North Yorkshire Industrial Photographer | Lotte Chemicals in Wilton

I was pleased that clients DTW agency in North Yorkshire chose me for some industrial photography near Redcar recently.

The job involved an Industrial photography shoot at Lotte Chemicals on the Wilton International Site. Wilton is just 10 minutes from Middlesbrough and is a major process industries complex where security and safety is paramount.  As an experienced commercial and industrial photographer I’ve visited Wilton many times so I’m familiar with the detailed safety and security arrangements that every visitor must comply with, and arrived 30 minutes early to go through the briefing.

Chemical plant photography means being around volatile substances so I also had my camera equipment, including a portable, foldable flash kit, gas tested for safety.

The job brief included taking pictures of the directors and senior staff, the operation itself and a series of shots to celebrate the company’s commitment to young apprentices, and help it recruit more young people. Lotte Chemicals is a long-standing supporter of apprenticeship schemes, being named North East Medium Employer of the Year 2011, and counted among the Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers of that year.  

I arrived at the job kitted up with a range of different lenses and lights. I’ve got the lighting and equipment to accommodate any type of job, including a high powered lighting kit that can light up a large factory floor, gymnasium or school hall.

Although I carry a range of lights so I’m ready for any conditions, I prefer to shoot using a mix of natural light and reflectors to keep the images real, over the years I’ve found this always gives the best results.

With the help of people who kindly held reflectors and the flash for me, I was escorted around the plant so I could get a series of shots of apprentices at work in a live environment, studying plans, putting kit away in the lockers and operating machinery and equipment.

A branded pop up banner provided some colour and contrast to the clean white environment. A photographer’s job is to tell the story, and I always like to include some branding and interiors shots to help to explain what a business is about, and give the people shots some room to breathe.

The shiny steel pipework outside gave me a chance to bounce light off it, and in some cases use reflections to frame shots.  Inside, the factory floor colour palette was great, with the blue of the machines contrasting with the pipes. And where I needed a splash of colour, a bright yellow hard hat worked a treat.

Lotte’s meeting rooms presented a light, clean background against which to photograph senior figures in the business. Corporate portrait photography is not always about getting the subject to face the camera square on and smile, if a company’s PR agency is issuing sober news, they need pictures that reflect the tone of the story so I was careful to get some serious as well as smiling shots.

Switching to the close up product shots was fascinating work. I used the back of a whiteboard as a base on which to arrange differently shaped glass containers and some products in the form of tiny  white beads. A member of staff wearing a hint of pink nail polish was happy to act as my hand model, adding some colour contrast to the pictures.

The client was very happy with the three sessions, which generated a good set of pictures flexible enough for a wide range of uses, and I’m looking forward to seeing the photos being used in the media, marketing material and across the internet.   

Evolution Rebrand | North East Commercial, Portrait and Editorial Photography

I was delighted to be asked to take commercial photographs around Hartlepool, Gateshead, Sunderland, Middlesbrough and surrounding areas for accountancy firm Evolution LLP recently.

As well as being a photography partner to many marketing and PR agencies, I also work directly for clients and this commission came via Evolution’s marketing partner. A brand refresh meant some new advertising photography over the north east and involved a lot of careful planning and several meetings to establish the look and feel that would work best.

As well as using customers to tell Evolution’s story, we opted to go with a technique known as de-saturating the colour, to give a stylised, almost black and white look. This fitted well with the colour palette used by the web designers and lines up with the company’s new brand identity and push to promote its dynamic accountancy practice.

Being involved with the planning process for a photoshoot is really useful, it means I can get to grips with what the client is looking for, and suggest some appropriate approaches. 

Several meetings with Evolution staff and its marketing and web experts led to a schedule of commercial photography at six client locations including Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Gateshead, Brotton and Skelton.

Each location involved taking photographs of Evolution’s client in their natural habitat and included shots on a factory floor, at a creative agency and even a rally school. I gave the client several variations of shot at each venue, to make sure the photos would be suitable for a range of print and online uses. 

The clients are all highly successful business people and I went for strong, engaging shots with subtle backgrounds - what I call ‘hero’ shots. Having my mobile studio equipment with me meant I could dismiss the use of flash in favour of using all the natural light available and making the shots gritty and ‘real’.

As well as the portrait shots I was asked to cover the rebrand launch event for 150 invited guests. The event had been booked at Crathorne Hall in North Yorkshire but a huge fire there the night before saw a last-minute switch to photograph the event Wynyard Hall in County Durham and the event organisers did a great job of swapping venues without a hitch. 

As I moved round the room photographing key speakers and guests I was pleased to see how well my shots had worked on pop up banners and in large screen format as the audience were treated to Evolution’s new brand film. 

I was very happy to have been entrusted with producing the imagery to sum up Evolution’s fresh, engaging and contemporary new look, and I wish the firm and its clients all the very best for the future.