"Five years ago I couldn't take a single picture," she says. This is an admission that anyone who has viewed her diverse and unique work will find difficult to believe.

Collette is currently staging the first exhibition of her work at Todmorden's Platform One Gallery, a collection which features around 40 photographs, ranging from landscapes, babies and children, dogs dressed up, celebrities and high-fashion images.

"To be honest I would get bored if I stuck to just one subject, portraits, for example. I like to be doing something different all the time," she says.

Originally from Harrogate, Collette moved to Halifax around 11 years ago when she married Jason. She was working for social services as a home care assistant but it was after going on maternity leave to have her son George, now six , that she decided she wanted a career change.

"I had never done any photography before but I decided to enrol on a City and Guilds course at college and it just went from there," she explains.

It wasn't long before her work was spotted by card manufacturers Hallmark and soon her designs were being used for their range of greetings cards.

"They loved the pictures of the children especially," says Collette whose work includes dreamy images of youngsters portrayed as fairies against magical backgrounds.

Her work now includes regular commissions by London agencies who often ask Collette to photograph celebrities – among them include Pete Doherty of Babyshambles fame. Recently Collette was busy photographing artists at this year's Leeds festival.

Just over a year ago she opened a studio at the Piece Hall, Halifax and as a result her portrait work has flourished.

"A lot of ladies in particular love to have their photographs taken because I can airbrush them if there are bits they don't like," she laughs.

"If you can improve certain features then why not. I always airbrush photographs of me," he adds.

Collette reveals that another interest is organising the Miss Halifax and Miss Huddersfield contests and recently she has been involved with the Yorkshire and Humb-erside finals of the Miss Earth competition.

With regards to her photography, she adds that she is always looking for new ideas: "I just like to continue developing my own style. I love the setting up of a photograph and getting it just right," she says.

"One area I really want to go into now is motorbike photography because I'd love to develop my own range of greetings cards. I think they'd be popular with men," she says.

"I'd also love to have an exhibition of my work at the Piece Hall."

Collette's exhibition is now at Platform One Gallery, Todmorden railway station, until September 28. Many pieces are for sale and prints are available.