A PHOTOGRAPHER has just opened a new studio in town, but customers hoping for a portrait might have trouble getting through the front door.

The Trewimage building is among the latest businesses to line the streets of Bekonscot model village and railway. And as luck would have it, the studio is sited next door to the miniature version of the Bucks Free Press building.

Jeremy Trew, 55, runs the business from Ivins Road, Beaconsfield, and has been keeping a close eye on the modelling since the project began over a year ago. He was thrilled to see it finished in May, complete with models inside, posing for a family portrait.

He said: "I have been working in the town for years and it is a thrill to have a studio in the model village. I have always loved it and it will be a pleasure visiting it and encouraging others to see it too. It's an honour really."

Mr Trew approached the model village to have his studio join the miniature streets, when he saw that other businesses had done the same. He said he thought his business was a good match for Bekonscot, which charges a fee to build a model version of a business, but channels all profits toward charity.

He said: "We're not about the 100 per cent hard sell and never have been. Bekonscot reflects us and our ethos."

Mr Trew is hoping to get the pictures inside the miniature studio changed from time to time to keep it fresh.

His business has been a fixture in Beaconsfield for 22 years. Aside from portraits, weddings and corporate work, Mr Trew has organised masterclasses for beginners or more experienced photographers struggling with digital equipment. He said he enjoys the experience of helping people transform their snaps into little works of art.

Bekonscot, which was the original model village, began life in 1929 as the hobby of one man, Roland Callingham. The miniature landscape is comfortably set in a quaint 1930s timewarp. Since it opened, all profits have gone to charity - an amount of around £5,000,000 at today's rates, raised from their 13 million visitors.