Roses, Roses & More Roses On A Four Poster Bed
In the run-up to Valentines’ Day this year I was asked by PR agency, Diffusion PR, to help them out with a photo shoot for their new client, Warner Hotels. Warner Hotels, for those of you who don’t know, is a chain of hotels, with 13 across the UK, that are particularly popular with middle-aged people who want a relaxed break.
The aim of the shoot was to promote Warner Hotels properties as a great destination for a romantic break over Valentines’ Day. Having arrived at the particular property, the Cricket St Thomas Hotel in Somerset, I entered the suite in which we were shooting to find a couple of florists, hard at work covering the beautiful four poster bed with nearly two thousand roses. Yes, two thousand stunning red roses, fresh off the boat from Holland overnight. Needless to say, they did an incredible job making the bed look beautiful. Meanwhile, the client and agency representative were off rounding up a pair of real couples who were staying in the hotel at the time who would be willing to feature in our photo shoot. They soon came back with one couple and we had a lot of fun shooting in front of the bed, on the bed and around the bed! There was a bottle or two of champagne to help our subjects relax whilst also adding to the whole Valentines’ Day vibe.
A few hours later we were finished and we quickly reviewed through the images to pick out the best ones to retouch. Here are a few of them for your viewing pleasure!
Harley Street Oral Reconstruction Centre
A short time ago I spent another afternoon on Harley Street, this time at the Harley Street Oral Reconstruction Centre. A centre for all kinds of dental treatments, it really is an impressive place with state of the art equipment and lots of very friendly staff.
They were in the process of revamping the centre’s website and needed some new imagery of their staff. I set up a quick make-shift studio in one of the centre’s treatment rooms, using the clinical white walls as a backdrop, and took head shots of the key staff members. I also took a few shots of the back-room staff who make the place run like clockwork, before organising a group shot of all the staff in the waiting room area.
Fruit & Veg In A Bottle
I love a good smoothie. I know, they’re full of naturally occurring sugar, so they’re not as healthy as they seem, but I still love them.
I was very pleased when the team at Diffusion PR got in touch, asking me to take some photos for their new client, Vegesentials. They make smoothies, you see, but they don’t just contain fruit, they also have a lot of vegetables in them too, which makes them even healthier.
There’s also a great story behind Vegesentials. A working mum, Patience Arinaitwe-Mugadu started making smoothies for her son to take to school with him, because it was the best way to get him to eat vegetables. It wasn’t long before his friends at school tasted the smoothies, loved them and went home to their mums asking for them too. So she decided to ditch the (well paid) day job and launch herself into making smoothies full time. It wasn’t long before her husband, Andrew Mugadu, joined her full time and now you can find Vegesentials smoothies in Whole Foods and many Waitrose stores.
Here are some of my favourite images from the day.
One Big Team Photo
For those of you who don't know, which I would think is a large majority, AkzoNobel is a huge paints company. It owns a paint company you will have heard of, Dulux. One of its many teams were having a two day conference in London at the British Museum.
I was asked along on the second day to take a team photo, early in the morning, of the 130 conference attendees. Thank goodness, despite forecasts of inclement weather, the rain held off long enough for me to line up all 130 people on the steps in front of the great museum and take enough photos to ensure I had an image where everyone had their eyes open at one point. A small bit of Photoshop later, I had an image with all but one person blinking. I think he might have actually been asleep on his feet!
The organisers of the conference wanted to give out a little card at the end of the day with a print of the photo so that each attendee would have a memento from the event. That meant me zipping off into town to a great little printing and headshot company called VisualEyes, who took care of the printing of 130 copies in just a few hours.
Having taken the photo at 8.30am in the morning, I managed to hand deliver 130 printed copies back to the team at the British Museum by about 2pm, in time for them to slot the prints into their little folders.