Paul Baker Photography

Introduction

This part of my site is by way of a background to me and my work. Not too exciting I am afraid but it needs to be done ! So we will do - briefly. I live and work in Hedon, which is near Hull, East Yorkshire in England. I have lived there since 1977 which is when my parents finished working in Europe and returned to England to live again. The european links continue however both with friends and by way of my brother who lived in Vienna for a while, tried Vancouver next and currently lives in Iceland.

I am married to Jennie and we have two large german shepherd dogs called Sabre and Storm, brilliant companions and double as guard dogs! Both Jennie and Sabre feature in my work - you have already seen them if you have seen the main page - both are demanding more pay as a result of this increased exposure ! Storm is now appearing more frequently as well. Although Jennie accompanies me to weddings and is chief bag and tripod carrier, brides assistant and on occassions has been known to dress the men as well ( !! ) Sabre & Storm get to stay at home. However we are training their herding instincts so that they will be able to help out one day by rounding up guests for the group photo's.

When I left school photography was not on the career list, but having worked through a couple of customer liaison type jobs I was getting involved in photography through my sister in law - Helen - who also features in some of the work illustrated. Gradually I found that I was being asked to photograph people more and more for portraits and portfolios and then the weddings started coming along as well. At that point I made a conscious decision to work at the photography and try to turn my career in that direction.

I started a city and guilds course and began taking various modules in different aspects of photography, did a pretty successful job of them and have now qualified as a result with Licentiateships of the Royal Photographic Society - L.R.P.S. and also the Master Photographers Association - L.M.P.A. I am also a member of the Guild of Wedding Photographers as I find their advice and information quite valuable at times. During this period of formal qualification my career working in offices ground to a halt so I became a full time photographer, a move I have never regretted and which is going from strength to strength.

I am a social photographer with weddings portraits and portfolios taking most of my time. At certain times I diversify under the right circumstances to undertake some commercial work (photographing shutter doors for a brochure or a printers works for their brochure) or even some advertising work (animals - plants - still life ! ) but I believe in doing a professional job so if I am not sure I research thoroughly before undertaking anything. Pets come under the social bracket in my opinion and I often find myself photographing dogs and horses now.

That is enough - or probably too much - of an introduction so I will sign off this page now - but please visit the other pages on this site and feel free to pass your comments.