An Interview with Tom Catchesides, London and Cambridge Photographer.

Tell me about your Blog?

I’m a busy professional photographer, so I use my blog to show visitors to my site my most recent work – in fact, I call it a ‘photoblog’ rather than just ‘blog’ because it’s mostly pictures rather than words! My photoblog works well in showing lots of images to potential clients, but I often find that my existing clients either subscribe to my RSS feed or check back every now and again to see what I’ve been up to. That makes it a great way of keeping me in mind so they’ll come back to me when they next need a photographer.

What is the biggest tip you would give to a newbie blogger?

Make sure you post regularly if you want people to keep on coming back to your blog. I try to make sure that I post at least once or twice a week – any less and visitors are likely to get bored.

Where do you see growth in the blogging field?

I think one of the most exciting trends is businesses using blogs to connect to their customers. Companies that share what they’re working on and communicate regularly and honestly are building up networks of loyal customers who actively participate in the discussion – it’s a completely new way of communicating because it’s a two-way process that can work on as big or small a scale as you want it to.

What do you do that is green?

I live in Cambridge in the United Kingdom and anyone who’s been there will know that Cambridge is ruled by bicycles! I’m not 100% anti-car (some of my work requires driving) but 90% of my travel is done on bike, foot or public transport.

What do you do to improve the world?

I’d create enough incentives for research and building of alternative energy sources and a zero-carbon economy. We’ll have to pay for it somehow, but it needs to be done and isn’t happening fast enough at the moment.

What is one thing about you that not many people know?

While my main business is photography, I’m also a bit of a geek. When I started my photography business back in 2003, I built a database to run my business and reduce the amount of admin work I had to do as it grew. I didn’t know at the time that this sort of thing is called a ‘studio management system’, but I founded Light Blue Software in 2008 and we launched our first product earlier this year. Light Blue: Photo is a studio management system for professional photographers that’s bursting with clever things to help you run a busy and successful business, manage your images, publish them on the web and profit from them.

What’s your favorite book?

The House at Pooh Corner by AA Milne. I’ve got my mum’s copy, which is the 1945 edition with EH Shephard’s original pencil drawings.

What is on your iPod?

Everything from electronica through to post-rock.

What are your contact details (email, company, blog, facebook, myspace, forums, etc)?

My website can be found at http://www.catchesides.co.uk/ and my photoblog is at http://www.catchesides.co.uk/blog/

How do you prefer to communicate?

Email or phone. When I’m busy, being able to go through my email archives and remember who said what is really important, so I try to avoid sending messages on forums, Facebook, etc.

Thanks to Tom Catchesides, London and Cambridge Photographer !