Marketing image for Holme Valley Clinic
How to shoot in a global pandemic
A while ago I had to create some pictures for Holme Valley Clinic, in Honley, West Yorkshire. The pictures were for the Honley website and Holme Valley Clinic’s business listing. That sounds simple enough? Wrong, when I arrived at the shoot I met up with Chris who is a great bloke. He then told me that his clinic had been stripped to the bare essentials (due to Covid) and he wasn’t allowed to treat any patients.
Time to get creative
Hmmm, this was a bit of a problem, so it was time to get creative. I looked around for anything that helped to tell the story of physiotherapy (that was my main focus) and I found a model of a spine. This spine was now my new best friend and everywhere I went, it came with me. For some reason, the pictures of the spine in the clinic weren’t exciting me so I ended up taking the spine outside onto the cobbles. Whilst laying down in the middle of a street I did get some funny looks and comments.
Body language
After creating lots of pictures of a spine I needed some pictures of Chris. I could tell by his body language that he hated the idea of his portrait taken. I’d already worked out that Chris was one of those people who is obviously very talented about his work, but not one to blow his own trumpet (I can certainly relate) so how can I get good pictures of Chris without weird posed portraits?
Plan B
I had organised someone else to come and have a shoot as they use the clinic so my plan b was to use them when they turned up for their photoshoot. I mentioned to Chris and then he just ran out, grabbed a couple of people off the street and used them as models. What can I say, Honley is a very friendly village. He talked his victims into having a bit of a free physio session just so we could grab some pictures. I knew this would be the way to go because as soon as Chris started he came to life. I knew all I had to do was to capture some true expressions and my job was done.
There’s always a way to create good, fun pictures. Sometimes it takes a bit of time and a plan b but we always get there.
Here’s a few of the pictures from the shoot.
