Martin is a general practice photographer based in Holmes
Chapel in Cheshire in the UK. Martin has been shooting photos for 30 years. He started doing weddings with his Dad back in the 90s in the South East of England. They started shooting a friends wedding and it went from there.
Martin’s Dad then got the idea of dog photographs. They would go along to dog training classes, take photographs of the dogs and then sell them the next week for five pounds each.
Martin moved from the South East to Cheshire and so had to move his business. He said he didn’t plan this very well. Martin ended up for several years after the move, going back down to Kent taking photographs. Martin did join a networking
group in Cheshire and that has really helped him move his business to Cheshire. Martin also says that the business networking got him as much family work (weddings
etc) as commercial work. Martin also found the networking got him introduced to owners of wedding venues. Just as Martin
was building the business in Cheshire covid hit which effected his business. But he pivoted and moved to product photography and camper van photography. Martin says he shot his last pre-covid wedding in 2023 which shows how big a delay covid put on events like this.
Martin studies photography at school, but he only did this as the school wouldn’t let him do pottery. So he has a GCSE in photography. He then also followed this up with a btech in photography. He says he wasted his time there, not making
use of all the amazing equipment that was available.
When the business started Martin’s dad was doing a lot of the business side of the work. Martin unfortunately lost his Dad, who was also his business partner in the early two thousands. He hobbled on for a while after this before getting a job in a
professional studio as a photographer. He moved up to running a studio and it taught him lots about running a business. After working for the studio Martin, at the age of 30, in 2008 (time of the financial crisis) decided to go and work in a bank. Martin lasted nine months before realising that corporate life wasn’t for
him.
While working at the bank Martin bought his first digital camera and had already been back doing photos at dog training. Martin then managed to break his foot, skateboarding when about to restart his photography business. This meant is as a dark time as he had no money coming in, but it gave him a chance to plan the
business, rather than just jumping in. Martin decided he wanted to get into music photography so started to promote some local bands. He then ended up at bloodstock, a heavy metal festival. He won an award for one of his photographs. He also started
to work for Q magazine.
As Martin got older had a son he decided he didn’t want to be out in the evenings so moved over for more corporate work. Marcus is really mainly focussed on head shot work now. He has various health conditions that mean he struggles now with weddings and long events. Martin says that he talks to other photographers who
have health issues that effects their work. He thinks important that we are open about health issues and not hiding them away.
Marcus says other photographers are some of his main referrers. When he moved to Cheshire he initially joined a lot of Facebook groups and quickly got second shooter work. This then meant he got to know local photographers and soon they were referring work to him.
Martin’s one piece of advice for photographers starting out is to assist a top professional photographer. Learn from people at the top of their game.
https://www.martinhobby.co.uk/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinhobby/
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