I have been working down the beautiful Parkstone Bay Marina in Poole, Dorset for several years with my Photography and Social Media clients Dromeas Yachts UK . South Deep is situated on the Marina’s edge and it was a pleasure to spend the bank holiday weekend photographing fresh portfolio of lifestyle content during the members summer launch night for Jimmy and the team at South Deep.
Bank Holiday Photography Commission spent at South Deep
Malle Mile 2021
No longer in London this year but Grimsthorpe Castle still proved to be a great location to host the Malle Mile 2021…. I didn’t want to capture to much at this event but have some fun and enjoy the event. Here is what I photographed!
Goodwood FOS with Team Penske
This years Goodwood Festival of Speed was dedicated to American Motorsport legend Roger Penske. I was introduced to Roger through Nick Goozee who invited me to photograph Team Penske at this years Goodwood FOS.
“Penske’s attendance comes as the event celebrates “The Maestros – Motorsport’s Great All-Rounders”, a theme consistently exemplified by Roger Penske and his race teams. As a driver, Penske enjoyed success on both sides of the Atlantic, winning in NASCAR and making it to Formula 1. But ‘The Captain’ is perhaps best known as the leader of Team Penske, having achieved unprecedented success across a number of motorsport disciplines, including INDYCAR, NASCAR, Trans-Am, sports cars, Australian Supercars and Formula 1.” ~ Goodwood.com
Bike Night at Locket Fuel
An evening spent at Locket Fuel! A recent content commission to kick start a new weekly event at Ashley Automotive, Bournemouth, Dorset. Head down every Thursday night for cool bikes, cool cars and a tasty hog roast!
The full fit-out
Another ‘behind the scenes’ maritime video of a recent fit out that took place for my regular content creation clients at Saltwater HQ. Last month we helped our friends at @the_boat_club with a full new fit–out of a @yamahamarineeu 175hp on their @zodiacribs!
On Location with We Are Nuevo...
A new agency on the scene! Photographed in the New Forest, I had the opportunity last winter to produce a new series of work with creative agency, We Are Nuevo. A team of experts experienced in working with leading global brands in a sustainable way.
“Our strategy is to keep our processes clean. Creativity should not kill the planet.”
The shoot was kept natural, environmental and local to base in Dorset. With a strategy to keep their processes clean, Nuevo needed some new photography and content to represent this. Taking my ‘natural, behind the scene’ approach and by keeping the shoot natural in this chosen environment, I think we were able to achieve this.
New Brand. New Content. Hayden Hill - Coming Soon...
With sustainability blooming within the fashion industry I couldn't resist picking up a new project with Hayden Hill. A brand new brand based in the USA and UK, it seemed like an exciting opportunity to launch this brand into a market that is massively growing within the fashion industry. Hayden Hill is soon to be launching a collection of sustainable and eco friendly made garment storage pieces. With regular content creation and social strategy days lined up, it's going to be exciting to be involved in the growth of a new brand. Watch this space! First content photography shoot took place in my studio in Dorset and the Dorset countryside.
You don’t need a team of creatives to create your own content
My style of work focuses on telling an untold story, usually behind the scenes and taking a natural approach to my photography work. I work with outdoor and lifestyle brands as a photographer and social media strategist. Alongside this, I also create content, usually modelling myself, to give brands engaging lifestyle imagery to bring their products and brands to life.
Why not use a model? Sometimes I do but I think it depends on the brief. Especially starting out or just trying to create some content for social media, I think the best thing to do is take a product, head to a location and play around with creating engaging photographs yourself!
I think working solo brings out another element of creativity and makes you think about how you are going to create a series of images on your own, whilst still making them appear professional. There are a few factors to consider, the main one being that I always factor in whether I would be suitable for the brand. I always try to approach brands that I would wear myself or I feel comfortable modelling. This way your photographs will have more natural results.
Here is a recent example of a series of product lifestyle photographs I shot with Hunter Boots. I live in wellies. I have tried so many different boots but nothing has compared to my Hunter Fields. Winter or Summer, walking in these boots has been comfortable and practical. I wear my Hunter Boots on photography shoots, exploring, walking the Dorset countryside and even shopping! Unlike other wellingtons that feel like an effort to spend long periods of time in, my Hunter Fields have been the ultimate walking boot! So I chose this product to work with…
I took some time to head to one of my favourite walking locations in Dorset with my pair of Hunter boots, my Canon 5d mk iV, a film light (because the light was quite flat), tripod, remote trigger and my dog and Landrover Defender (the props!). I had some idea of composition and what I wanted to achieve from the shoot but the majority of my inspiration came from the environment and just exploring the area. It is quite a workout shooting and modelling all by yourself, although I use a remote, I like to refer back to the preview to check the composition and how it looks. If you do this, remember to mark the spot you took your first shot! Throughout every series I do, my message is alway to ‘highlight an untold story’ so I include a range of angles that highlight different aspects of the product I’m focusing on. This includes close up product details as well as details within the landscape. You want to show the whole surroundings to give your audience a sense of the environment.
I styled this shoot with Hunter Boots based on the environment. Neutral and beige made a nice colour palette for this series and I thought about the colours and tones and how this would appear on my feed. My outfit choice didn’t really need too much thinking about but I choose something that was a little quirky, a bit of me and also a little relevant to Hunters brand image.
Once you start building up these shoots and a bank of content / your portfolio, you can then think about how you are going to use them. Whether you are creating content to build up your social media presence, adding to your website content or turning your shoot experience into a blog post. Here are a few ideas of some of the ways I’ve been reusing content recently that I have found has increased engagement and kept my clients brands still active and in the forefront of their audience and followers mind when scrolling through social media.
Reusing photographs to create new blog posts - even though you may have used these photographs in a previous blog post, use them again with a new meaning.
Reach out to your customers, connections, fans for reviews and testimonials - each review can create a new post
Get your blog posts on air as podcasts - podcasting has gotten pretty big lately. If you have a detailed blog post in your achieve, pull them out and dust them off. With a little reformatting, editing and scripting, they make excellent podcasts.
Tagging the right people - Reposting what others have shared from your feed you still remain forefront of peoples mind and active online.
Collaborating with influencers and like minded content creators could also be a low budget option if you are looking for fresh new content. I offer this content creation service to outdoor and lifestyle brands and it is something I love doing. Check out examples of all of my content creation and solo photography projects here
Howes and Wayko
Beautifully handcrafted in Great Britain, Howes and Wayko London work with textures, colours and sustainable exotic materials to produce the finest luxury countryside and shooting clothing and accessories. Shot in Somerset at the Owl Lodge Shooting School, this photography shoot aims to capture these beautiful qualities and bring the details to life within the countryside environment.
On Home Turf with Candace Campbell
It’s been a while since I have done a photography project for myself. I love experimenting with fashion and styling and fashion photography really does allow you to experiment with so much. From lighting, equipment to props and imagination. I love telling stories within my work and I knew my friend and model, Candice Campbell would be able to help me convey the right story. Lockdown has meant that I have had to work close to home but with Dorset on our doorstep, it wasn’t a problem finding the perfect location for a country styled fashion shoot. An early Sunday morning, a vintage Burberry and a knit co-ord, boots from Zara, hat from Hicks and Brown and a classic 35mm Canon later, these were the results…
Social Media Content Photography with Marvin Brooks
Love Island contestant, model and Personal Trainer. Marvin lives in Dorset and I was recently connected through mutual friend, Rhi Duffin. Working with influencers is an important part of social media growth and should be thought about when putting together a social strategy. I worked with Marvin for a few of his influencer collaborations as part of his fitness services, offering him a bank of imagery to use for his social media content and social media partnership collaborations.
