Eight years…

In all honesty, I’ve had my head down all week cracking on with Christmas client deadlines for the past couple of weeks that I almost forgot!   In December 1st tradition, I’ve been reading through the last few years of my annual business birthday posts this morning to realise just how far the business has evolved once again. On top of moving house, a lot of DIY and planning a wedding, the business is busier than ever, having brought some amazing opportunities along with it.

One of the biggest changes of the year has been the re-brand, dropping the Studios to become Tigz Rice, photographer and retoucher. After reflecting on the direction of the business with my two business coaches, Holli-Mae and Sarah (also both new to the business this year), I realised it was time to part with my much-loved 2011 branding and bring it up to date with a new Art Deco inspired logo, branding colours and a beautiful new website. I’d been toying with changing the logo for a while, but with 2017 being the year of #gettingitdone it felt like the right time to make the leap and give the graphic designer in me a little creative workout!!

There have been some amazing opportunities for me this year, from spending a weekend in Iceland teaching Photoshop and Lightroom (that turned into an all-weekender of travel and northern lights watching!) to hosting a series of live photography events for Adobe, meeting Annie Leibtovitz (she loved my outfit!), photographing the most epic wedding of Hannah and G, and even shooting my very first bridal look-book! With over one hundred of you as my wonderful clients this year, as well as another generation of The Cheek Of It burlesque graduates, I’ve had the pleasure of photographing clients from Los Angeles, Chicago, Finland, Geneva and New Zealand to name but a few. I’m always blown away how far some of you travel to shoot with me! Thank you ALL, for being wonderful and a pleasure to photograph. You’re all the reason I love my job!

The training side of Tigz Rice has had a successful year too, with the return of my Art Of Boudoir and Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop masterclasses hosted by Jo Rutherford in April. I’m currently working on the next one, so if you’re interested please put April 13th 2018 in your diary!. Oh, and at current count, I have now written 75 free online photography and retouching tutorials for Digital Arts, getting close to that 100 mark!

It wouldn’t be a Tigz Rice birthday blog post without a few thank you’s, so a massive thank you… To Adobe, Digital Arts, Eizo, The Flash Centre, and Wacom for their continued support of the studio. To Sali, Lady May and Kelly, three of the amazing wonder women in my life! To James, who gives up his weekends to fit ridiculous Art Deco door knobs, keeps me company on countless IKEA trips and is always there with his unwavering support. To my wonderful friends and family who religiously like, comment and share everything I do. And of course, to all of you for being here and supporting me year after year!

I’m not sure how much I’ll get to celebrate today as my to do list is longer than my arm today, but I’m at least going to have a glass of something lovely to mark eight years and maybe buy myself some flowers! As for year nine? Well… I’ve got a few things up my sleeve…

Model: Jessabelle Thunder at Fontaine’s