More than a beautiful view
When you’re familiar with somewhere, it’s easy to stop properly looking at it. The buildings, the skyline and the places that would make a visitor stop become part of your everyday surroundings.
Then a different perspective reminds you why they’re special.
That’s what I love about photographing Lincoln Cathedral from the air at sunrise. It’s a familiar landmark, seen differently. A reminder that you don’t always need to travel somewhere new to find something worth appreciating.
But as much as I love photographing places like this, a beautiful view isn’t the whole reason I love living here.
The photograph shows a place. The people make it home.
A place for my children to grow up
As a parent, there’s something special about watching your children build their own connection with the place you call home.
Their friendships, their experiences and the memories they’re making are becoming their own Lincolnshire story.
For me, what makes somewhere a good place to raise a family goes well beyond the things you’d put in a visitor guide. It’s feeling part of a community. It’s having people around you who care. It’s giving children opportunities to try things, grow in confidence and find where they belong.
Being involved in grassroots football is part of that for me. You see how much it matters when people give their time to help children enjoy themselves, make friends and become part of a team.
Those things might not appear in a photograph of the skyline, but they’re a big part of what makes me grateful to live here.
Lincolnshire isn’t just somewhere I enjoy photographing. It’s somewhere I’m genuinely happy my children get to grow up.
A Lincolnshire business, working across the UK
I’m equally proud to have Chris Vaughan Photography based here.
I work with clients across the UK, but Lincolnshire is home to my business as well as my family. Working nationally and being rooted locally have never felt like competing ideas to me.
One of the privileges of commercial photography is getting to see beyond the reception desk.
You meet the people doing the work. You see the care, skill and effort behind the finished product, the successful event or the service someone relies on.
And there’s a lot to be proud of.
When you’re busy running a business or looking after its marketing, it can be easy to overlook what makes your organisation interesting. The things you see every day can be exactly what a potential customer needs to understand: your people, your processes and the pride you take in doing things properly.
You know how much goes into your work. Your photographs should help other people see it too.
That’s the part of my job I really enjoy. Listening to what you want to achieve, working out what your customers need to see and creating photographs that help tell that story.
Not making your business look like something it isn’t. Helping people see what already makes it worth choosing.
The relationships I’ve built with clients and other businesses here mean a great deal to me. I value being part of a community where people recommend each other, make introductions and help each other move forward.
Still Welsh. Very much at home.
I don’t have to be any less proud of being Welsh to appreciate what Lincolnshire means to me.
It’s given me somewhere to build a business, bring up my children and feel part of something beyond my own front door.
The Cathedral at sunrise makes a lovely photograph. But it’s everything beyond the photograph that makes this place home.
What’s your favourite thing about Lincolnshire?
It might be a place, a local business, a memory or simply the people who make living here special. I’d love to hear yours in the comments on my Lincolnshire Day social post.
Happy Lincolnshire Day, from one proud Welshman who’s very happy to call this county home.
