We have spent the past 3 days working in the garden. The only sounds being the birds, waterfall, Classic FM and the occasional aircraft, sheer bliss though very hard work. Filling 18 hanging baskets was only the start but we can now settle back and look forward to a wonderful and colourful  summer although we do have a couple of large trees to remove but’s that all for another weekend! What these past few days has allowed is some quiet thinking time which was very welcome. Time to consider all the requests for workshops here in the UK, Europe and  America and the increasing number of photographers looking for mentoring in a wide variety of area but all relating to becoming and maintaining a successful wedding and portrait business in difficult times. As you may have noticed we have posted some business ideas in previous posts but mostly the site has been about our general work, Art Nude, Boudoir and seminars. We already have a new website in design that will host all of our Art Nude work, our seminars and Limited Edition images for sale and that will launch some time in the next couple of months. So it was while I was planting a bed of ’snow in summer’ I came up with the idea of a site that would just be devoted to our musings on the business and practical side of modern social photography. Not just how to take pretty pictures, not just how to use a reflector or how to pose a child but the mechanics behind a successful business. The Marketing and Promotions, the PR and Presentation, the Sales and Products all contribute, along with quality portraiture, to running a successful business whether it’s home or high street based. So for all of you who have been emailing us about mentoring you have been listened to and our ideas are being formulated, however it will come with a cost, a reasonable cost but then knowledge and experience do count for something. It may take a couple of months to see the best way to offer this service but it will happen some time this summer. Please be patient but we will be offering group mentoring, one to one mentoring, tele mentoring and email mentoring so no matter where you live in the UK we can offer you help and our advice. We are also looking to host mentoring clinics around the UK for a small groups of selected studios where we can have face to face meetings and brain storming sessions with studio owners. If you would like to receive advance notice of this new project please drop me an email to trevor@yerburystudio.com

Today’s image is from a recent studio session. Simple, classic lighting.