WHEN theatre nurse Paula Phenna and her partner Andrew Baatz, a navigator in the RAF, decided they wanted a career change they pinned their fortunes on running a fledgling photographic business.

And now their company, Sign of the Dog, which was launched on April 3, has grown from strength to strength.

Paula, 35, has recently been accepted as a licentiate member of the British Institute of Professional Photographers.

She has also been nominated for a national award, run by the institute for everyone applying for membership.

The ten photographs of commercial products she submitted will be judged in the new year.

Andrew, 40, said: "We are thrilled with Paula's nomination and hope it will be a tremendous boost for the business.

"We are both second careerists. We started out on this venture because we felt we were stagnating in our previous jobs.

"We both come from very safe and structured environments and we wanted to do something where we were responsible for our own fate.

"It is pretty much what we expected. We are growing well but we are being careful not to overstretch ourselves at the moment."

The company, based in Wootton Bassett, specialises in commercial product photography, but the couple hope the business will continue to grow to allow the couple to provide a complete photographic solution for all business needs.

After taking redundancy from the RAF, Andrew took a photography degree at Surrey Institute of Art and Design.

He has since become an associate member of the British Institute of Professional Photographers and the Royal Photographic Society.

And Paula boosted her knowledge by taking a day release photographic course at the Blackthorne Centre in Cricklade.

Clients include The Early Learning Centre and Coty UK.

Sign of the Dog photography can be contacted on (01793) 855035.