Why I Started Fior Photography
Notes from Fior
WHY I STARTED FIOR
IT STARTED AT HOME
Hello, I’m Gemma, the photographer behind Fior. I’m a wedding and family photographer in Ayrshire and Glasgow, and if you’ve landed on this post you’re probably wondering who’s actually behind the camera. So here’s the longer version.
It started with my boys. I’d always loved good, artistic photographs and I wanted proper pictures of their childhood, the everyday stuff that disappears if nobody keeps hold of it. Photography became my way of slowing everything down and noticing what was actually going on in the middle of the chaos (and there was a lot of chaos!).
THE STORY SO FAR
HOW FIOR CAME ABOUT
2011
Where It Started
My boys were my first subjects. I took pictures of everything, the messy, noisy, ordinary days I didn’t want to forget.
2014
A Hobby That Grew
My cousin Suzanne and I started photographing other people’s families. Newborns, then families, then weddings – one of which took us all the way to Italy!
2019
Stepping Back
I put the camera down to focus on my family and my work in education, and lockdown made the break longer than I’d planned.
2024
Coming Back
Photography never really left me. In November 2024 I went full-time with Fior, and this time I wanted to do it with intention.
NEXT
Still Rising
Weddings, families and small businesses across Ayrshire and Glasgow, and a story that’s still being written. I’m planning my own wedding too, so I see it all from the other side as well.
to be continued….
REAL PEOPLE, HONESTLY DOCUMENTED
After a degree in psychology I spent 15 years working with children with additional support needs. It taught me to read a room, stay calm when plans change, and give people space to be themselves. That’s shaped how I work as much as anything I’ve learned about cameras.
Fior is Scottish Gaelic for true, and that’s the thread through everything I do. No forced smiles or stiff poses, just real people as they are. It’s where my family sessions get their names too – Rooted for your closest people, Spiral for when the story widens out to grandparents, cousins and everyone in between. Rising is the bit that’s still happening.
If you’re planning a wedding, you might also like my guides to choosing a wedding photographer in Ayrshire & Glasgow and planning a relaxed wedding.
