The lovely folks at HR consultancy, JourneyHR underwent a rebrand a few months ago. They demonstrated huge wisdom in hiring my long time office mate and friend Catherine Jordan to mastermind the graphic design and general creative direction of their project. Whilst redesigning their website she suggested that it might bring a dose of friendly bonhomie to proceedings to have some photographs of the team featured on certain key pages.
Catherine was good enough to recommended me for the commission and put JourneyHR in touch with me. After agreeing on a photography package – a combination of shooting time and the number of optimised images to be supplied – I gave myself the task of recce-ing the area where the shoot was to take place. JourneyHR work out of a private members’ club in Soho, so their idea was to have some indoor shots in a handsome meeting room at their HQ before heading out to the streets for some location portraits. I had a concern that there might be a lot of foot traffic in certain areas of Soho during the shoot – which would be bad for background randoms and unwanted spectators – so, about a week before the shoot, I travelled to the area at the same time as the shoot was due to take place to scope out some quiet, nicely lit areas close to the members’ club. It swiftly became apparent that Soho would be too busy in the late morning coffee run time slot, so I ventured north of Oxford Street to Fitzrovia, where I found beautiful streets, an excellent combination of bounced light and shade, and, crucially, a minimal number of pedestrians. It was perfect!
When the day of the shoot came, everything went incredibly smoothly. The indoor portraits necessitated only a couple of different lighting set-ups, and we were making our way to the streets of Fitzrovia before long. Thanks to the recce we were able to make a beeline for a spot that I had already pinpointed for portraits and we acheived what I believe to be the best shots from the whole shoot.
A couple of months later, JourneyHR contacted me to request some more photos – business was booming and they had expanded! This time around the shoot took place a little earlier, so we were able to take all of the photos in Soho Square, a mere stone’s throw from their HQ. The weather really played ball that day and the sun gave us some gorgeous, warm light which was being bounced off all the surrounding buildings. We shot an updated group shot and then some individual portraits under the little pavilion in the middle of the square.
