Hi! For those that have never met us, my name is Emily and I work alongside Ryan Cook. We have been working with each other for around eight years - poor Ryan!
Over the years we have come to realise that our personalities and the way we work are completely different - strangely this is why we work so well together! Ryan is incredibly laid back, mellow and quiet (almost invisible). I on the other hand, can be a little OCD at times, love a good plan, love my spreadsheets and enjoy interacting and capturing guests, families, etc.
A lot of people over the years have asked me how I discovered photography - here it is... My Grandad had a Pentax SLR and video camera, (eekkkk yes we have lots of embarrassing home family videos). I don't think he ever took us anywhere without it and must have spent a fortune on photo processing. My parents cupboards are rammed with photo albums of their trips to the Caribbean, my Nan & Grandad's plants and obviously hundreds of me and my little brother.
As my Grandad was such an inspiration, I managed to twist Ryan's arm and let me add a little of his personality into our logo. At the bottom, right side of our logo are 'two love birds'.
When my Grandad first saw my brother and his (now) wife he said; "They look like two love birds sitting on a branch" and it's always stayed with me and them of course.
Looking back at my own collection of photographs, I have pictures that I took at Primary School of a blanket used as a back drop with the family pets posed in front of it. I don't even remember how I accomplished it, but I have a photo of our Labrador (Jess), Cats (Scampi, Tigre & Tommy) Guinea Pigs (Tom & Jerry) and the Budgie (Jack) all posed lovely together. Without any hesitation I chose photography as one of my A Levels and after college I passed (with distinction) a BTEC Diploma in Art & Design at The College of West Anglia. Even after exploring; Graphics, Textiles and Fine Art, Photography was still number one. Despite my parents encouraging me to study Graphics, I studied Photography at Anglia Ruskin University and graduated with a 2.1.
After graduating I decided to go backpacking around the world with the support of my amazing parents. It was this part of my life where I truly found myself and relied on my camera to document every experience of culture shock, animals and world wonder's.
With the assistance of a trusty noodle (as I am a rubbish swimmer), I managed to snorkel in some really amazing spots around Brazil, Indonesia and my favourite, The Great Barrier Reef in Australia. In any situation, as soon as I am handed a camera, something really novel happens, I seem to lose my ability to feel fear or danger. During my visit to the Great Barrier, struggling to keep afloat and camera snapping faster than my brain, I suddenly realised that there was a massive fish that I had not yet photographed. After a split second of admiring its prominent gills, it then dawned on me that, this fish was extra special because it was in fact a shark. I just remember being so scared that I physically couldn't move or even shout for help for what seemed liked ages. When I did manage to move, I did my best to not throw my arms and legs around too much (as I was worried it might make me look like an injured animal). As I started moving away, the waves pushed me back, each time I looked behind me, I kept seeing the sharks beady eye - which still haunts me to this day. So even after this rather life threatning experience of coming into contact with a (what the Ozzies thought) was a harmless Whitetip Reef Shark, it hasn't stopped me from entering more territories of dangerous sea creatures.
When I returned from my big adventure, I had and (still have) the itchiest feet. I decided to apply for a photography position at P&O Cruise line. Just after my interview, I met my husband and a few weeks later received an invitation to join the cruise-line! A small but fair promise was made... to continue exploring the world together.
And our recent adventure...
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