Graduate gets his Photofinale

Iain Jaques studied Contemporary Photographic Practice at Northumbria and graduated in 2008 with his BA honours degree. On completion of his degree, Iain decided that going into a regular graduate position wasn’t for him and took the plunge by setting up his own photography company.

Photofinale, which specialises in event, fashion and sports photography (in particular cycling photography, having worked with the British Olympic Cycling Team on numerous occasions) was set up by Iain and his friend Stewart Charles, who he met while working part time in Sainsbury’s in 2001.

So how exactly did Iain go from graduating in 2008 to making his dream a reality and setting up a photography company, all in just 12 months? Iain was more than happy to explain,

“The idea for Photofinale was actually conceived about 5 years ago after Stewart and I had visited a photographic exhibition in London. It gave us the inspiration to start a website which was about shooting innovative, creative and most importantly exciting photography.”

Thus Photofinale was born! They were both keen to start the company straight away, but Iain had already accepted his place at Northumbria and Stewart had just set up his own video production company. So Photofinale was put on the back burner for a while, but not entirely. “Throughout my time at University we ran the Photofinale website; a showcase site which was about fantastic photography, basically everything Photofinale now is – namely Phototastic Hyper Real Dynamic Imagery!”

It was when Iain finished university in June 2008 that Photofinale could be set up properly as a company. “I spent my time after my final show writing business plans, and eagerly scouring the web, researching both the competition, and each market segment thoroughly.”

With the website established and research complete, Iain and Stewart were able to move quickly and on August 12th 2008 Photofinale was incorporated (the act of legally becoming a limited company) and the business was off the ground. “We were lucky to start with.” Iain told us, “We had a tremendously supportive client, Leicester City Council, who kept us really busy in our first critical month.”

In their first few months, Iain and Stewart worked on various projects including event photography at two internationally attended BP conferences, which involved 18 hour-long days. As well as their numerous council projects such as ‘be seen on a bike’ a campaign designed to encourage people to cycle throughout the winter and to wear reflective clothing while they do so. “Another campaign we did required world famous BMX flatlander, Keelan Philips, to perform in front of Leicester’s brand new Curve Theatre while we shot hyperflashtastic fashion images of him in action.”

So as Photofinale nears its 1st birthday, the company has three big projects to work on over the coming months. One, recently completed, was to shoot the ‘8-9pm subject’ on the first day of the Anthony Gormley “One and Other” installation on Trafalgar Square’s 4th plinth. Their brief was to shoot a video of the subject out of almost entirely photographic stills.  The second is their ‘car-tastic’ project, which involves shooting rare and unique cars around the country and their third focus is the launch of the new branch of Photofinale - wedding photography brand ‘PF Weddings’.  “Standing still is most certainly not an option in this industry.” Iain tells me and he knows how important it is to stay ahead of your competitors in this business.

The launch of PF Weddings comes with a great wedding photography package with 50% off the regular price. Iain explains, “We have a launch offer of £500, full day wedding photography open until April 2010.  Package includes two professional photographers in attendance, one Photo book, and a disc with images suitable for both printing and use on Facebook.”

If you would like to view some of Photofinale and PF Weddings images or would like further information on the company, or to contact them to book their services, please visit them on Facebook, Flickr at both www.flickr.com/iain_jaques and www.flickr.com/mr-chop, and of course at www.photofinale.co.uk