Allie Langham
Allie Langham is 41 and lives in Todwick, South Yorkshire with husband Chris (39) and children Max (7) and Ruby (4).Allie met Chris on a blind date when a mutual university friend suggested they meet up in London. Their date was a drink, followed by the London Eye, followed by a meal. Allie says “by the time we reached the top of the Eye, I think we both knew we had found ‘the one’.”
It was a long distance relationship though. Chris was in Liverpool doing his PhD in chemistry, Allie at the height of her career in a senior role in the travel industry, working for a bespoke holiday provider in SW London. The kind that provide very expensive holidays for discerning clients. Holidays that involved Allie in lots of travel too! She started taking Chris, and when she saved a hotel in the Maldives from a hugely expensive lawsuit, they gave her an all expenses week… and it was there Chris proposed.
Allie remarks she and Chris were quite unalike in a few ways, “I had left school at 15 to join a YTS with a travel agent- my parents say they always knew I’d be the one to flee the nest first and travel the world. Chris took a degree in Chemistry at Liverpool University and later a PhD. I was earning in my Saturday job as a petrol pump attendant in my dad’s garage from early on. By 21 I had added bar work to my travel job and my then boyfriend and I managed to save a huge £17,000 to take 10 months off to travel through Asia, Australia and hitch-hike round New Zealand. It was the best thing I could ever have done and turned out to be a great career move. I decided to specialise in world travel instead of the European market. By 22 I was organising bespoke Indian tours and trekking in Nepal to get a feel for the country. I certainly came up close to some serious illnesses - in fact, I was so ill I vowed I would never go to India again - fortunately I thought again and have had seven fabulous trips there since. Allie ran the Indian department at Cox and Kings and later product manager of the Indian & Subcontinent Department of Scott Dunn, a bespoke tour operator in London.In 2002, the couple moved to Yorkshire and Allie negotiated remote working for Scott Dunn until she became pregnant with Max when she was 34. She stepped back from employment and engaged a burgeoning entrepreneurial streak, working with a friend who had invented a piece of children’s furniture that was attracting a lot of attention, called the Funpod.
Allie noticed Chris was becoming depressed – “at that point he was spending his working life dealing with cow fat in shampoos and becoming increasingly disillusioned with what his chemical company bosses were doing for the environment.” At seven months pregnant with daughter Ruby, Allie urged Chris to simply quit. A brave move. Almost immediately afterwards, they found themselves at a barbeque with friends talking about Chris’s options when one said “Chris, you’re so good at photography, you should become a professional photographer.” That was a light bulb moment, and shortly after the spare room became a studio as Chris started perfecting his techniques on friends and family. If it moved, it got photographed!
Meantime, the success of the Funpod led Allie to Kiddicare in Peterborough with whom they have had a long standing relationship. They had room on site for a fully fitted studio, and in October 2007 Chrysalis photography “hatched.” Chris takes the lead on the photography, Allie manages the business, although she does get behind the camera occasionally for boudoir, maternity and baby sessions- even a naked calendar for Cystic Fibrosis on one memorable occasion.”
It has been an exciting journey and the business was doing really well, when a sudden threat to their Peterborough premises, now resolved, made Chris and Allie think more locally. “We had been commuting between Sheffield and Peterborough regularly” confides Allie. “It was a lot of miles and three hour commute on a good traffic day for Chris, which wasn’t great for family life. When we told my in laws we might have to move the studio locally, they sprang into action immediately. Before we knew it, they had been down to the Town Hall, looked at all available potential premises and on our son’s sports day, they told us they had found the ideal spot. They looked after the children while we went to view- and they were right. On a converted farm, down a windy track, it was a peaceful, stunning location just ripe to become our dream studio. We signed the following morning.”
It’s been a hard few weeks getting the studio ready in a race against the clock for the couple’s first clients- an engagement shoot this week, but it has been worth it. “It’s been lovely to see Chris and his dad working side by side, turning an externally beautiful building into an internally stunning studio clients will love.”
Allie can be contacted on 01909 774963 07920 585566
Website www.chrysalisphotography.com
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