in a dinghy on the Thames photographing the Westminster School First Eight….or possibly, living more dangerously by facing them in the shooting range….

Other highlights include photographing an awards ceremony hosted by Mariella Frostrup:

And also….breaking the old adage of never working with children and animals. I did both at Shiplake College!

But hopefully you'll agree it was worth it - this was one of the final shots of the Headmasters' dog!

Another particular highlight was finally getting the chance to work on a shoot with my brother (also a photographer, although for a much more impressive 30 years!)…

So, that completes the roundup of the business for 2019…..but lastly, a quick update on a personal level with a little bit about my ‘Why’……

Behind the scenes of Photos by Pennie, my family continue to develop and running my own business enables me to still be hugely involved – my eldest two boys are both at University and my daughter is in the process of applying to Vet schools. The nest is gradually emptying….😬. Here we all are in September celebrating my daughters' 18th birthday.

So all that leaves is for me to wish you all a lovely Christmas and a very happy and healthy 2020.

I can’t wait to see what the next 10 years of business will bring!