North East Corporate and Marketing Photographer | Middlesbrough Football Club, Teesside

Last month one of my jobs was to take photographs for a corporate brochure for Middlesbrough Football Club, at its Riverside Stadium.

The photographs will be used on the website and for a new brochure and marketing material to promote Middlesbrough  club’s range of hospitality and match sponsorship packages, which form the perfect facilities for meetings, weddings and events on Teesside.

I am no stranger to Boro, in my work as North East and Yorkshire commercial and sports photographer I spent several years at the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette in 1997 and regularly covered premier league footballers such as Fabrizio Ravanelli, Paul Gascoigne and Marco Branca. 

Those days I was part of the press pack at Wembley shooting the League Cup finals, and photographed the team’s triumph when they won the Carling Cup in 2004, and I was at the 2006 European Cup Finals in 2006 in Eindhoven, when they were sadly beaten by Spanish side Sevilla. I was very often the only photographer covering the event for the local paper – great days!

As I arrived for the match against Nottingham Forest the sun was about to set and I just had time to get some pictures of the iconic metal Boro gates (top picture) framed against the sky.

My job was to circulate unobtrusively among the guests with my camera, photographing people as they were arriving and enjoying a drink and a bite to eat before the match.

Corporate brochure photography for a business like Middlesbrough Football Club is essentially about showing people having a relaxing time and enjoying the facilities, and fits well with my preferred informal, reportage style that allows the photos to tell the story.

I made for the executive boxes overlooking the pitch, which are a great place to conduct business, reward staff and entertain family and friends, giving people their very own piece of the Riverside ground through glass-fronted viewing areas so they don’t miss any of the action.

The Ayresome is the most exclusive matchday facility available at the Riverside Stadium, overlooking the famous old gates and offering guests the chance to enjoy champagne and canapés, a complimentary bar and exclusive invitations to join club officials to view the match in the prestigious Directors Box.

Familiar with the building’s layout, I moved around taking pictures as I went, and the deep red of the club’s corporate colour on the reception area’s walls made a sharp backdrop against which to photograph some of the busy corporate hospitality team in their smart uniforms.

As usual I was working mostly without flash so I didn’t get in the way of or distract people. As well as photographs of people enjoying themselves and watching the match I added in a few photos of props such as close ups of table settings, to extend the range of shots and give the client as wide a choice as possible when using the pictures in print and online.

As an adopted Teessider living in Stockton, I just had to get a few shots of the statues of Boro and England legends Wilf Mannion and George Hardwick, which stand near the entrance and remind fans of the club’s illustrious history.

I returned to my Stockton studio armed with a set of pictures that used my photographic skill and imagination to tell the story of the club’s great facilities, and the audiences they are aimed at.

Middlesbrough Corporate Headshot Photographer | Portable Studio on the Move

My work as a freelance press, PR and corportate photographer can see me zig-zag round the North East, sometimes between Harrogate and Darlington, Newcastle and Stockton all in a few days. So having a set of top quality lenses and equipment that I can use to quickly set up a portable studio in any location is a must.  My everyday portable studio kit includes a 7ft high wafer-thin screen that folds up so small it will go in the boot of my hatchback; a set of ultra fast Canon L Series lenses and a top of the range tripod; all of which means I can shoot in any conditions. 

My brief for a recent photography job at the Middlesbrough head office of Fabrick Housing Group was to take corporate head shots, three-quarter and full length photos of Chief Executive Alison Thain and two of the directors. Fabrick Housing Group is made up of landlords and developers Erimus Housing and Tees Valley Housing, as well as housing support charity Norcare. Together the partners in the group manage more than 15,000 homes from North Tyneside to York and provide a range of specialist services.

The images will be added to its photo library and used in newspaper and magazine editorials, and brochures as well as on the company’s website at www.fabrickgroup.co.uk and other online information sources. My commercial, marketing and advertising agency clients want good value for money from their photoshoots, which is why I plan ahead and take a range of kit along so I can deliver a set of shots that can be used for all sorts of purposes.  Having taken two professional Canon 5D mark3 cameras with me, I set up the portable studio in 20 minutes and with very little fuss. 

Where possible I like to take portraiture photos without flash, as it can sometimes kill the spontaneous natural moment I am looking for. My fast lenses were expensive but are ideal for low light conditions, and fantastic to capture corporate reportage photography.  Being able to create studio conditions on the move means I can also set up a flash in front of a subject and behind the screen, to give a true white background that allows designers to use cut outs and other clever layout techniques.

Senior business figures are busy people and photo sessions need to be short and sweet, so I worked fast as they chatted together, and took a series of colour and black and white photos showing them looking professional but relaxed - and all without them having to ‘perform’ for the camera. I rounded off by taking a few extra shots as they moved into the boardroom, and an hour after arriving I had a good selection of crisp, clean shots that met the brief, and I was able to pack up my portable studio and leave the directors free to get on with running a busy company. 

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Direct Website Link to Dave Charnley Photography

Corporate PR Photography for Fabrick Housing Group in Middlesbrough

Everyone needs a good quality place to live, and Fabrick Housing Group based in Middlesbrough prides itself on building communities through rental, shared equity and shared ownership.  The company manages 15,000 homes, from North Tyneside to York. Fabrick Housing Group includes Erimus Housing and Tees Valley Housing and I’ve worked with them for several years over the north east, so I understand the company’s ethos the community feel it wants from its imagery.

When one of the marketing team, a contact from my days as a press photographer at the Middlesbrough Gazette, rang me to talk about a multiple location commercial photo shoot across Teesside and County Durham, I knew it would be a busy day.

The core of the company’s business is people, so it’s logical that they figure largely in its marketing materials.  The photo brief was to produce a set of clean, bright shots to reflect the heart of the business and the diversity of the communities it works in.  These were to be added to its photo library and used on the website, for news releases, in newsletters, the annual report and other materials.

To give Fabrick’s graphic designers a free hand with future layouts I planned a series of landscape and portrait formats, giving these additions to Fabrick’s image library maximum flexibility.

Because I’m familiar with Fabrick I had some ideas for the type of shots that would work well.  One of the marketing team came out on location with me, which was really useful.  As we moved round the sites I was constantly referring to the photo brief and scanning the opportunities for a great photo, while they were highlighting what was important and relevant to the business so we worked well together.  As the day progressed I was also able to show them what photographers call back of camera shots so they can see the photo stock we were building up.

It was a full day that saw us travel between Redcar, Stockton on Tees, Middlesbrough and Darlington photographing people and properties, with shots ranging from happy tenants and busy workmen, to a young apprentice on a building site, and senior executives back at headquarters. I’m a big fan of working quickly, with the minimum of fuss, and my style is natural, informal photography.  

Speed is a necessity because whatever their role, anyone with a busy job does not want to stop to have their photograph taken! If you are too slow, the subject gets uncomfortable and the picture loses its energy and looks forced. If your subject is a man with a toolbox, you would be very unpopular with the foreman too, who could get twitchy about the time spent holding the job up.

Everyone was very helpful, the weather was kind to us all day and we were able to get all the shots the brief demanded. It was an action-packed day, but once I had processed the images back at my studio, we had a great set of commercial photos that Fabrick can use to show how it is helping to build neighbourhoods and benefit the people at the heart of its communities. 

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Direct Website Link to Dave Charnley Photography

Press Release Photographer | Same-Day Corporate Photography For Hartlepool Stadium Group

As a former Middlesbrough Evening Gazette press photographer I’ve photographed everyone from royalty, senior business figures and media stars through to community champions, children and winners of giant leek competitions. Working with such a range of subjects means your job on the day is not only to capture the perfect image, you have to do it in double quick time too!

A recent booking to photograph Stephen Phipson, the new Chief Executive of the £44m electronics manufacturer Stadium Group in Hartlepool came via the company’s marketing manager, who had seen my work on www.davecharnleyphotography.com

Stacey wanted a same day service, and like most in-house communications teams and PR agencies she had a detailed photo brief ready for me.  This is a useful tool that guides me as to what sort of shots the client wants to achieve, and what they are to be used for, whether that’s to go with news stories for regional and national newspapers and magazines, in-house documents, websites or other communications channels. In Stacey’s case, she wanted a variety of press photos that she could use to illustrate press releases, news stories and interviews with the new CEO.  Some of them were to be in a photography style that fitted with Stadium Group’s existing image library, and she wanted a range of internal and external backgrounds, some branding in shot and a choice of portrait and landscape layouts.

Busy CEOs don’t have time to waste and want the photographer in and out in a flash (no pun intended!), so I arrived early and had a quick look around Stadium Group’s site to assess the possibilities. In the one-hour shoot I worked quickly to capture a range of formal and informal shots of Stephen, using a combination of natural light, reflectors and a remote flash. To get some branding in some of the images I took one picture through a window etched with the company logo, plus a series of shots with Stephen in front of the company’s glass-fronted reception area. 

Working with the light streaming through glass or bouncing off it was technically complex but resulted in some nice variations on the standard corporate headshot. Stephen is comfortable in front of a camera so I was able to add a touch of informality to some of the shots, moving round the room and using different camera angles while he talked to colleagues around a boardroom table.

Stadium Group is a big employer on Teesside so the media is always interested in developments at the company.  The shots have been added to Stadium’s stock library of photos and have already been widely used in the regional and national press and TV coverage of Stephen’s new appointment.

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Direct Website Link to Dave Charnley Photography