After travelling the world can Leamington really excite an award winning photographer?

Ed Holmes talks to national press photographer David Burges about giving up the catwalks of Milan for wedding days in Warwickshire

10 January 2008

SETTLING down in leafy Leamington after a career travelling the world in pursuit of the perfect picture, may seem like a strange choice.
But for photographer David Burges, that picture is no longer on the catwalks of Milan or icy wastes of the North Pole, but in everyday faces and the moments people will treasure forever.
And after recently being named Wedding Photographer of the Year, the founder of Blink Photographic Solutions on Church Hill, is certain he has made the right decision for himself and his family.
The 38-year-old former Kenilworth School pupil is an example to all aspiring photographers of how hard work and dedication can open doors to a fantastic career.
After finishing school, he worked as an advertising photographer in Leamington before getting into the media at the Daventry Express.
Then in 1991, he took his chance to work at the top table by approaching the Daily Telegraph at a time when photographers were in high demand, a move which kick-started his career.
"I took a bit of a punt really because I didn't have too much experience, so I went knocking on the doors of all the newspapers.
"I guess it was good timing because it was at the height of the IRA bombings so there was a lot of extra work.
"The first job I did for them was two weeks after I had joined and there was a bomb scare at an FA Cup semi final between Nottingham Forest and Tottenham. Luckily it came to nothing.
"I never actually had a job interview - it was the kind of job where if they liked what you did, they would give you more work."
And the work continued for more than a decade, although some locations were more glamorous than others.
"I remember once when the Maxwell brothers were up for fraud in around 1995. The jury were out for three weeks so I had to spend all that time outside the court just waiting in the cold.
"But then I would get sent to cover the catwalks in Milan and Paris which was fabulous. It was a real variety."
Despite the high points of the job, including adventures to Chile and the North Pole following explorer David Hempleman-Adams, David found it was time to give up the jet-set lifestyle and settle down with his wife Ellie and children, seven-year-old Honour and three-year-old Jude.
And it was the chance to be close to his family which helped him push ahead with a unique brand of commercial photography and a business he could run from his basement.
David launched Blink Portraits and Blink Weddings after seeing a number of similar businesses spring up, but believed he could offer something different, a move which was vindicated after being named Wedding Photographer of the Year at the British Professional Photography Awards held in October.
And he believes his naturalistic and unplanned shooting style has really captured people's imaginations.
"We launched the wedding business in June and the picture that won was from only our second wedding.
"The idea is not to get in the way and let them enjoy the day and just shoot it as I see it before choosing the strongest images.
"Over the years I had been to so many of my friends' weddings and there was always horrible traditional wedding photography and I thought I will never, ever do that."
So David's search for the perfect picture has taken him in a different, more sedate direction, although he has found it difficult to let go of the newspaper work altogether, still taking on the occasional job rubbing shoulders with famous faces.
"Bobby Charlton - he was a nice chap, and Lewis Moody was a pretty nice guy too."
"The Daily Telegraph offered me a full time job again just recently - and it was very flattering - but I thought I'd been there and done that and now I have to concentrate on Blink and grow the business covering weddings and portraits."
blinkweddings.co.uk

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