Lara Mellor - Duality Project

You will have seen some bits on the website and on socials regarding my duality project and this is a project that brings together the two sides of any business owner with a business focus and also their passion and sometimes they are paired close together where people are doing their job and their passion merge into one, but the vast majority of times even if the business started a passion there is always another thing going on the outside of it. 

So for me as a photographer obviously photography was a massive hobby of mine before I started it as a business back in 2008, but alongside all of that since I have been 11 years old I have been a golfer and I would definitely say that golf was a major passion. I am never going to make a career out of it in that sense that’s for sure, but it is certainly a passion for me as you have probably seen from my socials. By bringing that into people’s businesses, to bring it to their markets, to bring it into their images and merging these things together it really does just showcase that peeking behind the curtain into the world of the business owner. Hence why these duality shots are really something that fits well with business owners and entrepreneurs. 

This is not trying to say that people’s secondary hobbies and activities are jumping off mountains or downhill mountain biking or Airsoft or any of the things that I have done in the first batch of pictures, it’s very much the thing that really means something else; is baking or is it gardening? There are loads of things that it could be, that just shows the other side of a person and give a little insight and something else to talk about when you first meet them. “Oh, I saw your picture and I’ve got an interest in that thing as well.” 

And in this case today it is a little bit different from gardening and baking; Lara is somebody that I have known for probably 10 years now via Nicola Jayne Little and various programmes that she has run. Lara is a Microsoft trainer, she used to do a lot of in-person training and then COVID hit and everything had to go online and, you know what, her business has absolutely flown since going online and it’s a massive success story of the COVID pandemic which you know we all look back on as a turgid and difficult time and especially for business. But Lara certainly made the most of it and has come out of it with a completely different looking business that is doing really well and it’s great to see some of her updates and where things have led to. 

Now the other side of Lara, or one of the other sides of Lara, you know everybody has lots of sides, but the main one we are talking about today is she is also a rower, and not the ones I see at Newburn on the Tyne, those thin long boats from the boat race, not one of those boats. Lara is a skip rower, which is – and this is a North East reference and I’m saying as if everyone will know –but more like a Grace Darling type of boat than a Cambridge against Oxford kind of boat and Lara has been in the world championships representing Great Britain at this sport that like all sports never gets the recognition across the mainstream that it should. 

The more that these types of hobbies are put out there and the more that it is accepted that everybody has got that something else, for me that’s just fantastic and I think that everybody does need that something else, every one needs a space away from the day to day and the mundane.
Not saying every day is mundane but what I am trying to say the escapism that’s offered by a sport or activity like this is really powerful. 

So yes, if you need IT training get in touch with Lara. If you need to scratch your itch of rowing, again I would talk to Lara. If you are a business owner and you want to see the other side of your business or let your clients kind of peek behind the curtain, let’s have a chat and let’s see what creative thing we can do to showcase both sides of your business.