It doesn’t feel that long ago that I was writing about Tigz Rice Studios turning five, but here we are at six years old, the last 12 months a blurry haze of hard work and incredible experiences. Whilst five years felt like a massive milestone for the business and was pretty emotional for me last year, six years feels… solid. In business related questionnaires, I’ve gone up a ‘how long has your business been running’ tick box and have been enjoying the happy-smug feeling of levelling up!

So whats happened in the last year? Well, after having invested a significant portion of 2013 to refocusing and rebranding Tigz Rice Studios to suit a more commercial market, I’ve been privileged to work with a number of UK lingerie brands this year on their lookbooks and editorial content, including What Katie Did, Karolina Laskowska, Betty Blues Loungerie and Scantilly. I had my first hair editorial with Haringtons Soho, which was a brilliant experience in shooting and retouching a multitude of hair textures, colours and styles. It also gave me the opportunity to work with several male models, which are a rarity in my portfolio.

As a lover of technology and innovation, I dedicate a fair chunk of every year to exploring the technical – perhaps more geeky – side of being a photographer. Alongside my continuing work as an ambassador for Wacom, Adobe, Elinchrom and Datacolor, it has been wonderful to establish a working relationship with Eizo over the last few months, having recently shot a series of images for their What Are You Looking At? 2016 Calendar. I’ve also been privileged to get my hands on some equipment to test too, including the Elinchrom ELC Pros and ELB 400 series, alongside recent loans of the Fuji X100T and Nikon D810.

The boudoir side of Tigz Rice continues to be a huge part of what goes on behind the scenes at Tigz Rice Studios. With a lot more private bookings in 2015, less of these images are making it to the portfolio, but I’ve had the chance to work on some amazing concepts this year, including art nudes, film noir and some incredible location work. Of course, style is a constantly evolving process for a creative, but I feel that this year I’ve really honed in on what gives my work its signature look. I am really enjoying the direction that my work is taking right now and I’m really looking forward to seeing what manifests for year seven.

As always, there are a multitude of thank you’s that need to be said. To Wacom, Adobe, Elinchrom, The Flash Centre, Datacolor, Eizo, and Digital Arts for their continued support of the studio. To Ian, whose long-distance tech support and late night banter has been a much-needed constant over the six years! To Lisa, for giving me a spiritual home at Photography Farm. To James, who continues to be my rock. To my friends and family, you know who you are. And of course, to all of you for giving me the opportunity to make a living out of doing what I love.

So, how am I celebrating today? Well, deadlines dictate a day of work today, but there’s a bottle of bubbly in the fridge for later today that I’m looking forward to! If you’d like to keep up to date on whats going on over the next few months, why not sign up to the Tigz Rice Studios VIP Member’s Newsletter (Register as a Studio VIP here)