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[matthewburch]

"Can you use a better photo? This is a horrid mugshot"

I thought I’d share this with you from the BBC in Australia. Chris Waters, a Business Mentor and Angel I know through Emma’s Selby’s Business Hubs spotted it and thought I’d be amused. I am!

I spend a lot of time trying to get the message out to businesses that their ‘mugshots’ are having an affect on their clients and customers.  It’s not a difficult argument to make since all anyone has to…

[matthewburch]

A little bit of family and a 'before and after' of mum!

There are strings in life. Threads that follow a path.  Sometimes one of these strings passes through the studio. This particular string connects the 22nd May 2014 and the 18th July 2015.

For photographers, having clients return is a hoped for occasion! In this case I was commissioned last year to put together a small portfolio of images for a lady, who whilst pregnant, wanted to update her…

[matthewburch]

I was asked what a business headshot profile photo session entailed...

Fair question from a new client, or any client for that matter. I frequently talk to people who have never experienced being photographed, save for family snaps and weddings.  Sometimes an individual will have been photographed for business but very often, when I am working with a whole team I find people have never been properly photographed.

I think we’re all alike in the sense that we work…

[matthewburch]

Some fun to raise a profile!

A local client of mine, Mark Beresford of Buxton Beresford Financial Planning, is having a new website site designed, structured and populated with loads of great info and tips. One of the things Mark wants is an aspect to the site (and his wider marketing) that promotes a bit of personality.  Mark is the first to admit that Financial Planning is a bit dry, very important for your future…

[matthewburch]

Talking about stock again and I came up with this analogy...

Yesterday I was at Martin Davidge-Stringer’s networking lunch for Farnham Business Connections, hosted at Sadza restaurant in Farnham. It was a mix of new faces and familiar and I found myself chatting with Linda Crawford of Outline Health. Linda is an Osteopath but has a background in marketing and a partner who works for an Ad agency, a combination which I think triggered in me a flash of a…

[matthewburch]

Do you think what you do is special? Well, it's not! But....

Do you think what you do is special? Well, it's not!

I go along to the Farnham Hub run by Emma Selby and enjoy the company of the members, the guests, the camaraderie, the leg pulling, the sharing of ideas and problems, the collaboration and the talks. The talks.

I’ve been a member of the Hub for I guess a couple of years and over that time I have heard a lot of people give talks on loads of different subjects. Tied with all the social media…

[matthewburch]

Happy New Year to all and a tip on your mirror image!

Happy New Year to all and a tip on your mirror image!

So, my first blog post for 2016 and it has to be admitted one after a period of silence! I’ve never been one to state a New Year’s resolution but I do hope to take on board all the advice I get and keep up a decent flow of posts. Just need to make sure it doesn’t get boring for you!

I’ve been thinking of a number of topics but thought I’d start off with something gentle, nothing controversial.…

[matthewburch]

A Portrait of the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP

In the run up to Christmas Emma Selby of the Farnham Hub arranged for our local MP, Jeremy Hunt, to come along to a Friday morning meeting to have a chat about business issues. It was a lively talk and I did my usual and photographed proceedings for Emma, also supplying a few photos to the local paper.

A net result for me was that after a brief chat Jeremy arranged to come over to my studio…

[matthewburch]

Enter my competition to win a £400 Charactography Photoshoot

CHARACTOGRAPHY

I have created a new photoshoot brand to give you an opportunity to build your own brand image across social media, websites and print advertising.

CLICK THE PHOTO AND ENTER THE COMPETITION!!

If you advertise and promote your business on social media, or indeed in print form, then using stock photos you’ve bought from an online library, only serve to de-personalise…

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A newly qualified dance fitness instructor!

A shoot this week went with some loud music and a lot of laughs! Janeen Sinden has just qualified as a dance fitness instructor and is joining Surrey Dance Fitness as an Instructor, no longer on the floor following, now leading from the front up on stage!

Janeen needed a range of photos to give her a headshot for SDF and some generic images of her in ‘active wear’. The shoot also saw two of…

[matthewburch]

Product Shoot for Philly & Milly - Art for Children with Client Q&A

Product Shoot for Philly & Milly - Art for Children

The power of Facebook!

Philippa Langdon posted a search for a photographer to shoot samples of her brand new art products for children. Naturally I was pleased she found her way to my studio and after a chat we put together a plan. Philippa stayed for the shoot and we worked through each product sample, cap-stoning the shoot with some grouped promotional shots.

Afterwards I gave Philippa a…

[matthewburch]

Sculpture Shoot - Icarus Bronzes from Nicola Godden

Sculpture Shoot - Icarus Bronzes

Recently I had the pleasure of photographing 3 beautiful sculptures by renowned artist Nicola Godden.  Nicola creates fantastic bronze figures and at the moment is in her ‘Icarus mood’.

Over the years Nicola has done a number of commissions for property companies including Berkeley Homes who, along with the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), commissioned her to produce the seven foot statue of…

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Promote your business from within!

Anyone who knows me will likely know I get upset when I see businesses building their brand image with stock photos.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against stock images, they are a fantastic resource often giving the business or marketer a quality image with a high production cost. It isn’t the stock image I have issue with, just the way a business or marketer will use them.

I…

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Take a slightly different perspective...

This post covers a couple of things really; on the one hand it is an observation of the relationship between traffic in town and children and on the other it’s ‘titbit’ for anyone running a business. Naturally some photography shoehorns itself in here as the tool of illustration!

Here’s the thing: I am perpetually stunned at how parents will allow their children to stand so close to the curb.…

[matthewburch]

My Top Ten Tips for doing your own Profile Photos

A large percentage of my work is photographing people and due to the rise of social media, the business headshot has taken on even more significance than before.

A lot of people in business, employed or self employed, have a headshot and I spend a lot of time talking and pitching for people and businesses to book me for their portraits.

Naturally I want you to call and book; I don’t…

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Strength in Numbers

So many times I talk about the importance of individuals having their profile photos done well and how it benefits a company to have the people within presented well to the outside world.

But we should not forget the power of the team photo. Business is often done by teams of people from a pair to a large group. Any business is the sum of its parts and the people are the parts that really…

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Behind the Scene with the Business Hub's new Promo Film

Behind the Scene with the Business Hub’s new Promo Film

Very much a pictorial post to shout about some video shot at my studio for The Business Hub.

Emma Selby of the Farnham Hub and Jo McGowan of the Guildford Hub have been working with Jack Taylor Productions to put together a new promotional video pitching the Hub ethos and business opportunities to both potential members and Business Hub franchisees.

Loads of footage had already been shot…