Glasgow cityscape
Happy New Year to you all. Despite the global pandemic predicament in which we are all immersed, 2021’s arrival is most welcome – if only to provide us with a sense of renewed optimism and a spark of energy to get the brain cells working after the obligatory cheese overload during the holiday festivities.
I think most of us would agree that 2020 was tough. A promising start quickly travelled into strange and unknown territory, which forced us to accept what was to be our new normal and adapt to accommodate a different way of working and living.
If we didn’t already know it, the pandemic has proved to us we are both fighter and survivor. Yes, we pivoted (whatever that means), and yes, we adapted – but that’s what small businesses have to do all the time: whether in a pandemic or not, we have to bend in the wind.
However, this article’s intention is not to be self-congratulatory; instead, it’s a piece about how grateful we are. We can pivot until the cows come home, but if it wasn’t for our staff and subcontractor’s help and adaptability, and the eyewatering support shown by so many clients, we would not be here right now: at the start of 2021 eager and ready to face what will undoubtedly be another year of extreme bending.
We are immensely grateful to every single client (existing and new) who commissioned us to create photographs and videos or manage their photography projects and libraries. We know some of you created work just to help us out. We thank all the clients who were not in a position to commission work, but kept us in their thoughts and wished us well. We hope you too will survive these difficult times and we will be able to work together again this year.
We are grateful to all those who safely accommodated us to take pictures or film in their premises and workplaces. The restrictions made it complex but possible thanks to careful planning by the business owners, staff, and facilities managers.
We thank our subcontractors who had their own crap to be dealing with, but with good grace and professionalism, dealt with some of ours too. And to our staff, who, despite the uncertainty, hung on it there and did the whole bendy dance with us – thank you, guys.
So – onward, and hopefully upward into 2021 we head. With grateful hearts, we will work hard, safely and creatively to provide our McAteer Photo service to the best bunch of clients a small company could wish for. May the year ahead be happy, enjoyable and full of luck for you all.
