Our Aim
Here at Olive Paw Photography you may have guessed, we absolutely adore animals of all shapes and sizes! The sad fact is that our pets don’t live as long a life as us humans. It Is because of this that our aim is to provide a friendly, professional bespoke service to create and capture memories of your best friend’s. Our location and local knowledge also allows us to showcase the natural beauty of the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks. We have a passion for photography and believe that a picture truly comes alive once printed! There is nothing quite like creating a physical piece of bespoke artwork that can be hung in your home and enjoyed for years to come. That is why we have taken great care and time to source a range of products that are not only extremely high quality and value for money, but will also do justice to the memories we will create together. We pride ourselves in working with YOU, to help YOU choose bespoke artwork to suit YOUR home and budget. There is no hard sell tactics, we just want to see happy pets and proud owners.
Our Story
Olive paw photography was founded from a life long love of photography and animals by Yorkshire Dales based photographer, Dave Forknall. Dave has had a love for all animals since a young age and grown up with rescue dogs, cats and even rescue birds of prey. For eight years, Dave worked as a professional in-house photographer and videographer for one of the Uk’s leading E-commerce car accessories companies. Alongside this he also used his photography knowledge to start astrophotography, which saw him featured in BBC sky at nights magazine on multiple occasions and shortlisted for science photographer of the year in 2019 with his work being exhibited in the national science museum in London. He also worked for 2 years as the photographer and videographer for the award winning Hackney & Leigh estate agency. Having always dreamed of working with animals, It wasn’t until a little wild cocker spaniel puppy called Olive joined the family, that Dave started photographing her for fun and realised that there was an opportunity to create the dream job! When faced with redundancy at the start of the Pandemic, he used the time to re assess what was important in life (as did a lot of people) and after months of planning and website building, Olive Paw Photography was born.
Meet The Team
🐾 One Man and his Dog 🐾
Olive Verstone Hwit Elswith
Managing Director
- Aka Olivio Popadopolous, Olly Pops, Lady Olive - Based in Sedbergh, Cumbria - Born in Grange Over Sands and adopted from Derek Summers at Verstone Gundogs - Continual professional development weekly with Cicely Robertshaw - Loves running through bushes, swimming, and running on the fells of the Yorkshire Dales and Lake District National Parks - Known to lose her mind over a tennis ball and carrots
Dave Forknall
Principal Photographer
- Based in Sedbergh, Cumbria - Gained a BA Hons degree in Photography and Video at Demontfort University, Leicester - Continual Professional Development with his photographic mentor Damian McGillicuddy - Worked for eight years as the in-house photographer/ videographer for the UK’s leading online retailer in car accessories and 2 years as the photographer/ videographer for Hackney & Leigh estate agency. - Loves walking the fells of the Yorkshire Dales and Lake District National Parks - Was quite possibly a dog in a former life - Also has the potential to lose his mind over a tennis ball