It was a pleasure to photograph for reSHAPE at The Royal Society of Arts in London, which was a joint venture between Aspect, The British Academy, ARC and Aspect Angels. My point of contact was freelance events manager Sarah Umar, as well as Sean Farran (Head of Communications at Aspect).
BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS FOR A CORPORATE EVENT? GREAT IDEA!
I was asked to shoot in black and white for this event. I think this is a fantastic idea as it really helps logos and corporate colours to stand out on the page. It’s also rather interesting to see black and white photography for a corporate event in 2022, so the imagery feels quietly confident next to the competition. I have included some red and pink bars to show you how reSHAPE’s colours stand out against the monochrome.
WHAT DOES reSHAPE MEAN?
SHAPE (Social Sciences Humanities & the Arts for People and the Economy). The talks, fireside chats and lightning pitches all fell under this umbrella. You can find a much better explanation on Aspect’s newsfeed!
DID THEY LIKE THE PHOTOS?
Yes they loved them - so much so that I was asked to work on another project before the event had even finished.
It was a pleasure to photograph Terrapinn’s business to business event about identity at the ExCel Centre. I had only just photographed Google Cloud’s stand via Audience at ExCel a few days before so it was nice to photograph Excel again so soon. And thanks to the Elizabeth line/Custom House I can get there in 30 minutes instead of an hour. Thanks Queen!
Terrapinn were great to work with. Marketing manager Abby Cairns made sure I was fully briefed before sending me off to find the winning moments across the sprawling set of booths and talks (both on stage and more informally in the main arena). They needed a fast image turnaround on the same day of selected images. Both Abby and marketing director James were very complimentary indeed about the initial set of images!
FAST IMAGE TURNAROUND YOU SAY?
Yes indeed. I have speedy, portable and colour accurate equipment for on-site delivery of selected photographs, which I can tweak and edit before sending to you via email, WeTransfer or hard drive/memory stick. Terrapinn needed just a few images on the day of people reacting and looking happy, as well as some on-stage shots. They received around 12 images on the day and their simple reaction was “These are amazing! Thanks so much”. So that helped me get through the rest of the day with a spring in my shutter button.
Also a big thank you to photographer Jennifer Moyes who I was covering for this particular event due to unforeseen circumstances (she’s fine). Jennifer is a seasoned professional photographer working in a reportage style.
Thank you to Digi Leaders for asking me back to photograph The Digital Leaders 100 Awards Ceremony 2022, at Aqua Shard (near London Bridge).
THE VENUE
Aqua Shard is a fantastic space to hire for a corporate event. Guests can enjoy the views, and staff at the venue are very well set up to work with these kinds of events. I’ve worked at The Shard a lot as an event photographer, and have experienced only positive things from the staff there. The canapés and bowl food have always looked (and when I get a chance, tasted) great. I have also photographed Hutong for a private banking firm, which was really quite special.
PHOTOGRAPHIC CHALLENGES
The Shard is beautiful of course, but from a photographer’s point of view there are plenty of complexities when shooting there. In the daytime, the glass walls are super bright compared to the light on the people indoors. To work around this, it’s good to use considerate angles and have a fairly deep knowledge of the camera’s dynamic range and post processing capabilities to get the most out of the venue. Also, there is nowhere to bounce flash in the main area where people tend to network, which means that if I’m using flash (which is rare but it does happen at The Shard), it needs to point directly at whatever I’m photographing. I use some extra techniques to make sure this kind of flash does not appear too harsh in the photos, or shock the guests by being too powerful.
DID THEY LIKE THE PHOTOS?
Yes they did! They received a few images on the same night as requested (before I even left the venue), and the rest the next day.
Thanks again Digi Leaders!
Thanks so much to Audience for having me back, this time to photograph for a Virgin Media PR activation (ie a live event designed to grab attention in public for promotional purposes). The activation centred around the appearance of DJ Luck and MC Neat (witta little bitta luck we can make it troo tha night).
This was a multi-sensory experience set in Kings Cross. You can read more about it through The Drum.
It was a pleasure to photograph for architectural firm Purcell, an architectural practice specialising in heritage and conservation.
Purcell run an annual residential course which provides focused training on approaches to assessing and conserving historic buildings.
THE BRIEF
The brief was, in short, to photograph students and tutors/practitioners as they went through the Cathedral learning about and describing various aspects of conservation. We walked around inside the Cathedral roof, the main interior and the workshop which specialises in window conservation.
PHOTOGRAPHIC CHALLENGES
This was by far one of the most contrasty (and dark) venues I’ve photographed. What’s more, using flash was not really an option given the intimate atmosphere and educational nature of the talks, where people were concentrating. Flash is also not appropriate for certain venues because it can ruin the atmosphere if not done correctly, and sometimes it’s just not possible to bounce flash in the room properly given the conditions.
Luckily I have what is probably the best cameras available for low light events, so we got some nice shots regardless!
Canterbury happens to be the town where I grew up, so it was very interesting going to work in the morning as an adult, having left at the age of 19. The town appears to have shrunk but the Cathedral is as big as it’s ever been! Thanks so much to Purcell for allowing me to visit. Shortly after photographing for Purcell, I was straight on the train to Sotheby’s in Mayfair to photograph an event over there, so it was a super busy and interesting day. If I get the time I’ll be sure to do a blog post on Sotheby’s, as I photographed dozens of their talks over the Queen’s Jubilee.
