I am a 41-year-old, mother of two children (Martha and Philippa), two lurchers (Badger and Mouse) and have been happily married to the present Mr MP for 19 years.
I first realised my passion for photography during a visit to Venice in about 2002. I couldn't get enough of the architecture, the friezes, and the beautiful surroundings. I used a film camera and I couldn't have been happier.
The years progressed, I had my 2 children and continued getting joy from capturing images. This helped me live life to the full AND it gave me the opportunity to be behind the camera rather than in front of it. Somewhere I was really uncomfortable to be and, some of you may find this surprising – somewhere I still try and avoid.
You might be wondering about living life to the full and how a camera can help me do that – I have a couple of health issues that can cause extreme anxiety, something I don’t suffer with when photographing. The camera allows me to explore the world without panic. It has literally opened an entire new world up for me. A place that I don’t fear and that has no boundaries.
Fiona Millington photography was established as a business in 2013 following multiple requests from friends to take pictures of their children.
The following seven years included copious amounts of training and after so much time taking photographs of a variety of subjects, I discovered my real passion in 2020. Through the pictures I’d taken I had captured moments of real worth. Celebrating life and laughter amongst my friends, family and clients. Moments that showed their spirit and their beauty – undisputedly there for all to see. I was challenging friends’ opinions of themselves – reflecting on them what everyone could see and what they had no reason to hide from.
My ethos is all about empowering confidence, celebrating family, capturing spirit and togetherness in business – Capturing the extraordinary within.
Pre March 2020 my photography was solely done at weekends and school holidays because up until then I was a full-time teacher.
Then we got hit by the pandemic and lockdown happened. Like pretty much everything, work life for me simply stopped. I had been working as a supply teacher in a local school which had sadly closed down. With no job and no furlough, I decided that things had to change. I didn’t want to go back into schools – my children are older and no longer reliant on my time completely and so it was the perfect time for me to really think about what I wanted to do.
I had for ages toyed with the idea of giving up teaching so many times – but I just couldn’t believe that I could make photography pay – pay enough for me to lead the life I really wanted.
But suddenly the answer was right there in front of me – I decided to set Fiona Millington free after 20 years as a teacher – to be brave and try something that was solely about me, my talent and my vision. It was a real NOW or NEVER moment.
I have been lucky enough to have had a photography mentor – he has watched me learn, answered my questions, reflected with me on my work and set me challenges. On the day I committed to launching my business forward and speaking to my business advisor my photography mentor died suddenly - he was more than my mentor – he was my friend. I never got the chance to tell him I was following my dream.
So, Fiona Millington Photography was suddenly real, and it was all mine.
As I mentioned earlier, I'd decided to make it really clear so that my potential clients could see what sort of business was available through my work.
I created 4 unique strands to the business. The empowering confidence, which is boudoir but it's also more than that - it's about teenagers and adults who don't feel as good about themselves as they perhaps deserve to feel. They look at themselves and that negative voice in their heads judges harshly – they don’t look like the models slapped all over social media and because they don’t fit that image of perfection we are constantly fed by the media their self-esteem suffers. Remember, I’m talking about people – people of any age.
My job is to make them feel the reality that their loved ones see when they look at them.
I offer ‘capturing spirit’ which, despite sounding like it’s all about seances, is actually all about pet photography. Celebrating family is simply all about family photo shoots (gotta get the parents in the images) and then together in business which is the corporate side of my photography, you know headshots (or personal branding photography as I’ve now been told to call them) and bespoke company work. I really called it together in business because that's what we are - they come to me and then I can help promote their businesses. We are all in this together.
Because I’m now a pro photographer many people think I am against selfies – far from it, my selfie game is strong. I love my selfies! But I hate mobile phone photography – solely because they seem to have become the place that images are kept.
We have the world's most photographed generation stored in our bloody phones! So, few of those pictures are printed and far less make it onto our walls.
Print your images people! DISPLAY THEM ON YOUR WALLS! SHOW YOURSELVES AND YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS THAT THEY ARE YOU ARE VALUED AND DESERVE A SPACE IN YOUR HOME!