For International Women’s Day 2022, we wanted to let you get to know some of our staff members a little better.

Alex has worked at Wilkinson Cameras for 8 years now, but her history with the company goes back much further than that… yes, that surname is no coincidence!

Determined to follow her own footsteps after university, Alex only joined the company in her late 20’s, gaining experience elsewhere… and ensuring her father and company founder, Frank Wilkinson, was safely retired!

Now in her role as a Company Director, she looks after everything digital… including the ecommerce side of the business and digital marketing. Fortunately, she has a great team to help her do this – you can read about her team members Ella,  Olivia (and occasionally Liz)  in their own mini-interviews.

 

Photography or videography?

Photography first… but I’m finding a love for and a bigger understanding of videography. I’m fairly impatient so storyboarding and editing videos in my spare time is a big “no” for me… but I really appreciate great cinematography, sound and light design, etc. I’m a complete nightmare to watch a film with to anyone outside this field of work… but we have some interesting discussions in the office about the latest Netflix series we’re all binging!

 

Favourite genre?

This is a bit like trying to make me pick my favourite food… there’s too many to choose from and I love photographers from all of them. For me, personally… I mostly photograph things to document my life, so it’s a very mixed bag. One of my passions outside of work is cycling, so I’d like to improve at sports photography so that I can get better images from races or club events, etc.

What’s your current camera?

The best part about my job is that I have a cupboard full of cameras and equipment available to use as we use it for content creation in-house…. So right now, I’m really enjoying having access to a Sony A7C, which I used to get behind the scenes with Wild Arena at Knowsley Safari Park recently. I’ve also borrowed a Sony ZV-E10, which I absolutely love as I have a couple of social media accounts which I’d like to take better stills and video for.

I like things that just work… I understand cameras and it’s nice to have full control sometimes… but sometimes I just want to click a button and it do the job for me. The ZV-E10 makes it super easy to create nice looking video.

 

What’s your dream camera?

Like in Liz’s interview… mine is an actual dream, because it’s physically impossible for it to exist. I want a really small camera that fits in the back of a cycling jersey pocket, with infinite battery life, incredible image stabilization, that immediately sends things to Instagram, but has all the benefits of a full frame camera and a 70-200mm F2.8 lens… oh and doesn’t cost several month’s wages.

I’ve settled for an Insta 360 instead…

Do you face any challenges as a woman in this field?

Not so much in my marketing role, but definitely in the retail and business side of things. Having a unisex name means that I often hear or see the attitude change with some people when an email exchange changes to in-person or over the phone.

In stores I have had customers literally turn their back on me or wait to be served by a male colleague… even if I’ve been available and they’d had to wait for the other person!

I do think it’s improving, but there is still a preconception amongst a number of people that the male staff members are more knowledgeable. Fortunately we have a number of female photographers on our staff who are able to quickly turn these attitudes around thanks to their in-depth knowledge and passion for photography.

 

What’s your greatest achievement or something you’re really proud of?

I rode my bike up a Tour De France climb in the French Alps… which to a lot of cyclists probably isn’t a very big deal, but I’ve always been very underconfident about my own abilities on the bike. Unfortunately, my head gets the better of me sometimes. It was just after a big life event and a tough year, and it taught me that I can do anything that I put my mind to. My friend made us drive up the Col the day after to see what I’d achieved, and I couldn’t really believe it! The image above is the view from the top.

I’m also really proud that I’ve got an all-female marketing team. I didn’t set out to hire women to work with me, it just happened that they were the best for the job. I think it brings a different dynamic and it’s working well. It’s funny to think that when I started there were just 3 women in the office and now there’s 3 just in my department!

Who or what is your biggest influence?

My parents.

My mum and dad didn’t come from wealthy backgrounds. They’ve both worked incredibly hard to become very successful in their careers and to give me the most amazing start in life and they’re always there to help me out. I’ve been renovating a house alongside my full-time job and I just wouldn’t have been able to do it without them (or my partner!)
I’m incredibly close to them… although you wouldn’t know it as an outsider because we communicate mostly by bickering!

This is one of a series of profiles and interviews for International Women’s Day.

You can see them all here.

#BreakTheBias #InternationalWomensDay #IWD2022