Burbage

What's so good about wedding photographers?

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Why would anyone want to hire a wedding photographer when they could just give their mate a nice camera?

Tanzeena and Bilal married in 2020

Wedding photography is a special and unique art form that requires a great deal of skill, creativity, and experience. A wedding photographer is responsible for capturing all the special moments of a couple's big day, from the preparations and the ceremony, to the reception and the dance. The photographs that a wedding photographer creates will be treasured for a lifetime and will tell the story of the couple's special day for years to come.

One of the most important aspects of wedding photography is the ability to create beautiful and timeless images that will be cherished for a lifetime. This requires a great deal of creativity, as well as an understanding of lighting, composition, and post-processing techniques. Wedding photographers should also be able to work well under pressure and be able to think on their feet to capture the perfect shot.

Des and Naomi married 2021

Another important aspect of wedding photography is the ability to connect with the couple and create a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere. This is particularly important during the preparations and the ceremony, when the couple may be feeling anxious or nervous. A good wedding photographer will be able to put the couple at ease and create a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere, which will help to produce better photographs.

Finally, a good wedding photographer should be professional, reliable and have excellent communication skills. They should be able to work well with other vendors, such as the wedding planner, and be able to manage their time effectively to ensure that all important moments are captured. They should also be able to communicate effectively with the couple and provide them with a detailed timeline and plan for the day.

Wayne and Charran married 2021

Overall, wedding photography is a challenging and rewarding profession that requires a great deal of skill, creativity, and experience. A good wedding photographer will be able to create beautiful and timeless images, connect with the couple, and create a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere to capture the special moments of their big day.

Alan and his best man an hour before their wedding in 2014

Hinckley, Burbage & Bosworth Photographed 2012 - 2022 All time greatest hits!

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A decade of documenting the landscape and the community of the Hinckley & Bosworth District of Leicestershire, England.

I’ve created a ten minute film exhibiting my favourite photographs from the past ten years of working on this personal and self funded project.

Hinckley, Burbage & Bosworth Photographed 2012 - 2022 All time greatest hits!

This is my gift and a message of thanks to everyone that has supported me and followed this project since 2012.
I’m progressing my art form now to ensure I can thrive as an artist in to the future, making sure I can create a more stable income. That begins with an expansion with my documentary wedding photography and filmmaking business as well as branching further in to the field of supporting other entrepreneurs with their marketing needs.

So thank you for subscribing to my emails and my blog.

Have a happy new year and manifest the best life for yourselves.

121 and Group Photography Workshops

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121 and Group Photography Workshops for 2023

Learn more about photography for beginners and intermediate practitioners.

Come and join me and a group of likeminded people to learn more about photography.

I’ve got three group workshops currently available and spaces for 121 coaching.

On my workshops, I’ll get you using manual mode and will hand over complete creative control to you, teaching you how to set up your camera and use it in a simplified way that places the image as the challenge.
I’ll even teach you the basics of composition, exposure and post production.

Street Photography

Urban Landscape Photography

Rural Landscape Photography

I can teach you street photography and Landscapes - Urban and Rural with a documentary led style that is perfect for travel and hobbyist photography.

Check out the below workshops for more information and for booking.

Spaces are always limited to four per course.

These are the available 3 courses for now.

For more workshops, please subscribe to my emails for news of new courses as they’re released.

Hinckley Burbage and Bosworth Photographed Calendar 2023

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Hinckley, Burbage & Bosworth Photographed Calendar 2023

Is now available to buy in my online shop.

Front Cover - Ducks Corner, Stoke Golding, Ashby Canal

On the run up to deciding which photographs would make the final production for next years calendar, I spoke to my audience and asked what they would most like to see and it was an overwhelming voice telling me they prefer more rural images that offer the beauty of our area.

So I’ve mostly followed that idea with the exception of a few more urban photographs but only those that really hold special locations within the Hinckley, Burbage and Bosworth district. I also put the shortlist out to the voters for them to pick their favourites.

This is the final selection and now the calendar is ready…

I’m very excited about this calendar and feel that it’s one of, if not the best one I’ve ever produced. The photographs work so well for each month. I do only have a limited amount of copies available though and currently only have about 40 left. So if you would like to buy one, you can collect directly from me at my studio in Burbage, have it delivered anywhere in the world via the postal system or if local to the area, I will deliver them personally. Please choose the best option for you at the checkout.

If you need to consider gifts for the photographers in your lives, then please browse my online shop or have a look through some of these links at the bottom of the page for suppliers that I”m affiliated with.

I always use Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom for the post production part of my process and couldn’t make the photographs I make without them. Click on the photograph to be taken to their subscription page where you can learn more about joining up.

My favourite shop for all photographic equipment and only in Birmingham!
Click on the photograph to visit their website.

The Wedding Film of Darren and Naomi Cornwall

Documentary Wedding Film.

The Wedding of Darren and Naomi Cornwall.

Naomi and Des both finally got married on Friday August 6th 2021 but they’re journey started much earlier back in 2019 when they chose to book me to create their memories for them. They planned to get married at a gorgeous mansion in the midst of the Cornwall countryside in 2020. I’m sure you can guess what turned up to spoil their plans. What happened was they were given another chance to realign their wedding more with their own values and came up with the wedding of the century.
I very happily took the challenge on with honour. I say challenge because if you’re not challenging yourself, you’re not pushing the boundaries and that for me is where the art lies, beyond the boundary.
Darren and Naomi gave me full trust from the beginning, which is all I need to be able to create something they can really enjoy remembering their wedding day. I mean let’s face it, it might not have been easy to remember all of it. These amazing pair didn’t go for the traditional Church and Reception do, Oh No!
They wanted a wedding festival and the effort they put in to designing what was by far my favourite ever wedding, was incredible. Most of their friends and family joined in with helping to create the wedding, a gigantic collaboration of their favourite people.
Anyway, don’t waste any more time listening to me waffle on about how great it was, have a look for yourself.

Ps/ This latest film might just have inspired me to start doing weddings again!

Press the play button in the centre of the photograph below to play the film.

I’m just gonna put this out there, if you like this film and are getting married and would like to have something like this made for you to remember your wedding by, then please get in contact me.

Selling My Own Photography Products

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How my photography business has changed and how I’m adapting to changes…

I’m beginning to use my blog as a sounding board or more of a way to release my thoughts on my artwork and business. Today I’m going to talk about how I’ve had to be like water to flow with my business as it changed during the Coronavirus Pandemic.

The Wharf, Hinckley, Leicestershire

I started my business in 2012 at the same time that I enrolled on to a level three photography course at North Warwickshire and Hinckley College. I’d alway loved photography but never realised I could do it for a living. I wished I’d thought about this when I first left school because I’ve made billions of mistakes in what feels like hundreds of different jobs.

I’ve never been a very good employee! I always know better, hate rules, can’t apply myself to other people’s businesses as an employee and my nature is really quite rebellious! Believe me I’ve tried. I can’t say I’ve been a bad person within my past jobs because I’m a people person and love to be around others and get on with almost everyone and have stuck it out at some jobs. Three years was my longest reign in just two jobs.

Anyway, I was made redundant from Croner Consulting as telephone appointment maker for Health and Safety and Employment Law consultancy services. It was a tough job, speaking to over a hundred people each day to try and make an appointment for the business managers to go and close a sale.

St. Catherine’s Church, Burbage, Leicestershire

I think I’m digressing as usual!

I opened my photography business initially to be a wedding photographer until I learned more about the artwork side of things through college. Anyone can be a wedding photographer, all they need to do is buy a camera and watch a few YouTube videos. That’s all there is to it really, if you don’t factor in experience and knowledge! I know some amazing wedding photographers and by the same token, many who think they’re that! I also worked freelance for local and international businesses and charities, which was all great until the Coronavirus Pandemic popped over to the UK.

At that time, all businesses were ordered to close, taking all the people I could work for with them and leaving me with nobody to hire me. Of course I wasn’t the only person in the world for this to happen to but this is my journey…

Locked Down, Documentary Project

I had nothing to do, so I began to document the lockdown and ended up making a book and working with the community to tell their stories. My book publisher then began to also make and produce photographic jigsaw puzzles for their photographers and I jumped on the bandwagon to see how it would work.

Booom!!!

As if all I needed to help me get off the ground was a global pandemic!!!

I couldn’t believe it, upon making 6 of my favourite local photographs into JIgsaw Puzzles, right in the middle of a jigsaw puzzle boom was all it took! I guess we all need a break every now and then. Well this was my moment and I grabbed it with all of my hands!

That was my turning point.

Since early Summer in 2020, I’ve been making puzzles now and I’ve been fumbling my way through. I had zero experience of selling retail, especially my own products. It all went amazingly well until the summer of this year 2021. The lockdown was lifted and everyone went back to work. Plus the summer was here and people wanted to be in the garden instead of sat around the dinner table doing a jigsaw puzzle.

This hurt my business massively because I’d been led down the path of abundance throughout 2020 and this was very different. Less people were buying my jigsaw puzzles and I’d been caught out through ordering lots of stock and a reduction in sales. For this I have literally just had to bide my time until things picked up for me. I knew Christmas would be good for me.

Jigsaw Puzzle Leicestershire

The Horsepool, Burbage, Leicestershire

I’m finally getting around to telling you the actual point of this blog. I’ve had to be like water and flow with my business, which controls me more than I control it. I’ve become a slave to my business and I love it!

To move with the times and help my customers have a better experience, I’ve flattened my puzzle pricing out to £20 for any puzzle. I was selling them at £22 because I needed that extra bit of income to help pay for things like my office and insurance etc. When selling my artwork on the local markets, it was sometimes a bit awkward dealing with the additional coins. I’m hoping that by flattening my pricing, it might lead to more sales on the market. So far it seems to be working, let’s see how it pans out on the run up to Christmas.

If you’d like to learn more about my interactive artwork and local Leicestershire Jigsaw Puzzles, please visit my shop.

Kicking Off In 2021 With Brand New Jigsaw Puzzle Designs

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Let’s Start 2021 With Four

Brand New Jigsaw Puzzle Designs.

“My choices are to sit back and wait for things to happen or I can get my head in to gear and make a start now.”

We’re in the second week of January 2021 and I’d been worried about promoting my puzzles during this month because I know everyone has just gone through Christmas and if most people are anything like my family, they’ll not have a lot of money in this month. When I used to have a job, I always spent January living on toast, waiting for the end of the month to get just enough money to see me through to the next month end.

Hinckley, VE Day 2021, 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle

The above photograph (Hinckley, VE Day 2021), I created during the first lockdown in 2020. When the virus reached Britain, I was genuinely frightened and worried what kind of life my little girl would have being brought in to this world. Then in one swoop, all of my clients revoked the work they’d assigned to me for 2020. Overnight, my business disappeared and up on looking at the future landscape, I couldn’t see it changing anytime soon. So I started making jigsaw puzzles from the archives I’d created for my project Hinckley & Burbage Photographed.
So the first lockdown kicked in and I pulled my daughter out of Nursery, keeping her safe at home and we did lot’s of cycling trips. I always took my camera with me and documented what I was seeing around the town. One evening I had a brain wave, which hurt a little but it was destined to lead me on to a very bright pathway.

I began a window portrait documentary, recording stories of people that were in lockdown and how they were surviving. It was a brilliantly fun project to do that enabled me to do something for the community. Also during that first lockdown was the 75th anniversary of VE Day. Many people came to their front gardens to socialise with others from a distance, safely to keep their community spirits alive and I spent the day riding around Hinckley & Burbage with my little girl to see what photographs I could make.
I found this photograph above and it’s also featured in my colouring book and now a 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle.

Aston Lane, Burbage, 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle

I’ve been waiting since 2017 for some snow. The last decent photograph I made in the snow was ‘The Horsepool’, which has featured heavily in my 202 products as the december picture in my 2021 calendar, my most popular Christmas card and my most popular Jigsaw Puzzle.
Well, about two weeks ago, we had a little sprinkling, that had me racing around both Hinckley & Burbage and as much of the Leicestershire county that I could squeeze in before it melted.

I initially headed straight for the centre of Burbage to see what I could find. It’s difficult for me because I’ve spent so much time walking around the same places trying to see if I can make something better than the last time. I created loads of photographs around by St. Catherine’s Church, down by The Horsepool and all around the centre and eventually came back to Aston Lane. I’d already made a few photographs here and received great feedback telling me that they’d love to do a puzzle of this scene but I could never get a satisfactory composition or at least one that lit my own fire.

It has to meet my own approval before you even see it.

This one worked for me, I have faith. So it is now in production along with the other three puzzles I’ve started this years campaign with.

Beautiful Blackfordby 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle

On October 13th 2020, I started a new project called ‘Leicestershire Photographed’ because my supplier mentioned to me that he needed someone to cover the entire county and not just Hinckley & Burbage. If I didn’t take it on, they’d give it to someone else that would. Could you imagine me having someone else on my doorstep covering Leicestershire for jigsaw puzzles and calendars and all the other stuff I’ve started making. There’d be a lot of trouble and problems with boundaries etc.

So it was just easier if I took it on myself.
I did just that!

Now I have a new a massive project that is gonna take up a lot of my time in the future but pay me huge dividends in terms of earning a wage to support my family, although weirdly enough, I never really think of earning money. My first thoughts are always on making the best photographs I can. What I earn from them afterwards is simply a bonus that allows me to keep doing this.
I produced my first two puzzles last year; The Old House, Cadeby and The Mews in Ashby De La Zouch, which have both been incredible. What a way to start the new project.

Now I’ve created two more jigsaw puzzles for the Leicestershire Photographed project, including the one above, Beautiful Blackfordby.

Blackfordby is a tiny village, hidden in the far North West corner of Leicestershire, near to Ashby De La Zouch.

The Mews, Ashby De La Zouch

The Old House, Cadeby

My fourth puzzle to be created in this jump start to 2021 is The Plough Inn and Smithards, Ashby. I sought collaboration in choosing this puzzle from the residents and members of a social media group called ‘Ashby De La Zouch Community’. This group has been amazing and instrumental in helping me get my message to the community of Ashby and beyond, for which I’m very grateful.
I feel like I have a nice strong audience in Ashby De La Zouch that have faith in me already and have been buying lots of my jigsaw puzzles. I’ve warmed to that community very easily and plan to do many special things for them over the coming year with some new product releases once I’ve built a big enough archive of pictures around their area.

The Plough Inn and Smithards, Ashby.

I think I may have written enough now. I hope I’ve got my point across. I simply wanted to share my new jigsaw puzzles with you and also give you an insight in to my thoughts. I’m so very proud of these jigsaw puzzles and even more happy at how many people have bought them. It really does make me feel like my work is appreciated because for 8 years leading up to this point, my work was just digital photographs on Facebook. I had no real substance and no end goal. All I did was keep making work for enjoyment, not knowing if any of it would go anywhere or achieve anything. I’d even got to the point where I was close to packing it al in and go out to get a job. I’d tried knocking on all the doors I could find in the industry but all I could ever come up with was earning from commercial photography and filmmaking. Of course that’s all great but my heart was always with the artwork. So now you see me doing well with all of these art products, believe me when I say this, it was never this good. I’ve been through so much hardship on the way here. Even borrowing some money to do a weekly shop one time.
This has all been a long time coming and now I’m doing it, I’ve made myself a job from my artwork and boy does it feel great. I hope I can continue to keep making work that you love and are happy to buy because mine and my families lives depend on it.
Thank you and please sign up to join me and watch me grow as an artist.

Link to view my jigsaw puzzle designs and place any orders.

New 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle Design

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The Mews, Ashby De La Zouch

1,000 Piece Real Photographic Jigsaw Puzzle

This article discusses a new 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle design that I’ve recently created, making the twelfth puzzle design in my series and only the second one from the project Leicestershire Photographed.

The Mews, Ashby De La Zouch - 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle

Leicestershire Photographed.

You might be aware already that I’ve started a massive project ‘Leicestershire Photographed’, where I plan to document the landscape across the entire county of Leicestershire. Along the way I’ll be on the lookout for pictures that might be worthy of going in to an adults colouring book, Christmas Cards, Framed Prints or my new calendar in the making for Leicestershire. Also (and of course), I’m searching for photographs that I can create jigsaw puzzles from and I think I’ve found another one for this project.

“So far…….
I’ve driven to quite a few places and covered 262.6 miles, collecting 178 Photographs and have created 2 x 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzles.”
— Paul Hands

The Mews in Ashby De La Zouch.
Since starting the project, I’ve been to Aston Flamville, Bruntingthorpe, Cadeby, Cosby, Desford, Heather, Kirby Muxloe, Lutterworth, Marefield, Market Bosworth, Peatling Magna, Potters Marston, Shenton, South Croxton, Stoney Stanton, Twyford, Watery Gate and Willoughby Watersley. I only started the project on October 13th, which in hindsight, I should have perhaps gone for a different date, so I’m not celebrating any birthdays on Friday 13th, but I will be!

The Old House, Cadeby

The very first jigsaw puzzle I’ve created for the Leicestershire Photographed project, is The Old house in Cadeby. I now have two jigsaw puzzle designs from this project and twelve in total, when including the designs from ‘Hinckley & Burbage Photographed’.

Here’s an example (above) of the box designs and the shapes of the puzzle pieces. The puzzle design shown here is of St. Catherine’s Church, Burbage, which has been one of my most popular jigsaw puzzles.
I only began making jigsaw puzzles in March of this year and all because of the lockdown. I lost all of my commissioned work that was set up for the year and didn’t really know how to get around the situation. I had nothing but photographs sitting on my hard drive that had come from my Hinckley & Burbage Photographed project, which I started in 2012. As you might imagine, I’d collected loads, over ten thousand.

I had to innovate, so I began by turning 6 photographs into jigsaw puzzles and began advertising them online in my website shop and shared them on social media. Oh my days, it was incredible. It was one of the single most important decisions I’d ever made in my life because my business boomed from that moment onwards.
I didn’t realise I had a proper product business like this and it surprised me, coming from nowhere.
Now I’m on a mission to replicate Hinckley & Burbage Photographed but for the entire county of Leicestershire.
It’s started off quite well, with two real photographic jigsaw puzzle designs within the first month.

Leicestershire Photographed Logo.jpg

The Mews, Ashby De La Zouch is my latest release and I’ve managed to get it in before the Christmas delivery cut off date. So they’ll be here in the first week of December. I’ve only ordered 20 x jigsaw puzzles, so these are a limited edition. Also for the first 7 days only, these are reduced from £22 to £20 on pre-order.
They’re available to order in my online shop, which is accessible by this product link below.

Hinckley & Burbage Photographed Is Going To Market

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Developing An Art Project

I’m expanding the Hinckley & Burbage Photographed project to have a physical shop front on Hinckley’s traditional market.

For quite a few years now, my project Hinckley & Burbage Photographed has been going through some major transformations. I’ve gone from making photography for fun and to practice the art since the project began in 2012 to selling art products with my photographs in 2020.
The journey has been wholly experimental, pushing myself to always do better next time.
Last year in 2019 I produced the very first calendar for Hinckley in Leicestershire, the first the town had ever seen. It all started when I discovered a supplier that operated a special scheme for photographers to produce calendars, where they only allow one per area and create incredibly good quality products.

I never intended this project to make money and it was always about the community, documenting life and the environment surrounding us and enjoying the connection between our environment, photography and humanity.

Life has changed already for many of us experiencing this new Covid world. Much the same for myself in losing all of my commissioned work for the year and haven’t earned anything, also falling through the cracks of self employment grants. I began to innovate and developed a new product range from the one thing I did have; an archive of photographs.
When I produced my first calendar for 2020, I never thought for a minute that they’d be the least written on calendars of all time!

As time has progressed, my suppliers have introduced 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzles to their product line, which I went straight ahead and created my first series.

I now have 9 puzzle designs available, which can be found in my online shop…

The puzzles have really taken off and has had an influence on my style of photography. To make good puzzles, I”ve had to learn what makes a good puzzle and then translate that in to the physical landscape. It’s a tough challenge to find good ideas and I’m really enjoying the journey.
I have two collections and 9 different designs. Some of the designs work better than others and all have a puzzle rating of between 5 and 10. I think I have one puzzle that reaches 10 on the puzzle scale, which is Hollycroft Park. It’s supposed to be very difficult because of the tones, colours and shapes in the puzzle. It was one of my first ones and since then I’ve created and developed new designs that really have caught the attention of a new local audience.

This next puzzle in particular is has already started selling on a pre ordering system.

The Horsepool in Burbage.

This particular puzzle is a beautiful romantic wintery scene with snow and Christmas lights decorating the scene.

The Horsepool, Burbage, Leicestershire.

Market Stall

I’ve been building stock levels, investing in the idea of selling my new products on a market stall in Hinckley every Saturday and possibly in the week on a Friday or a Monday on occassions.

I’ll also be selling my latest calendar for 2021 on the stall.

Jamie Hunt, owner of Brookfield Signs & Graphics has agreed a deal to sponsor Hinckley & Burbage Photographed and donated this banner to use on the front of the stall.

Myself and Jamie Hunt from Brookfield Signs & Graphics, who has become a sponsor of Hinckley & Burbage Photographed. Jamie has donated this banner to help with the aesthetics of my new market stall venture.

Myself and Jamie Hunt from Brookfield Signs & Graphics, who has become a sponsor of Hinckley & Burbage Photographed. Jamie has donated this banner to help with the aesthetics of my new market stall venture.

The Cover to my new 2021 calendar.

Visit my online shop to purchase a calendar.

I’ve also created a book called Locked Down, which is a collection of portraits showing 36 different families through their windows, juxtaposing them against the reflections the world their locked away from, during the Global Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020. Accompanied with personal text about how they’re all surviving lockdown and what their thoughts were surrounding the major events as the virus broke out in the UK.

Locked Down Book

I hope to see you on the market soon.

Fine Art Photographic 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzles

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Making Photographic Jigsaw Puzzles.

I now have a new art product on the shelves that is incredibly popular, 1,000 piece Photo Jigsaw Puzzles.

Since lockdown began, I’d lost all of the work I had booked in. A 4 x commercial film deal collapsed in the first week, I lost several commercial photoshoots, one at a laser tag event and all of the weddings for my wedding photography and filmmaking business, rescheduled, leaving me penniless, jobless and with just a creative mind left wandering.

I got creative with a personal lockdown project but also did a bit of housekeeping…

…So I spent some of my free time looking back and tidying up my archives, when my calendar supplier introduced jigsaw puzzles as a new product line. I tested the waters with a few of my archived photographs and they literally flew off the shelves and I’ve been left with almost zero stock from the first order.
This was so exciting, so I went back out with my camera, thinking differently this time and I searched for scenes that could be used as a jigsaw puzzle. I even changed the way I frame a photograph, so that particular elements were placed in specific places in the frame and there was just the right amount of sky to not make the puzzle too difficult.

This was a revelation!

There are 7 puzzles in my collection now, these are the photographs, you can use the link below to learn more and to buy jigsaw puzzles.

Making a photograph for a jigsaw puzzle isn’t straight forwards and you can’t just turn any photograph into a puzzle. There has to be the right elements, not too much sky, not too much detail and the exposure needs to be perfect. Hi res images are what’s really needed and you’d certainly struggle to produce good enough quality with a mobile phone. Not that you’d want to offer an art product made as a snapshot on your phone.

So I’ve taken great care over these photographs and have designed them to offer just the right amount of interest and challenge in different parts of the puzzle. They’re all made with a very high resolution camera so you don’t lose any detail when trying to piece together the puzzle.

Since 2012, I’ve been making photographs around my local area with all the techniques I’ve learned through my photographic education (still happening) and taken great care to produce the best quality photographic jigsaw puzzles, which is completely unique for Leicestershire.

You can click on the link below to get more information about the puzzles and to buy.

Link to the jigsaw Puzzle's / online shop.

Contact me.