PRIME helps Garry Stephenson aim sky high

Garry Stephenson, 55, has set up an innovative photography company just months after being made redundant.

Garry, from Cannock in the West Midlands, was made redundant at Christmas in 2007 from his job inspecting motor homes for a large local vehicle importer. His company SkyHiFotos offers photography from an unusual angle – taken from the top of a special 50-foot mast.

Garry himself stays on the ground, controlling the camera from a laptop which shows the precise view being photographed. The Canon digital camera is attached to a motorised tilt-and-swivel head that he can control with his mouse. Garry is fully insured and is using professional equipment designed for this application. The extensible aluminium mast has wide legs and can be secured with guy ropes and pegs for extra stability when fully extended.

In addition to taking high shots made possible by this equipment Garry will also take ground level and interior shots to offer a full service. "I'd like to specialise in aerial photography", he says, "but when you are first starting out you've got to do what you can and go where the money is." That said, he is keen to get work that allows him to develop his speciality – hence the Sky Hi name he has chosen for his business.

He first got the idea from the Internet. "I saw a pole advertised, then looked into what types there were, what they could do and what they cost. I found that I could get something suitable for not much more than buying a good fishing rod and all the kit."

"For me it ticked all the boxes. Firstly something I could start almost as a hobby, but then secondly something I could work with as a business. And then thirdly something I could keep doing into retirement."

Garry had always been a keen amateur photography. And indeed, over the years he had photographed some of his friends’ weddings. But it was aerial photography that seriously interested in taking up photography as a means of making a living. It gave him what marketers would call his "unique selling point".

"I could be a wedding photographer along with about 200,000 others", Garry explains, "or I could be an aerial photographer and one of about probably fifty maximum in the UK."

Garry got little warning of the redundancy from his previous job. He heard in November that his employer was thinking about redundancies and then was given his notice at Christmas. He received the basic statutory redundancy package rather than an enhanced package, so he needed to start earning again soon.

"At 55 it's very difficult to get a job unless you want to be stacking shelves at Tesco or Asda. That's not what I am. I was already thinking I could be doing something in photography. But when the redundancy came along it pushed me into it faster."

Garry did get some advice on turning his hobby into a business from the Institute for Innovation and Enterprise, based at Wolverhampton University. He received a total of ten hours one-to-one business mentoring spread over a number of sessions.

"It was useful in that it took me in directions I would not normally have gone and it opened my eyes to other possibilities. By yourself you tend to get into a fixed frame of mind. If that doesn't work you sort of fall flat on your face. With mentoring your thoughts open up to more possibilities. So eventually you do find your own niche."

Garry's advice to others is to get your business underway whilst still in a regular job if at all possible. "Get a couple of contracts in place fast to get the money flowing in. Work it around your existing job if you can, before deciding to go fully self-employed. It's easier if you are already in work. I wasn't quite ready when I was made redundant."

Posted 19th May 2008