Just over a month ago now – time seems to have got away from me – I had my first exhibition. It was held in Bewiched Coffee in Peterborough where I have had some items on the walls for some time now.

This was originally at the suggestion of the branch manager of Bewiched and I had been considering it for some time before deciding I wanted to go ahead and do it. This lead to a long deliberation of exactly which photos I wanted to exhibit as well as how to do it, then getting everything sorted etc.

Eventually I decided which photos I wanted to use, then the format, size and so on. I decided to have a few different subjects as there is such a wide variation but I felt that I wanted something else as well to have a few other photos on show that would not otherwise be seen. Together with a chance find via an advert on Facebook this led to me creating a photobook featuring some more photos of similar subjects to the main prints and then also a handful of others that had not been included.

Here are a few photos from the event taken by Tom Briggs, one of my friends from university days who is also a keen amateur photographer – you can find Tom’s blog here: http://tommybblog.blogspot.co.uk/

I was very pleased with how things went as it is not as if I am a well known name in the area. There were a lot of friends that came as you might expect but there were also people I did not know previously who came along to see what I had put together.

I sold two of the canvasses created, with the rest due to be going back up on the walls in Bewiched in the coming weeks to hopefully gain a bit more interest – the canvasses are a good size larger than the framed photos I have on the walls in there.

Here is the selection of photos I used for the exhibition:

Here is the link to the online version of the photobook:

https://www.saal-digital.co.uk/service/share-order/?qvtnBUbXsZqGAUpfPUxVfrP4C6ToapnugRV9QtgR

The two roses were the canvasses that sold, one on the night, the other soon after.

The three canvasses of the raptors were taken at The Raptor Foundation. Please see their website – http://raptorfoundation.org.uk/ – for more information about what they do.

The two trains were taken on the Nene Valley Railway. See their website – http://www.nvr.org.uk/ – for more information about this heritage railway.

This exhibition would not have happened without the support of a number of companies and people:

• Bewiched Coffee for hosting the event
• The Dalmark Group for some sponsorship towards the event
• Art in the Heart for the use of their easels for display and some general advice about what may be needed and what to consider
• i-lid Design for some consultation about how best to display
• Pics on Canvas for production of the canvasses, they really were amazing
• Saal-Digital for production of the photobook, a review of the photobook process can be found here: Saal Digital Photobook Review

In addition to the above, my wife was also very supportive and forgiving of me whilst I was being a bit rubbish at home as I was trying to get myself organised for a number of weeks prior to the exhibition. I most certainly could not have done this without her support as well.