Featherkite Photoshoot

2025 continues to be the year that I tick things off my list. I have been meaning to do this for some time and I’m really pleased I got it done.

There are two very important things I try and do at the start of any New Website Build project. The first is to ensure that the client already has top notch branding and if they don’t – as is normally the case – then I convince them to let my colleague, Guy Rayment take care of it. I have known Guy for almost 50 years (!) but when I invited him over to my home to take part in this photoshoot, I hadn’t seen him (in the flesh) for probably 40 of them. It’s a long story.

The second thing I try to convince my new client to put in place, are high quality images. Up until recently, this would have meant either them sourcing some or my trawling through various stock imagery websites. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that and indeed, my own Featherkite website has always relied on stock photography (predominantly from Unsplash.com) … I will take stock photography over clients’ own ‘phone camera’ work any day of the week. Sorry!

I first used Guy for a Branding exercise back when I did the Consaelting website for Steve Ellis. I’d already worked with him at another agency, but this was the first gig that he did for Featherkite. Since then he’s worked with me on Odvantage Ltd (which has just gone live), The HIVE CoLab Project (which is soon to go live) and several other re-draw and general graphics jobs. He’s gone above and beyond every time. I love his work and have tremendous respect for his ability and professionalism. He’s also a great person to work with.

Here’s where it all comes together. Abbie Trayler-Smith is a phenomenally talented Professional Photographer, who happens to be a client of my wife (Michelle at Lace Cottage Ethical Beauty). Abbie is a personal friend and I was aware of her work, as we worked on a photoshoot several years ago. A few months ago I wanted to take on the challenge of elevating the status of my local Rugby Club’s Social Media posts, in order to promote the general commercial awareness of the club via better relationships with sponsors etc. To do this I knew i needed some top notch portraits of the players, and so I got Abbie to help out. The results were outstanding and everyone involved has been blown away – read about it all here.

Whilst on the shoot, I talked to Abbie about the photoshoot my client, John Tolly had in order to generate the images I wanted for his new website build. The seed was planted and now Abbie is offering the same service – in fact, watch this space as Guy is working with her on some branding and then we’re going to build her new business a website … see how it works?

So, with all of this going on at the same time I thought it was the Universe’s way of telling me to finally sort out my own website. Following the Featherkite re-brand, I selected some generic stock photography for my banner images to set the right vibe and tide me over until such time as I could find someone I trusted enough to do a bespoke job. I’d worked on a website build a couple of years ago where the client wanted to move away from stock and have images of their actual staff – which in their vertical would have been quite a radical move … but it planted a seed with me.

Recently I set up a Marketing drive that I was pretty sure would fail early, but I was also sure would bring it’s own revelations … which it did. It revealed to me what I already kind of knew, which was that Featherkite have a niche, yet electic target market. My target market tend to be professionals who are agile, small companies who operate in the high end of their own verticals. They are looking to stand out, without being flashy. It’s hard to articulate, but suffice to say I knew that what my website needed was imagery of the real people doing the work and celebrating where they’re doing it.

Despite the long road to get to this point, the shoot itself was pretty straight forward. I showed Abbie the stock images I currently had on my website depicting meetings and people discussing projects – with the odd obtuse, arty shot to help set the vibe. Once Abbie gets into the zone, you almost forget she’s there, less the odd bit of direction & she immediately puts everyone at ease.

I’ve never claimed that Featherkite was a large company or that there was anyone else but me ‘on the books’, but for as long as I’ve been doing this – some 23 years now – I have always been open about the fact that I work with an eclectic mix of fellow contractors. My last ‘go to’ graphic designer was Anthony Costa down in Melbourne, but he recently retired so Guy is my current number one and I wanted him to be included.

To make the shoot work we needed a client and thankfully, my first choice was up for it. Emma Thomas is a Beautician based in Tiverton and I put together her website a few years ago – Beauty at Maycroft. Emma had some changes that she wanted to make to the site and so that is what we discussed, amongst many other things. Emma, Guy and I all went to school together in Tiverton back in the 80s – so there was plenty to chat about!

We shot the photos at my home, Lace Cottage where both my wife Michelle and I have been living and working since 2011.

I’m so glad I did this and the results surpassed my expectations. Thank you to Guy, Emma and Abbie for making it happen & of course to Michelle for creating our beautiful home as the backdrop.

These images will serve me for many years. I’ll be able to drop them around the website and use them in blog posts and social media, too. The possibilities are endless. I will continue to recommend a photoshoot with Abbie to all my clients, as there is no better alternative to make your website stand out than genuine, personal imagery shot by a world class professional. It’s as simple as that.