19/05/2026
Yesterday I celebrated ’s 4th birthday (by nearly setting my apartment on fire.. if you watch the reel, it’ll make sense). But of course it got me thinking about THIS businesses ‘birthday’ too!
Truth is, Amy Paton Photography has been around a loooong time, much longer than Bitter Banksia, but I can’t really pinpoint when a) it came into existence, and b) it stopped being a hobby/something I was studying and became a fully functional Business.
I think the pivotal moment for me, was a weekend in March or April in 2015. I was volunteering my weekends to the Northern Blues (who were Carlton’s VFL side at the time) and they had an AFL curtain raiser game against the AFL Academy, before a Western Bulldogs v Richmond game, at the MCG.
The legends in our media team wrangled me a media pass to get on the G to shoot the curtain raiser… and then I wasn’t kicked off the ground for the AFL game 🫣🤫
It’s still the only AFL game I’ve shot, and the only time I’ve shot on the MCG, and I hired a 400mm or 600mm fixed lens for the day, so I looooved my images and the unique perspective I have for a professional sport.
(Turns out I couldn’t find these on my current HD so they must live on an old archived hard drive.. so I had to rip these from Facebook, pls don’t judge. Yes, Dale Morris is bleeding, and no, I don’t know who’s shoe that is..)
I was so chuffed with this day and I wanted to share these… so I created THIS Instagram, that is still here to this day, showing off my work and connecting me to you all!
I couldn’t tell you when I registered this biz (I could check) but to me, this biz was born on the day this account was, which means it’s been around for over eleven years!! I’ve been working and charging for my work ever since my uni days in 2012-2014, but we grew to a business in 2014-15 for sure.
Thank you for being here, and here’s to another 11 years! (And maybe another AFL game one day 🙏🏼)
