BY JOHN JACKLIN
Former air stewardess Gabrielle McMillan came to appreciate Henley after travelling the world
PHOTOGRAPHER Gabby McMillan travelled the world and became an air hostess after leaving Henley as a prelude to her career taking off.
Gabby, 48, believes moving away from the town made her appreciate where she grew up and has invigorated her professional life in commercial and wedding photography.
She says: “I was brought up in Henley but went to school at Cranford House, in Moulsford, near Wallingford, and then sixth form at The Henley College.
“Then I went to Maidenhead Art College, which isn’t there now, to do a foundation art course, I wasn’t really focused on photography at that point, I was focused on art, on painting.
“But unfortunately, I just could not get what was in my head out onto paper and that was when I chose the camera.
“I’d carried a camera since I was a child. I was really lucky that my parents had given me one that I could take on holidays and document everything. The foundations were there — I just hadn’t realised it.
“Once I got to university, I realised that the darkroom was my home and I spent four years there. One year at Maidenhead College and then I went to Southampton University and took a degree in photography. I loved it — processing film was magical.
“I was still using photography as a medium to create art and I did a few exhibitions but I needed to make a living. So, I went into photographing weddings and more commercial work. It was mainly weddings and family portrait shoots and such like that I put my own stamp on.”
Gabby wanted to set up her own photography business so she could invest in new equipment but needed the funds to do so. That’s when she became a stewardess with British Airways.
She recalled: “I went part-time at British Airways and gradually worked my way up. Behind the scenes, while I was flying, I was setting up the business. I left when I started my family and I’ve been a full-time photographer ever since.”
Gabby now has two daughters, Tulla, 12, and Berrie, seven. “Growing up in Henley was great,” she says. “I loved it but you don’t realise how lucky you are growing up in Henley until you go away.
“I was brought up in Valley Road, near The Henley College, and I worked in local pubs as a teenager. The Angel on the Bridge, the Copper Kettle, which is Villa Marina now, and down the regatta on the land gang, painting regatta posts and things such as that.
“I wish my children could be as lucky as that but I just don’t think there are the opportunities now for young teenagers to do the things that I did. It was the best place to grow up with the so much freedom.
“When I left Henley to travel I thought I was never coming back. I saw a lot of the world and soon realised I was so privileged to have been brought up in Henley and South Oxfordshire.
“I had loads of friends in Henley, many of whom I still have, which is how my business got started. One would recommend me, then another and that’s how my business still works today — by recommendation — and for that I am very grateful.
She adds: “It was good to get out of Henley for a while. It was good for my photography to be overseas and shoot different things, different scenes, different everything, to know what I actually really wanted to do as well.”
Gabby graduated from Southampton with a first-class honours degree and married “quite young” before going travelling. “My husband is Kiwi, so we went to New Zealand and Australia. We mainly did just Australia, New Zealand and Thailand as well after that.”
Gabby met her husband, Graham Butler, a chef, when she had been working at the Angel on the Bridge, where she was a waitress. They returned to Britain after their travels and Graham started work at the Baskerville Arms, in Shiplake.
“That’s when I started working for British Airways,” she says. “We bought a small house in Henley and, after a few years, moved to Marlow. So not very far away.”
Gabby sings the praises of the beauty and settings to be found in Henley and the surrounding areas. “We’ve got beautiful wedding venues all around,” she says. “You couldn’t want for a better place as a photographer, really.
“What is my favourite venue? Oh, gosh, no, I’m not telling you that. Because they’re all lovely. I love all of them. They have all got different aspects about them. For instance, the town hall in Henley is so pretty. Henley is so gorgeous.
“It doesn’t matter about the weather, doesn’t matter about anything. That backdrop of the town hall to have photos outside is just perfect, as are the chamber rooms and the massive hall inside.
“The list is endless. There are so many inspiring places to do weddings here.”
One of Gabby’s priorities, especially for weddings, is to make sure her clients are as at ease as possible. “People always ask me about the Bridezillas,” she says. “I’m not joking when I say I have not had any. All my couples are just so relaxed and just so lovely.
“My style is relatively relaxed and more documentary style. I don’t want to be intrusive or try to make things happen on people’s wedding days. It’s much, much more natural and that’s why I attract the couples that just want someone to document the day in a relaxed manner.
“They want time with their friends and not to be spending the whole day doing photos and I’m 100 per cent totally on board with that.”
“I’m a mixed bag when it comes to weddings. I do a few high-end weddings but am very happy to do smaller, much more low-key weddings.”
As to the high-end weddings Gabby concedes she has done “one or two”, but further details about the names she has worked for are not forthcoming. She says: “I can’t tell you any more, sorry.”
Gabby believes all couples just want a wedding day that is free from stress so they can just enjoy it. “That is my main purpose for them,” Gabby says. “Just to have the best day of their lives. That’s what I want them to have.”
A vital part of the wedding process, for her, is that she gets together with the couple so they know beforehand who they are getting.
She says: “It allows me to get to know them, which is a most important thing, so I’m not a stranger turning up on their wedding day.
“We go through the itinerary — the running order of the day — so I know exactly what is happening and when. They will tell me what group shots they want and I will be real with them and say how long the whole process is going to take. If the couple think that it will take too long, we cut the timings down. “I very much work around my couple and what they want. But we’ve done all the hard stuff, essentially, in the meeting prior to the wedding day. So, on the day, I know what’s happening and they know what’s happening. It takes the stress out of the whole thing as well.”
Gabby says weddings are challenging and that your photographer needs to be a “people person”.
‘My style is relatively relaxed and more kind of documentary style. I don’t want to be intrusive or try to make things happen on people’s wedding days’
She says: “I think my time at British Airways definitely helped. I met and worked with so many different characters from all walks of life, which enabled me to adapt and be more mindful of people needs and situations, a skill which I have been able to transfer into my photography work.
“A wedding is a big occasion, you need to navigate the emotions of the couple, as well as their family and friends. It’s important to be aware of everything that is going on so you can capture the day respectfully and authentically.
“It’s a privilege to be part of a wedding day, it’s actually addictive being able to witness the love between two people and their friends and families. It is something I will never take for granted — I am very, very lucky.”
www.gabriellemcmillan.com