Portrait session in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Personal brand photography, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
OK, let’s get one thing straight, this wasn’t really a personal brand portrait in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. That was for Google and SEO juice but I guess in a way it was.
Sniffers Pet Care
I headed over to one of my client’s Sniffers Pet Care to photograph a variety of things. I had to shoot the warehouse and also photograph some products for them (this site is all about people so I never show any of that). Helping me with understanding the products was Sniffers Pet Care’s latest employee Rachel.
Rachel’s portraits
Rachel has a key customer-facing role at the business so it was important to grab a few different pictures of her. I had about 5 minutes to grab a variety of different shots. When I’m pressed for time I always seem to have blazing hot sun, when sometimes all I want is an overcast day. Don’t get me wrong, I do love using natural light and especially hard light in a creative way, however, sometimes it’s nice to just to have something a little easier.
five to ten minutes
Time was not on my side, the weather wasn’t being my friend so hopefully, I could walk outside and find the perfect backdrop. Hahahaha, of course not, industrial estates aren’t renowned for their picturesque qualities but hey ho, let’s go with it. Sniffers Pet Care is currently working with the fabulous Faith PR and I knew that having a picture with their logo would be important for general publicity. Typically the sun was in the worst position it could be for this shot so I had to get a little creative, but it worked.
Backdrops
Now it was into find whatever I can use mode. Across the yard from Sniffers I noticed a blue door, and it was actually in the shade so I kept things simple 30 seconds later and them shots were done. We then ventured back to Sniffers again, I noticed another blue door, this time I had hard light to use so I wanted to create something a little different using shadows, 30 seconds more and it was done. Next, I wanted something neutral so I used the building with grey verticles, 30 seconds later done.
Headshots
For over the last decade I’ve been doing headshots and environmental portraits, however the new buzz word is personal branding pictures. I actually think there’s more to personal brand pictures but let’s just go with it.
We headed into a very packed warehouse and I was looking for some texture and colour to take a couple of environmental portraits of Rachel so I had to ask her to sit on a pallet, whilst I shot something a little bit more interesting.
Always be prepared to get your camera out
After I’d finished I packed up my cameras, lights tripod etc and was just about to get into the car. As I started to drive off, I saw the light change and the sun went behind a cloud, so I jumped out, got my cameras out and just asked Rachel to “work it” in front of the Sniffers Pet Care sign. It would have been so easy to leave but I would have been kicking myself if I would have missed the opportunity.
If you’re looking for someone to come and photograph you or your staff then get in touch john@johnsteelphotography.com
