Kay Ransom Photography

23/08/2024

Who spotted me in July's issue of The Business Magazine? Thank you Nicky Godding for a fab interview!

21/08/2024

The day I did a photo shoot at Abbey Road Studios!

In 2014 I was requested by a very high profile client to attend an event they were running at Abbey Road studios in London. This shoot epitomised why I decided to become a photographer, being able to access different places of interest around the country can be a real privilege!

This exciting shoot thankfully landed on a dry and not too chilly day. I met the 50 delegates at the studios and spent quite some time in security with all my camera kit, they are thorough and with good reason being the highest profile music studio around.

We were in “Studio one” this is the world's largest purpose-built recording studio, this studio can comfortably accommodate a large symphony orchestra or chorus. It's played host iconic film scores from The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back and artists such as Stevie Wonder and Sting. Exciting as it was to be at Abbey Road Studios I was surprised to see how dated it looked and how all the chairs were very scruffy, I was soon to find out why…

The delegates spent time hearing tales of The Beatles and the history of the studios. The bit I found most interesting were the nuances of the studios that must not be changed because the well-loved acoustics of the studio would be altered forever. The strange wooden shapes on the wall (which I thought were some 70s retro design) actually shape the way the sounds form. The “scruffy chairs” were the original chairs and if they were all changed to more modern non worn ones even they would change the way the sound bounces around the studio!

The delegates went on to record a song and then headed outside to the infamous zebra crossing! Now what’s not clear from the photos I’d seen of the zebra crossing is it’s straight off a small roundabout! So where people continually cross over and pause to pose for photos, it actually causes traffic chaos in the area! A handful of delegates inevitably asked to take their picture on the crossing, so I made sure I was pretty swift!

So there we go, another day in the life of a professional event photographer.

In 2014 I was requested by a very high profile client to attend an event they were running at Abbey Road studios in London. This shoot epitomised why I decided to become a photographer, being able to access different places of interest around the country can be a real privilege! This exciting shoot....

19/08/2024

Have you been over to Cotswold Range? See the photos for my recent shoot with them!

16/08/2024

Completely by accident I captured a unique moment in time, that will never been seen in our lifetimes again and created a treasured memory for the town of Cirencester.

September 2018 I was commissioned to go up the tower of Parish Church in Cirencester to photograph the new market place in action. It was a sunny day and the market was on, it also happened to be my birthday, but I thought it might be a fun way to start the day!

The church warden handed me “the keys to the kingdom” (the keys to go up and the church, as it was not open to the public), one of which looked like the key to Gryffindor Tower!

I climbed the extremely tight staircase, with my camera backpack scraping along the side of the wall due to the lack of room and treading carefully on the steps suitable for a child’s foot and not a fully grown adult, I suspect they were a bit smaller in those days! The journey up was exhausting carrying kit but the reward of the view at the top is certainly worth it!

At the top of the church I was treated to panoramic views of the town and further afield to Cirencester Park. I photographed the market from an aerial view point – as per my commission and it wasn’t until the end of the shoot that something caught my eye…
Whilst I was looking through my zoom lens I noticed a rather splendid shot of Cecily Hill and as I glanced up my eye line lead me to the main drive of Cirencester Park in its full autumnal glory. This angle had never been shot before, it was only by chance that it caught my eye. I shot ten variations, waiting for gorgeous streaks of sunlight to bathe the park through the warm coloured branches and then finished up the shoot.

After clambering down the church tower, handing back the keys to Hogwarts I rushed into the edit suite to check the results. WOW I was blown away by how incredible this particular sequence of shots looked. I shared the best one on social media and it got around 20,000 views, the likes and comments were really quite overwhelming at the time.

It wasn’t until a year later I realised how special this shot really was. The Bathurst’s announced the many of the trees needed to be culled for health and safety reasons, so the avenue would be changed greatly. This avenue is now being managed by tree surgeons who have done a fantastic job I’d like to say, but never again in our life time will anyone be able to shoot or see that perfect moment again. So I am very proud to have created this memory for the town of Cirencester and it can now been seen in print on the information board in the park as you walk in.

Take a look and enjoy!

Completely by accident I captured a unique moment in time, that will never been seen in our lifetimes again and created a treasured memory for the town of Cirencester. September 2018 I was commissioned to go up the tower of Parish Church in Cirencester to photograph the new market place in action. I...

15/08/2024

A recent shoot at the fabulous Aura Care Living in Cirencester !

14/08/2024

Just two weeks left on this special offer! Book this offer now and the shoot can take place any month within 2024.

https://buff.ly/3IonXwB

09/08/2024

Book this offer now and the shoot can take place any month within 2024.

https://buff.ly/3IonXwB

07/08/2024

Outside of my career as a professional photographer I’ve had an on-going passion for water sports and cable wakeboarding has been a big part of that.

In 2006 I tried boat wakeboarding for the first time at Lakeside Ski & Wake, then in 2007 I tried cable wakeboarding at WMSki. WMSki had a ladies morning every Thursday, I went religiously from 2007 until the site closed in 2013, I was so committed to ladies morning that if I didn’t attend a session I’d receive a phone checking if I was ok lol (I think that particular day I was on a photo shoot)!

Those mornings were filled with sunshine, flat water, laughter, coffee and a lots of silly antics on the water. Each week I’d bring something random with me riding anything from an 8ft surf board to inflatable whale for us girls to lark around on. I think I’ve been round that lake on every possible ridiculous item that floats. During this time I don’t think my wakeboarding skills progressed leaps and bounds, but I did get stronger could get round the lake in one piece, I couldn’t do any tricks and my very hypermobile shoulders/joints didn’t really lend themselves to this particular sport.

2012 was a dark time at WMSki, I won’t go into details, some of you reading will know the back story anyhow. Needless to say I needed a good distraction and something to focus on. So I finally left my inflatable whale, turtle, dinosaur, surf board, body board etc. at home, got some new more responsive boots for my wakeboard and finally started to try tricks. My friend Matthew noticed I was struggling to understand some of the basic principles on how approach jump and to not get dragged off once I was one on! We’d go round “twos up” (where two people are towed by the same carrier) and he shout helpful instructions over. Finally I was getting to grip with some basic tricks and I was really enjoying wakeboarding at a wakeboarding lake!

By 2013 my riding was getting smoother, I still larked around at times, but I enjoyed pushing myself with the sport, don’t get me wrong wakeboarding can sometimes be really scary and building up the courage to do a new trick can take time, but it’s worth it when you get there. That year due to too much landing off big jumps and probably having bendy joints my hamstring partially tore, so I was off the board for 8 weeks, however I did work out I could go round the cable on my tummy using a knee board in that time…and a ringo…and just my tummy. So never despair there’s always a way to get on the water people!

Wakeboarding competitions were always something I watched over the years and cheered on others I never thought I’d be in one myself. In 2013 WMSki ran a low key locals competition my hamstring was good enough for the small jumps at this stage. So I entered and did my best under the circumstances, but I think it would be fair to say…I was last! Even if I had been fully fit I still would have been last lol!

At the end of 2013 WMSki’s lease came to an end at Lake 11 and this incredible facility where I’d made so many friends closed. It was devastating for our community and a huge change in lifestyle for all us members. However I was later to find out WMSki full cable at lake 11 closing was the best thing that could happen for my riding.

In 2014 “WMSki 2.0” opened at Lake 32, “2.0s” are mini wakeboarding cable skis where one person goes up and down rather than eight people going round and round. Having one on one coaching on a system that picks you up after you fall (rather than a long walk back and joining a queue again) meant my riding accelerated really quickly, I finally learnt switch riding (I normally ride right foot forward so “switch” for me would be left). Learning switch opens to the door to “180s” (180 degree rotations).

Around about this time an amateur wakeboarding competition tour started called “The Grass Roots tour” it travelled the UK running wakeboarding comps for amateur riders. When the grass roots tour came to WMSki 2.0, I plucked up the courage to enter! I did my best but my 180s were still unstable, due to a weakness on one side (after years of riding right foot forward, the strength in my opposite side of body was weak and needed to catch up) and I crashed near the end of my run on a rotation… and therefore I was last.
I watched the other rookie girls intently from other cables to see what they were doing that was better, their 180s were more consistent and some of them were handle passing (once you can pass the handle behind your back this opens the door to backside 180s and 360s). So I spend the rest of the season getting more consistent, starting to train at the gym and endless switch riding to try and get that strength balance back. I remember the first time I did loads of laps left foot forward I came off the lake and my left quad muscle literally shook for ten minutes, my coach and I found it quite funny at the time!

See link for the rest of the story:
https://buff.ly/46q8qHJ

(Written in 2016, but it’s been nice to revisit this story in 2024.) Outside of my career as a professional photographer I’ve had an on-going passion for water sports and cable wakeboarding has been a big part of that. In 2006 I tried boat wakeboarding for the first time at Lakeside Ski & Wake, ...

05/08/2024

A pleasure to photograph this recent renovation by The Cotswold Hare Builder!

02/08/2024

Just two months of special offers left! Book this offer now and the shoot can take place any month within 2024.

https://buff.ly/3IonXwB

31/07/2024

Blog – Behind the scenes of an event photographer

So have you ever wondered what it’s like to be an event photographer?

It can be exciting, it takes you to new places you’ve never been before, you get to hear high profile speakers and even meet the odd celeb! So what’s the catch I hear you saying? You can expect 12-15 hour shifts with no breaks, the kit bag is around 14kg (2 stone ish) and most jobs are away from home so expect a long journey before / after and then a 12-15 hour edit of the photos when you get home.

I often get asked if I’ve photographed many famous people at events the answer is yes; over the years I’ve photographed Princess Anne, Nick Hewer (from the Apprentice), Jo Malone (candles, scents), Sir Dave Brailsford (head of Team Sky). Meera Syal (actress from Meet the Kumars), Nadia Sawalha (Loose Women) and lots former Olympians. I see this as a real privilege of the job and I really enjoy it.

On the flip side there are tough aspects to the job. The long hours can be full on and at times painful, I train in the gym to make sure I’m fit enough for the job, but sometimes after 15 hours your body has had enough lol! I find having my diet for the day in someone else’s hands challenging, I prefer to eat healthily and some events the catering is fantastic, but at others it’s very chip, biscuit and triangle sandwich heavy, which isn’t ideal for sustaining ones energy for the day.

When I photograph an event I’m telling a story, the story for me starts with “where are we”, I make sure the venue exterior features in my pictures, who are the “cast” I make sure all the main speakers are thoroughly covered. Behind the scenes making this all happen are usually an event company or team and the AV crew, if I’m present for the set up it’s really nice to be able shoot that process e.g. is there a makeup room, have the crew been set dressing? Getting those images can be really handy for those event people afterwards to show what really goes on to make the whole thing happen! During the event itself getting images behind the AV desks can also set the scene really well.

Post event the edit can be a long slog, the time pressure is on from the client and you can expect a lots of emails asking for the photos. So the key is I make sure before a really big event I have food in the house, it’s tidy, no chores are outstanding, so when I get back I can literally jump straight into the edit suite with no distractions. When the client does receive the photos, it’s always lovely getting that positive feedback and it’s great seeing them used on social media/collateral and their websites.

Lastly the most important quality when being an event photographer is listen carefully to your brief, keep checking it all day long, get a good rapport with the client, when you do need to move around an auditorium make your movements as discreet as possible and just be really nice to everyone.

https://buff.ly/3y725nU

So have you ever wondered what it’s like to be an event photographer? It can be exciting, it takes you to new places you’ve never been before, you get to hear high profile speakers and even meet the odd celeb! So what’s the catch I hear you saying? You can expect 12-15 hour shifts with … Con...

29/07/2024

Bibury Trout Farm looking gorgeous the other day! When did you last visit?

26/07/2024

Hands up if you went to Cirencester's County Junior school? (Me!)

24/07/2024

Just one week left of this special offer!

Do you have a rental or property for sale?

22/07/2024

A brush with royalty:

Princess Anne came to Cirencester to celebrate 70 years of women in the Royal British Legion in March 2017. I felt very privileged to be asked to photograph the event!

On the day of the shoot a triple checked every piece of kit I owned and decided to shoot with two cameras because I wasn’t sure if there’d be time for lens changes, so it was good to have all bases covered. The event took part in Cirencester’s Parish church and the market place afterwards.

It’s not often I’m nervous before a shoot, but I knew the importance of this event and I’d have to adhere to royal protocol, so this occasion was the exception. I was pleasantly surprised to find her royal aides and security extremely helpful once they knew I was on a commission for The Royal British Legion and not the press. They guided me to the allowed spots to shoot from and provided ample variety and opportunity.

The event and shoot went well, it was a very fast and challenging but I came away with a shot I’m really proud of (featured in this article).

https://buff.ly/3LaSGP0

Princess Anne came to Cirencester to celebrate 70 years of women in the Royal British Legion in March 2017. I felt very privileged to be asked to photograph the event! On the day of the shoot I triple checked every piece of kit I owned and decided to shoot with two cameras simultaneously because I ...

19/07/2024

Were you at the launch of the new Red Kite Solicitor's office?

17/07/2024

The top 5 advantages of professionally taken headshots

1. Improve your Brand Image & Customer trust:

Having a professionally taken headshot will improve your brand image online and in print. High quality photos will make your company look professional and make you stand out from others in your trade.
Photos of your actual employees (rather than stock photos) will create a human connection between you and the customer and creates added trust from prospective clients.

2. Put yourself or your staff the best light:

A photographer will have the skill to put you at ease, find your best side and get those lovely relaxed portraits that will show you at your best.
Professional portraits are the best way to portray the image of your company and employees. Having no photos on your site will make it look bland and lack identity. However what’s potentially worse is a site with bad pictures of your employees, this could really dent your reputation in the mind of someone speculating on using your services.

3. Stand out from the crowd on social media:

You’ll notice many people on for example linkedin have a selfie or holiday snap as their chosen professional projection, have a think about whether your current shot really is the best choice?
In order to understand how to attract new employees, leads and connections put yourself in their shoes…

They look you up on the website/ linkedin and see a selfie taken in the pub/ a blurred image from 5 years ago/ you and a friend on holiday...does this REALLY project the image you want to show someone at their very first time of encountering you?
Better picture. Better image.

4. A headshot for personal use too?

A professional portrait can also be used in your personal life too, a smart new photo for your facebook profile picture, something fun to post on Instagram or other areas of your life where you want to look your best!

5. Guidance:

A photographer not only takes good quality photos, they also guide on what to wear, what not to wear and all those tiny details (is your necklace twisted, is that tie straight, does that bit of hair normally go there?), this level of attention take years to tune in and those details do matter to the final photo.
Please get in touch if you want to improve your professional image.

Kay Ransom Photography covers all the visual needs for your company:
• Headshots: for individuals or teams
• Events: conferences, exhibitions and product launches
• Commercial photography: people at work, premises, board meetings, manufacturing, creative processes

1. Improve your Brand Image & Customer trust Having a professionally taken headshot will improve your brand image online and in print. High quality photos will make your company look professional and make you stand out from others in your trade.Photos of your actual employees (rather than stock phot...

16/07/2024

A great weekend competing in the WWA wakesurfing European Championships! A fab experience and I was happy to come away with bronze.

Have you tried wakesurfing?

15/07/2024

A real pleasure to photograph Mike Cameron-Davies! How up-to-date is your Linkedin profile headshot?

12/07/2024

We would like to thank for your sponsorship of our Professional Services Provider of the Year 2024... the winner is... congratulations!

Kay is our amazing event photographer, so this photo was kindly (and bravely!) taken by Ryan at 📸

12/07/2024

Whilst photographing a recent event at The Swan in Bibury... a very well timed set of visitors entered my photo!

11/07/2024

Some of my pix 😃

10/07/2024

More photos from the awards night!

10/07/2024

“People are beautiful “

Back in 2013 I had an unexpected sub-brief whilst on a Unilever job…

I had been booked for five days at The Round House in London, which if you’ve never been before it’s certainly is an impressive venue. The initial two days were creating a time-lapse of the event set up and the latter three days were 14 hour event photography coverage days. So quite a full on brief!

Day one of the main event I was also given an additional sub brief, one of the event coordinators explained the main theme of the event was “People are beautiful“ and could I illustrate this alongside my main event coverage? I thought long and hard about how I could creatively achieve this and also how I’d find the time alongside my main brief. I took inspiration from this banner that was hanging in a foyer area of an elderly main smiling, though he wasn’t traditionally “beautiful” I could see the beauty in the image and then it was clear in my head what they wanted from me – “beautiful moments”.

I looked carefully at the time-timetable and worked out the times when old colleagues / friends would be encountering each other for the first time in a while and hoped there would be some positive moments, perhaps some embracing etc. So I hovered in the wings with my long lens on, my left arm burning whilst it held the weight of the kit for long durations…Then BANG there is was EVERYONE bathed in endless warmth and embraces. I shot quickly and captured some wonderful moments.

I passed on these initial shots to the event coordinator and she showed the CEO at the time Dave Lewis. Dave LOVED the shots, they encapsulated exactly what the event was about and he requested 60 polished shots ready for a slideshow on day 3. Now 60 polished images alongside my main brief was tough because I had so little editing time and there was barely time to get enough sleep etc., but I focused hard waited around at every tea break and lunch time to ensure I got those beautiful moments.

Day 3 came and something happened that I’d never witnessed before – the power of photography. It was the end of the event and all the colleagues (a few hundred) were sat in the middle of The Round House, three huge curved screens were suspended in a circle around them and they all gazed upwards. My “People are beautiful“ photographs were played in a sequence whilst in the background audio clips of employees explaining why they love working for Unilever were also played. I initially watched the photos being played with pride, then I glanced down to look at all the Unilever staff who were also watching the screens…to my huge surprise everyone was crying (nice tears to just to say). This huge emotional outpour was not something I’d witnessed around my work before (usually I send a dropbox link, get a nice email back and that’s that). This was truly spectacular and lovely unique moment to witness.

So I can safely say this was one of the best moments in my career.

https://buff.ly/3RTmp2C

Back in 2013 I had an unexpected sub-brief whilst on a Unilever job… I had been booked for five days at The Round House in London, which if you’ve never been before it’s certainly is an impressive venue. The initial two days were creating a time-lapse of the event set up and the latter three ....

08/07/2024

This month’s deal – save £50 on property photography! £284 down from £334, providing you with 25 photos and a 1.5 hour shoot.

Offer running until the 31st July 2024! The shoot must be booked and take place within July 2024.

Available within Cirencester / the surrounding area.

https://buff.ly/3IonXwB

07/07/2024

Some of my pix 😃

American tourists have been asking questions about visiting the Cotswolds, so we're answering them all for you in the latest blog...

For example:
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🤔 Do the shops accept Amex?
🤔 What can we see in the museums in the Cotswolds?
🤔 How long does it take to plan a Cotswold tour?
🤔 Are there any airports in the Cotswolds?

Get all the answers you need, right here: https://rosehilltravel.com/american-tourist-cotswold-faq/

06/07/2024

Redkite Solicitors

06/07/2024

Such a fantastic evening at the Cirencester Chamber of Commerce awards evening! There are more photos to follow (The Chamber will posting soon)!

05/07/2024

Very proud to be the WINNER of the Professional Services Provider of the Year award at the Cirencester Chamber of Commerce 2024 awards evening! I was also a finalist in the Self Employed Person of the Year category!

I juggled kindly receiving these awards whilst also sponsoring the evening with my photography services!

A great night!

04/07/2024

From photographing llamas to the potential Prime Minister!

Back in 2005 when I started my business I could have never imagined one day I would be asked to photograph the next potential Prime Minister! My very first paid photo shoot in 2005 was taking shots of llamas and pigs, the llamas were extremely inquisitive and the pigs were a bit nibbly around my ankles! I made the grand sum of £25 and I was very happy to have my first commission!

Many of my early commissions were on the modest end of the spectrum, such as photos of chocolate bars, a hairdresser’s salon and very small weddings. I also got my first lucky break into the corporate world within 3 weeks of starting my business! I was still temping at Capita Cirencester in the marketing department and they had a forthcoming conference, they were aware of my recently launched business and for a modest fee (relative to my experience at the time) I was asked to shoot this event. I was really excited to have my first corporate commission and it presented me with extra challenges such as very dark auditoriums with speakers at dimly lit podiums!

As a side note I still didn’t own a camera at this stage and was borrowing a family member’s Canon 10d! I was editing photos on a laptop with a hard disc space of 11GB! Each exported TIFF took ten minutes to load to view! I didn’t have a desk so I worked from bed, at times I would fall asleep waiting for the TIFFs to load. The early days of my career were extremely modest, however I had lots of people encouraging me in the background to build this new venture.

Fast forward to 2022 you’ll be glad to hear I have a desk! (Not that I use it and favour the sofa). My current laptop has a 4TB capacity and my RAW files take milliseconds to load (bliss). And yes… I do own a camera (or two)!

So August 2022 I had a very exciting call from one of my newer clients “Watermoor Point” they asked if I was free next Thursday, I said yes. I was then told the brief — to photograph the next potential Prime Minister Liz Truss at an event they were hosting! I was sworn to secrecy with regards to the location of the shoot due to security, this location wasn’t released to the public until 11am on the day of the event.

After 17 years it’s not often I get nervous about a shoot, but this one I was slightly yes. I made sure I was 45 mins early (even though it was only a seven minute drive away)! The members of the Conservative Party were all in The Atrium and non members in the main building in the business lounge. Liz was due to arrive 3.15pm ish however there was an event of national importance that cropped up that she had to deal with as Foreign Secretary first. She arrived around an hour later than anticipated and people were getting a little twitchy in the 31c heat. The event ran smoothly and Watermoor Point had organised everything very well. I dashed home 5pm to quickly edit a handful of pictures so that my client could pop them on social media that day… So that’s exactly when my lovely 4TB laptop decided to not turn on! After an hour of stressing trying to fix it in the heat, I admitted defeat and dragged out my eight year old dinosaur laptop. The old laptop allowed me to get the pictures across to the client in good time and they were really happy with the photos.

So all politics aside (I’m sure many of you reading this may have some strong opinions about said candidate, I shall remain neutral in this article) I felt like this moment in my career needed some acknowledgement (from myself that is). It would be all too easy to roll onto the next shoot and not give it a second thought, but I mulled about the “2005 me” and how proud they’d be that I’d progressed to this calibre of work taking into account my modest beginnings in the industry.

I hope my career continues on this trajectory and if anyone knows the King I’d happily photograph him as my next model!

https://buff.ly/3MdHd0J

Back in 2005 when I started my business I could have never imagined one day I would be asked to photograph the next potential Prime Minister! My very first paid photo shoot in 2005 was taking shots of llamas and pigs, the llamas were extremely inquisitive and the pigs were a bit nibbly around my …...