About – Millfield Studios

Hi, my name is Marcus and I’m a media studies student with a passion for photography. Outside of media studies I’m a keen runner. I have been running with my local club since I was 10 and I have enjoyed the challenges of improving my times and fitness as well as my general running style. I’m also passionate about drumming, and I’m studying A level music alongside my media studies. I play regularly in school, and have also played a few gigs with my dad and his band. I have a strong attitude towards improving myself and I hope this helps drives my education results to an excellent standard that will set me up for the future.

“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self” – Aldos Huxley

I set this site up with my dad to document my learning and to showcase my portfolio so that in the future I have a good base on which to build a photography business. My dad is also interested in photography and video editing, so this is a great project to work together on.

I’ve also created a blog page where you can follow my progress through education and where I hope to share with you things I’m learning in school that could help you at home to recreate scenes and landscapes to improve your photos.

You can view our portfolio of work (amatuer, at this point) and see what makes us enthusiastic about images and media creations.

Hi, I’m Matthew. I set this site up for Marcus because I was so proud of the feedback we got from his parents evening. It was our first ‘virtual’ parents evening for his school due to the covid era, and to hear his teachers praise his attitude and his courage in asking questions was amazing, and those traits no doubt are playing a strong part in the great results he’s acheiving. No teacher, though, was more enthusiastic about Marcus’ learning than his media studies teacher. Marcus has had a dream for a while now of setting up his own business and being a freelance photographer. I (alongside Marcus’ mum) run my own accountancy practice, so I know what’s involved in this – and as my dad once said to me “if I can’t teach you about this, then what can I teach you”. So, as my dad taught me a valuable lesson, I hope to pass the same on to Marcus.

I’m also involved in some community projects that have required me to learn more about photography and video editing, so this is a great project to be working on with Marcus.

Why Millfield Studios?

Dad (Grandad Barry) loved taking photos and he loved to edit them and create videos. Every holiday that he and mum went on, whether it was a proper holiday, a weekend break, or just some time away with friends, he would always come back with hundreds of photos and spend hours (if not days) editing them into videos. It became a standard joke in the family and amongst friends that we’d all be waiting for the holiday videos. But he loved it (and secretly we loved it too). At one point he was taking photos and framing them, and selling his prints on eBay.

One year, my brother Chris bought a web domain for dad – millfieldstudios.com – so that dad could portfolio some of his work. It was called millfieldstudios after the name of the cul de sac that mum and dad lived on. Sadly, dad never got round to building the website and displaying his work.

Then on 11th August 2019 we lost dad after a short battle with cancer, which shattered all our worlds. The lasting memories of him by all those who knew him are of an extraordinarily kind and charitable man, who loved and enjoyed life and left a beautiful impression on all those who were lucky enough to meet him. His unrivalled attention to detail didn’t go unnoticed either.

A year after dad passed away, mum had an email asking her if she wanted to renew the hosting on millfieldstudios.com. She asked me to cancel it, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that. At the time I didn’t know why – I guess I thought of it as letting dad go, and I wasn’t ready for that. As it happened, this was only the hosting, so it didn’t really matter. What I couldn’t let go was the domain name; little did we know it had already been lost and bought by a chinese company. Unfortunately we weren’t able to track down the registrar for the domain, so we registered www.millfieldstudios.uk instead as a close association. Our intention is to grab the real domain when it becomes available. If you’re reading this story on www.millfieldstudios.com then you’ll know we acheived it.

So whilst I probably thought I was hanging on to this because I couldn’t let dad go, I wonder if perhaps deep down I knew Marcus would take up the baton. I guess we’ll never know for sure. But I do know that Marcus has a talent; one he is keen to develop and one his mother and I are keen to encourage. So this has become a legacy, from Grandad to Grandson, and I have absolute faith that Marcus will do it justice, and make his Grandad proud.

Matthew