Merry Christmas from Paul Scott (Front Elevation) - A Thank-You message.

Just a few words to thank all the people in our great industry who have let us loose on various projects involving their work or products. As usual we have had amazing assistance from huge corporations and individuals in granting us access, authorisation and being escorted around some of the projects explaining what has been done, showing their pride in the work in everything from building 60 storey skyscrapers to maintaining parks. Yes we had the Cancer hospital in Southampton who wanted to charge us ￡500 to photograph the building but, fortunately, they are exceptions.

I started Front Elevation over 7 years ago to try to champion those people who go under the radar and whilst it doesn’t get any easier, we still manage to do that. Given the competition in marketing for ‘visuals’ we are competing with Drones, Video and Time Lapse Photography on a professional basis and of course Mobile Phone photographs on an Amateur basis and I am good with all of that. We all face challenges in our businesses and the playing field has never been level. I remain an avid fan of the ‘still’ image and quite happy to have my images amongst all of the above.

I know we compete with Videos, Drones & Time Lapse as a medium but 'Stills' photography is far more flexible, long lasting and of course ￡for￡ far more cost effective.

We have had some great successes in 2018 not least with the BALI Landscaping Awards which have enabled me to not only photograph some of my favourite projects (National Theatre & Natural History Museum) but also help promote the horticulture industry as a profession. I think this year we photographed Four projects for inclusion and all four secured awards. This brings us up to almost double figures in two years. Not bad considering most people think we only photograph buildings

Another great year for BALI Awards but we also get to meet and spend time with the individuals involved in gardens and buildings to hear their stories.

We have photographed some amazing buildings but also carried out some real 'story telling' work as projects progress.

What is for 2019 ? (As if I know??)

Well we got the website up and running but this is only a platform so lots more to come there.

So here are some of the things we will be doing in 2019:

A Front Elevation quarterly pdf Magazine featuring some of the projects we have photographed in more depth. This will include Interviews and Case Studies to show the 'hows & whys'

World Domination, well perhaps not but we are finding that our Continental friends are happier in investing in quality photography than the UK counterparts so we will certainly be looking to bring more clients in from Europe and beyond. With my own 20+ years experience in Specification Sales & Marketing we can certainly assist them gain more exposure within the UK market.

Around half of our clients are based outside the UK or have HQ's outside of the UK but still manage to get us into some iconic places

Industry Promotion, We are always trying our best to promote the wider ‘Built Environment’ industry and will be working closely with several parties involved in Fenestration and Horticulture to encourage the next generation into being more hands on.

Photography, obviously but I am constantly blown away by the fact that so many very busy people take the time from their schedules to view, like and comment on our work so of course strive to improve on our photography. I am equally blown away by the amazing work of my peers who are ever present in the greatest city in the world where I am lucky enough to work in. Not just in photography but in art generally. Photography is an art form but from a photographers view point Architecture is also an art form so from Siena Duomo to The Bloomberg Building we have photographed some amazing stuff in 2018.

Photography is an art form, as is architecture, so we get the chance to work abroad and photograph some pretty amazing stuff

Photography Workshops, I come across quite a few people who still haven’t quite got off Auto mode on their cameras so I am really hoping to get some workshops put together to enable prospective photographers to get the best out of their cameras.

My own personal (Photography) development. Since qualifying as a member of The Royal Photography Society I have not yet had time to gain further qualifications but one of the problems in doing your hobby professionally is that you get less time to perhaps do more of the photography that you choose. Obviously the business comes first but it also benefits from the bar rising.

I will be putting on a Photography Exhibition in 2019 if only to get some of my stuff printed out and show how photographs can convey so much in every language.

So lots more to do next year but as we now have almost 20,000 followers on LinkedIn we have to continually raise our game to bring in new clients and new challenges.

With 20,000 followers on LinkedIn alone we can reach a huge audience of Architects, Consultants, Designers and Developers for our clients, in many cases more than most of the less known Construction Titles, but we need to keep producing 'scroll stopping' images.

I am very blessed to have come into the industry via sales in Merchants, Distributors, Specialist Contractors, Manufacturers, Installers and Fabricators so I have a real understanding of the materials and projects I photograph. I know many of the people who are just expecting a ‘Photographer’ find it quite surprising when I start asking technical questions about the project or observing the finer details. Actually spending a huge amount of time with architects (mostly explaining why what they want wont quite work but this will…) I am still incredibly respectful of these ‘guys’ who start with a blank piece of paper and come up with such incredible buildings. I also however fully appreciate that without ALL, and yes I repeat ALL, of the people in the supply chain these buildings would not actually work. Every architect relies heavily on the specialists in the industry to turn their ‘dreams’ into reality.

Whilst I have the utmost respect for Architects and Designers it is the Supply Chain with their expertise and design element that make the buildings really work. We try our very best to give them a spotlight.

This is what makes the industry so amazing. From the people who design the buildings to those driving a delivery to it. You are all in the Supply Chain and all of the links are of equal importance.

Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones and here is to (a possibly interesting) 2019

Best wishes

Paul

This isnt intended as 'advertising' so no websites or links but you know where to find us if we can help.