Moving with the times

A Warwickshire photography studio has a firm focus on the future after celebrating more than 30 years in business.

Andy Sheppard set up Avon Studios in Wellesbourne in 1993 after starting his career with John Wright Photography in 1979 before moving to IMI in Shipston-on-Stour.

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The company specialised in commercial photography to begin with – shooting on film and offering processing and printing.

Over the years, Andy has added new services and two new members of team, Chris Tyers and Laura Seymour. As the business has moved with the times with photography becoming increasingly digitised.

Now, as well as continuing to offer commercial photography, PR and branding images, portraits, events – such as weddings – and ‘expressions’, Avon is seeing consistent demand for services such as creating digital versions of physical images.

It has also invested in equipment to move VHS and DVD home movies onto USB sticks.

On any given day, the team could be out shooting photographs for a business, creating new family portraits in the studio and transferring a couple’s wedding day into a digital format.

But, instead of resting on his laurels, Andy has plans for further investment in equipment to improve service and cut down on the energy the business uses to run its machines.

He said: “You must move with the times, and we’ve tried to do that. We embraced digital photography from its earliest days, and we’ve always been looking at ways we can improve what we do, rather than fearing change.

“For those of us in the industry, we must keep looking at new ways of using our skills and we have to make sure we can offer something that people can’t do themselves on a mobile phone.

“Some of it comes down to equipment but it also comes down to people skills too. If you’re on a commercial shoot or at a wedding, you need to know how to get the best out of those you are working with.

“I can’t believe it’s been 30 years, and I don’t know about looking forward to the next 30 – I’ll be 90 by then! But I still want to keep moving forward and that’s the reason we want to invest.”

Andy is a familiar face at Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce networking events and he’s also an advocate of some of the other services it offers.

He said: “I’ve met some great people through the Chamber over the years but we’ve also utilised benefits such as the HR service.