A Viewtiful Beginning

A Viewtiful Beginning

For a brief welcome to Viewtiful.Photography, click here for ‘Our Story’.  For the full introduction, read on, and thanks for being here!
Viewtiful.Photography

Latitude: 36.1970
Longitude: -73.66596
Norwegian Gem Cruise Liner, Atlantic Ocean East of North Carolina
26 October 2014

They say a change is as good as a holiday, but sometimes it takes a holiday!  I distinctly remember where I was when my wife Kathleen and I really developed the concept of the website that you’re visiting today.  Where better than a mojito bar of a cruise liner; steaming back to New York nearing the end of our honeymoon.  I had been running the Camera Centre in Lerwick for a few years and wanted to meet the needs of our customers who were often looking for images for their walls, both at home and for their businesses.  My enjoyment of landscape photography had started as a young lad, but in recent years, the needs of the business and my wedding photography work had meant that I didn’t have much spare time left to add to my landscape collection.  I had mused about creating some kind of collaboration to help connect consumers with a wide collection of images from different photographers, but this was the first time I’d shared these thoughts and started to develop them into more than just an idea in my head.

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Latitude: 57.26463
Longitude: -2.05737
The Cock and Bull Country Inn, Balmedie
28 October 2014

Back on UK soil, it was time to get thinking about how to take this vision forward, and we needed a name.  On the eve of our return to Shetland after honeymoon, we decided to ask our family to help us brainstorm, and the subsequent suggestion of Viewtiful seemed the perfect choice to encapsulate the beautiful views people love to see (thanks, Margaret!).  As domain name options had progressed, we were able to avoid the usual .com top-level domain, and settled on .photography – and Viewtiful.Photography was born!

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Latitude: 60.18112
Longitude: -1.22934
Shetland
2015-2020

As is often the way, the days, weeks and years moved swiftly forward and between the Camera Centre, Ben Mullay Photography, house moves and starting a family, the time that Viewtiful required to become established always seemed to be just outwith my grasp, however my intention never wavered; the domain name safely secured.  We teamed up with Shetland web designers, NB Communication, who were endlessly patient in understanding the idea and how to make it a reality, putting together some initial plans across various meetings.  I’d mentioned the idea to some close associates and knew the idea was as relevant as ever.  Each time Kathleen and I took a wander out in the nature that surrounds us in Shetland, Viewtiful.Photography always cropped up – there’s no getting away from the abounding photographic opportunities here on even the shortest stroll. 

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Latitude: 60.15339
Longitude: -1.14327
Shetland
2021

2021 has been the year where Viewtiful.Photography finally went from vision to reality.  I contacted a small group of photographers, mostly whom I had liaised with through my work at the Camera Centre, and who I knew had an interest in landscape photography, to tell them about my plans and gauge if the interest I had already encountered was firm enough to ‘push the button’ with our web developers.  The response was brilliant, as you’ll see from the calibre of our ‘founding members’ who have put their faith and enthusiasm into what you see on our website today.  A special and heartfelt thanks to these talented photographers, who deserve to have their work on your walls!  There are so many individuals in Shetland who are capturing beautiful landscape images, and we hope you’ll consider joining us once the website is fully underway – we’re only sorry that we had a limit to the number of members for launch!

We contacted Robert Wishart of Robert Wishart Creative, who helped us create the logos and watermarks you see around the site.  Robert was brilliant to work with, and the process of creating a logo was such an interesting one – definitely a blog entry in its own right – watch this space!

So, after a huge amount of work, we have made it! The launch of Viewtiful.Photography.  It is no small task setting up an ecommerce website, but we are hugely grateful to Calum Toogood of NB Communication who has got us to where we are today – no problem was too big, and no edit was too small.  Also a big thanks to my wife, Kathleen, without whose work there is no way that we could have taken this project from inception to launch; she’s spent many, many more bairns’ naptimes and evenings than she cares to remember in helping me make this idea into reality.

We cannot wait to hear what you all think of the website, and hope you love seeing the beautiful images, not just here on our site but on your walls, too!

Viewtiful.Photography

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