Scotland Corporate, Editorial and Freelance Photographer | Worlds Biggest Passenger Jet A380 Emirates Airbus in Glasgow

A commission from Saltburn commercial photographer Cal Carey saw me heading back to my Scottish roots recently, to photograph the world's biggest passenger jet as it landed in Scotland for the first time to celebrate a 10-year link between Glasgow Airport and Emirates airlines.

An early 5.30am start from Teesside saw us arrive at the airport at 10.30am, in plenty of time to set up. The local and national Scottish press photographers were out in force, and it was good to see a couple of familiar faces from my press photography days, Colin Mearns from the Glasgow Herald was amongst the pack who I remembered from a couple of years back. 

Press photographers and reporters from Edinburgh Scotsman, Glasgow Herald, Glasgow Evening Times, Daily Record, as well as the BBC, Sky News and ITV were just a handful of media gathered to greet the £248 million brand new A380 airbus, which with its shower spas, passenger lounge and bar, is able to take massive 517 travellers.   

This was a very important moment in the airport’s history and understandably, the client wanted to make the most of photo opportunities of the visit, and when they asked Cal if he could recommend a photographer who would work with him as a team, he kindly suggested me.

A good press and commercial photographer can work fast and be in several places at once, but the high profile event matched with airport security made it difficult to quickly move around all areas of the venue as we usually would, hence the need for a team.

While Cal started off airside to cover the plane’s impressive arrival and cover the passengers and VIPs alighting, I was in the airport photographing the guests gathered to watch speeches by Emirates' executive Hubert Frach and airport boss Amanda McMillan. As part of the celebrations the pair exchanged ‘high quality’ model aircrafts and also cut what looked like a very tasty cake.

At any event like this it’s important to cover the assembled guests as well as the VIPs, to give a real feel for the event. Although the hall was packed I was able to move around discreetly with my camera and get some natural corporate photography shots of the Glasgow guests without interfering with the proceedings. Although it was mainly a business audience dressed in dark clothing, the uniforms of the cabin crew added a splash of red that matched the stunning standard rose displays in the entrance.

After the ceremony I was delighted to be able to join Cal airside to take some shots of the aircraft’s interior and go into the cockpit and meet the pilots, particularly Iain Weir, who grew up in nearby Clydebank.

Hubert Frach showing people round the plane and chatting with cabin crew, many of whom had been hand picked as coming from Glasgow and surrounding areas. The tour presented me with some good interiors photography opportunities to show off the attention to detail that has been put into this very impressive aircraft and the distinctive Commonwealth Games logo on its fuselage, marking Emirates’ sponsorship of the games. 

Media interviews ran slightly over schedule making the plane slightly late taking off for its return trip to Dubai, but I think everyone there would agree it was well worth it, and a great day for Glasgow, as the first Scottish city to welcome this super jumbo aircraft.

Cal was staying over in Glasgow so while I was on the train back to Teesside I took the chance to edit the photos so that as soon as I landed back at my Stockton photography studio I could download over 100 shots to Dropbox for the client to view that evening. 

A good day’s work and one that I hope Cal and I can repeat in the future.

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.

West Yorkshire Commercial Photographer | Magazine, PR and Website Photography of Darrington Healthcare, Pontefract

People photography, especially natural and relaxed photography, are some one my of my favourite commissions. So it was my pleasure to travel to Pontefract in West Yorkshire recently to do some care home commercial photography with the residents of Darrington Healthcare’s luxury care home, Willow Park on Baghill Lane.   

 

A lot of care homes use stock photography to market themselves, but moving into a care home is a big decision and if I was helping a member of my family make that choice I’d prefer to see photos of residents in a real care home, to get a feel for a place and its atmosphere.    

The photographs I took are going to be used to market all of Darrington Healthcare’s homes, so needed to be a mix of portrait and landscape photography orientation, and be suitable for inclusion in adverts, in brochures and flyers, online on the company’s website and on the over-sized roadside hoardings around Elm Park Care Home, the group’s newest property, which is being built in Doncaster in South Yorkshire, and set to open in September 2014. 

Willow Park is a purpose built home set on three floors offering residential, nursing and dementia care, and is very popular with local families, constantly being at almost full occupancy.     

On the day I visited it was buzzing with residents, their visiting families and staff and I had taken the time to walk round introducing myself and getting acclimatised so by the time I got my camera out everyone was comfortable with having me around.   

I had also made sure that I had plenty of consent forms with me for people to sign. It’s really important that anyone who might appear in the resulting photos has given written permission, especially when the shots are to be used for marketing purposes.  

Some of the liveliest photos came from the coffee bar and lounges, where people were relaxing and chatting with friends, playing board games or watching TV. Darrington Healthcare’s philosophy is that it’s the staff who make a care home, so I was careful to include plenty of staff lifestyle photographs attending to the needs of residents, whether that was getting them a cup of tea, helping them out into the garden for some sun or organising a lively game of bingo.   

As luck would have it, the weekly visit from the hairdresser coincided with my visit, and the ladies were very good about me photographing them getting their hair done and catching up with local news, while upstairs in The Rovers bar and cinema room, I photographed two gentlemen enjoying a drink and engrossed in a huge jigsaw. 

The home itself is tastefully furnished, and the dementia suite in particular has been designed to help people with this difficult condition recognise the various furnishings that have been chosen to help them find their way around.

A traditional rocking horse, an old gramophone and some framed newspaper cuttings from 50 years ago all added up to photos that would reassure families about the attention to detail that runs through all of Willow Park.

As the sun broke through the clouds I was able to get some exterior photos of the home and its landscaped gardens, complete with red telephone box. Willow Park was designed by Newcastle architects Alston Murphy, and photographing some of the branding and architectural details made for some interesting angles.

I finished the photography session off by taking some shots of some of the cosy corners and subtle lighting that typify the home and give it the look of a five-star hotel rather than what most people would expect a care home to look like.  

That’s one of the things I like most about being a professional commercial and PR photographer working all over North East England and Yorkshire – being able to use my skills to take shots of people in everyday situations, and using great imagery to give a glimpse of the unexpected and beautiful. 

North Yorkshire Commercial and PR Photographer | Behind the Scenes Providing Top Quality Service

As a North East commercial and PR photographer people often ask me what goes on in the design studio, Stockton on Tees. Over 25 years as a professional photographer I specialise in commercial, editorial and PR photography I can tell you it’s added up to thousands of hours of work checking and refining images one by one. I can sometimes do nine jobs in one weekend, and that’s a lot of editing when you consider one hour’s photoshoot can sometimes equate to 2+ hours in the studio.

I’ve invested thousands in top of the range cameras, lights and video equipment - that paired with my fast 27' iMac and professional editing software so I have the best tools for the job.  I use Dropbox or Hightail for image sharing, coupled with a super-fast 50G broadband service, all backed up onto 3 terrabyte hard drives (x2 backup folders)

Editing photographs can be highly technical and I like to keep my skills updated, so each year I set aside some days in January/ February as my training and update months. That might also cover customer service training, business advice, technical training or an update on issues such as copyright and intellectual property – there is always something new to learn and I apply that same approach to my photography, to keep my work fresh.

In the studio I might carry out 20 editing commands on one image alone. I never batch process for example, which basically means dropping a set of images into one folder and telling the iMac to ‘sort the colour’, it’s just not my style as a professional photographer. Every one of my images are hand finished and assessed for quality.

When it comes to what and how to edit, a good commercial and PR photographer will be respectful of personal things such as birthmarks. It’s important not to tidy the personality away, although if a self-conscious subject with teenage acne asks me to smooth away their skin tone a little I would probably oblige! Seriously though, if I’m on a shoot such as the one I did recently photographing several Subway branches across Northumberland,Tyne & Wear and County Durham, I’ll edit out things like a stray piece of litter blowing around the street because my client wants crisp, clear shots that promote the brand and can be used in brochures, advertising and online and nothing can be allowed to spoil that.

Fashion photoshoots and food photography are just two sectors where retouching is demanded or at least positively encouraged in order to show the product off in the best possible light. The fashion shoot I did for a Teesside marketing agency needing a series of unique, high impact fashion photos to promote Middlesbrough Fashion Week’s ‘Fashion Rules’ events took many hours of painstaking editing back at my Stockton studio.

Many amateur photographers buy themselves a copy of Lightroom and let the plug-in software do the work for them, but there are many pitfalls for the unwary. Blowing out the whites in a shot such as a wintry snow picture is a common mistake made by people without experience and training. Once a shot has been over-exposed you can’t restore it so the picture is spoiled. 

It’s also possible to over brighten or add crazy saturated colours which is my pet hate. This might be just what you want if you are trying to create an artwork based on photography, but it’s not acceptable in areas such as corporate portraits or reportage photography where the colour and the image must be true as possible. The trick is knowing which detail to retain and which to ditch, and that all depends on the client and the assignment.

There’s no doubt that editing is a time consuming job but it’s part and parcel of being a professional photographer. I pride myself in turning jobs around quickly, but I’ve heard of people who take 10 days to deliver a simple 1 hour job.  That’s unacceptable in my book, particularly for commercial and PR shoots when images are often needed the same day for the north east press. 

Going too far by cloning and retouching is banned by most of the big media owners and publishers, who need their news photography to be completely authentic. Readers trust them to deliver honest images, and I know of no titles that would compromise the faith readers place in them for the trust and accuracy of their photography.  

Global newswire Associated Press recently fired Pullitzer prize winning freelance photojournalist Narciso Contreras for removing a rival photographer’s video camera (pictured above) from a Syria war image.  Narciso accepted he had done wrong but maintained he was doing his duty as a professional photographer by removing an item that could have distracted the reader but AP maintained that the cloning violated its ethical standards and cut its ties with the photographer, removing all his previous images from its database.

It goes to show that even in this weary world, there are still areas where when it comes to photography, editing  is not always required, and standards of truth and honesty apply.