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Not much happening at the moment so I thought I’d blog about some commercial photography I did for the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) in mid-July when they were opening a couple of new Hi-Tech Ponds sponsored by Thames Water to add to their park experience.
The 42 hectare London Wetland Centre in Barnes (London) is regarded as the best urban wildlife site in Europe and, as I’d never been before, it was something I was looking forward to.
When the day came it was a scorcher.
The temperature was hovering around 28-30 Celsius which wasn’t ideal when I was carrying around 10kg of equipment on my back and 3kg in my hands, but the scenery in the hot summer sun was stunning.
My task was to photograph the opening of the new Interactive Digital Pond as well as their Pond Safari, a remote-controlled underwater camera pond (that water was looking very tempting in that heat).
They were opened by TV wildlife presenter Miranda Krestovnikoff who was great to work with and sharing her love for wildlife with the kids.
Following the 2 unveilings I was to take some general scenery images for the WWT to put in their image library which would be used for future advertising, poster, banners etc.
My contact for the day was the very knowledgeable Jamie Wyver and we walked around the park with Jamie showing me the areas of the park which he wanted photographed. We made an efficient team with him getting disclaimer signatures from parents and me getting the shots of the landscape.
At the end of the day the images were given to the WWT to put into their image library for press releases and to Thames Water for their own press releases.
It was a longer day than I expected, but the park was such an amazing place to visit and the time flew by.
Who knew such a jewel sits virtually in the middle of London?
More pics below:
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I’ve created this post to illustrate how we can’t help transferring our feelings of the quality of an image onto the person or product that’s in the image. And as a direct result this will influence the interest that we have in that person or product.
We can’t escape that engrained part of our nature that, in the first 5 seconds, we will have assessed and judged a subject by it’s appearance and a lot of our following attitude to the person/product will have been decided in that 5 seconds.
During a recent conversation, I was asked whether or not it was worth having a professional picture of themself to use on websites, email, business cards and other marketing materials?
My reaction to that is of course "Yes", but they suggested that existing snapshots from a recent holiday or wedding should suffice?
While the holiday/wedding snapshot may be free, what image will they really be portraying?
Poor Quality? Slapdash? Cheap?….. none of which you want potential clients or contacts to associate when they think of you or your product.
If you look at successful people or companies, you’ll see a common trend in that they only have quality images representing either themselves or their product or service. As an example, some companies invest tens of millions of dollars in advertising every year just to encourage us drink their brand of fizzy pop.
It’s nothing to do with ego or pride, they just know that people instantly judge by image quality.
So, an example.
If you were attending a business seminar or looking for a professional service from someone and you see a flyer or promotional email or poster with the following images … which person would you instinctively want to listen to or hire?
It’s the same girl in both pictures, but we all expect the person conveyed in the image on the right will be the one that will give us the quality service we want. You may think that it’s an extreme example, but it’s not. You’ll be surprised the number of images you see around that are like the one on the left.
But the good news is that it doesn’t actually cost much to get a professional image and therefore you can be 3 steps ahead of your competition.
If money is super tight then you could still book a photographer for a session, but by sharing the session time with a few friends or colleagues you’ll find that it’s much more affordable. The photographer won’t mind sharing and in fact they’ll probably encourage it.
Well out of 10,000+ entries I was shortlisted and so a few short weeks later I find myself at the evening gala awards ceremony hosted by 2 of the MPA execs and Tom O’Conner (who was brilliant and still as bright as a button).
This was a weekend of firsts for me.
The first year I’ve entered images to competitions and subsequently the first time I’ve been shortlisted.
The awards ran through their categories and then my category came up.
My name is called out as my picture flashes up on the screen and I nearly spit my drink.
I made it into the final selections… and … and … and …. I didn’t win.
Soooo clooose, but I’m over the moon I got so far on my first year.
So until next year … I’ll leave you with this 🙂
Great News just in!
I just received a letter that one of my still-life/product images has been shortlisted in the Master Photography Association’s 2010 Awards which will take place at the Hilton Metropole close to the NEC in Birmingham.
Their letter reads:
"Your photograph will join others from across the world that will adorn the new ‘Wall of Fame’ at the forthcoming Awards Dinner and presentation ceremony that takes place on Sunday 17th October. The overall ‘Master Photographer of the Year’ will be chosen from these short-listed entries.
The Master Photography Awards are the most prestigious awards for photography in the UK and feature the cream of today’s photographic talent"
I’m absolutely blown away that I’ve reached the MPA finals for 2010, especially as this is the first year that I’ve entered my images into any competitions.
To have achieved this recognition is an honour and to celebrate this fantastic news, I’m offering a discount on all bookings placed before the end of October.
To request further information or for bookings please call or drop me a line.
October discount closed