Latest Shoots - Corporate and Commercial Photography | Business Photographs in the Midlands & UK

April 19, 2016 by James Crockford Leave a Comment

The REP – promoting Birmingham as a conference venue

World Class Conference Facilities at a World Class Theatre – Birmingham REP Conference Facilities

As a non-Brummie who has adopted Birmingham as my home town, I genuinely enjoy taking photos that will help promote the city as a destination or as a conference location. There is so much going on here for the business community and I get very passionate about pushing ourselves forward to show the world what Brummies already know – we have a great city here.

conference venue in Birmingham familiarisation trip The REP Birmingham Photography

The REP is a definite jewel in the crown in this city. For over 100 years this theatre has provided the West Midlands with a long and distinguished list of performances. It has also developed alongside the ICC to become a real centre for business too, offering some excellent facilities for those looking to host events and conferences.

watching the makeup artist's demonstration delegates interact with makeup for wounds

One way to build the profile of conference venues such as this is to hold familiarisation visits, where you invite a select group to experience the venue and to see for themselves how it might work for them or people they know. I was asked along to photograph one such familiarisation visit, and it was a fascinating insight into an unusual aspect of the theatre – make up. More specifically, wound make up. The delegates were talked through some of the basics with one of the make-up experts at the REP, and then given the opportunity to try out some of the ideas on each other. And I must say, some of the results, even after a relatively short time, did look remarkably realistic. As an exercise for Birmingham REP conference delegates it was a great ice-breaker and you could see that the guest were genuinely enjoying themselves.

fine dining at the REP fine dining menu at the REP

After they had all received some nasty wound on their arms they moved on to fine dining from the REP’s catering team, before watching a performance. Photographing an event like this was really interesting, and hopefully the evening will help build Birmingham as a world class destination for business.

details of the REP corporate hospitality

If you have an event or PR opportunity that you would like to make the most of, contact James to see how photography can help you.

April 18, 2016 by James Crockford Leave a Comment

Business Portraits Don’t Have To Be Boring

Making Business Portrait Photography Suit Your Personality

Working with a variety of businesses across the Midlands, as a photographer one of the key aspects of what I do is capturing their personality. A business headshot will show people what you look like (or social media or linked in for example), but a business portrait says more about you and your business. When I am out with my clients I spend time getting to know them, what their business does and what it is they are trying to say through their website and marketing material. Very often it is these simple conversation that steers the photography one way or another.

headshot portrait business portrait in Birmingham

I met Assad and his colleagues at HRIS Community through the web design team at Wow Internet who I have worked with before. They were looking for something that reflected the fact that they are a well regarded company, but that they were not stiff and formal. For the photography we needed photographs that reflected the different personalities of the three main partners, but that also tied in well with the actually design of the site itself.

portrait for a business against a red brick wall corporate portrait leaning against a wall

The great thing about working in the Birmingham area is that there are plenty of venues and areas of the city that can give a unique look to photographs. We spent time around the business district of the city and this gave some great options for experimenting with colours and textures in the background. Fundamentally however, my skill is not just technical, but rather it is more human – I need to be able to get the most out of each person within a relatively short time, making them feel comfortable doing something that most people find unusual (to say the least).

business portrait with an urban background

The results allowed the web design team several options for the end product, and meant that each portrait on the page looked different, but still had a stylistic connection with the others.

If you are interested in getting some business portraits or social media headshots, please contact James to see how we might be able to help.

April 11, 2016 by James Crockford Leave a Comment

Retirement Home Commercial Photography

Commercial Photos with Care – Care Home Photography

For the Care sector, and particularly for a care home photography is always going to be important. Websites and marketing materials are not selling a ‘product’ but rather are trying to convey the skill and care with which older relatives are looked after. The choice of who to trust with the role of care-giver and home to older relatives is a very emotional decision, particularly if the relative is experiencing dementia. Woodlands Care Home and Waterloo Care Home, based in north Worcestershire, specialise in dementia care and were looking to completely renew their marketing – both in print and on the web. They had taken on the expertise of Digital Glue to help them, and new photographic images was a priority – the way a home is portrayed in photos is an incredibly important part of making people feel comfortable with a difficult decision.

resident at a care home holding a cup of tea

care worker holding hands

I visited both homes over the course of the day, and was lucky to meet a wide range of lovely people, both staff and residents, at both homes. They specialise in dementia care, and so they were set up to look after people at varying levels of memory loss. It was fascinating walking around both homes, chatting to residents and staff, watching the activities and seeing the care and compassion that the staff showed. I was also able to meet some relatives who clearly appreciated the efforts of the staff.

staff member assisting a care home resident staff serving food at a dementia care home

There were many little touches to help residents feel at ease – dementia can be very confusing and it is often much less stressful to work alongside the memory loss rather than fight against it. With this in mind, much of the decor and poster boards were looking back to times gone by, activities were simple but nostalgic and there were small areas where residents could just relax without too much stimulation.

detail of cup and crayons at a care home cat living in Woodlands and waterloo care

If you are a Care Provider and you are looking for photography for your residential home, or the services you offer, please contact James for more information about how we can help.

October 29, 2014 by James Crockford Leave a Comment

Fazeley Studios – a stylish corporate event

AVA Corporate Event Styling at Fazeley Studios

I am slightly biased but Fazeley Studios is one of the most stylish corporate event venues in Birmingham, and when AVA Event Styling get involved too, it makes for a very special venue. Organisations and companies are always looking for interesting places to have meetings or dinners, but few places in the West Midlands offer the sort of style that you find at this Digbeth venue. The building is based around an old Unitarian Chapel, with a courtyard and Bistro area. When my clients arrive at the venue and walk in through the big blue entrance door, their first reaction is almost always ‘wow – I didn’t expect this…’. The view they are greeted with is very impressive.

Fazeley Studios Corporate Event Venue

This is one of the many reasons that the BCO chose Fazeley Studios as the venue for their Chairman’s Dinner. They were working with my favourite event styling companies – AVA Event Styling. I have worked with Amanda and Amy on quite a few different projects, and I am consistently blown away by their ability to produce the most dazzling results. They take influences from the most interesting places, and make any venue extraordinary. They turned their considerable talents to making this year’s Chairman’s Dinner considerably different to previous years; and they did not disappoint. BCO Chairmans Dinner-2

Guests were greeted when they arrived by the Fazeley Studios staff with pre-dinner drinks whist they networked, before moving into the adjoining room for their dinner. The standard of the food, hospitality and decor certainly made the evening stand out for all those attending.

If you are planning a corporate event and you are looking for a venue with a difference then look no further than Fazeley Events, and if you want your event to look suitably spectacular then contact AVA Event Styling.

For more information about photography, just drop James a line.

Fazeley Event Photography Fazeley Studios Event photography Conference facilities at Fazeley Studios event name badges Fazeley Events Fazeley Studios entrance area Table settings by ava event styling Styled event at fazeley studios Food at Fazeley Events Food at Fazeley Studios Corporate event styling BCO Chairmans Dinner-113 candles fazeley studios by candle light Food preparation

June 17, 2014 by James Crockford Leave a Comment

Image Library For The Metal Industry

All Metal Services – A Precision Metal Industry

Creating an image library for the metal industry is such an interesting process. The Midlands are home to many companies with metal at the heart of what they do. From the outside these may look like the sort of processes that involve brute force, but in reality nothing could be further from the truth.
Birmingham and the West Midlands have many companies that are using producing high tech, high precision metal products for use in the automotive and aerospace industry (among others).

As an industrial photographer, I get to see inside these industries, and when I am taking marketing photographs for an image library I want need to be able to communicate what a company actually does. All Metal Supplies work within several industries, but particularly aerospace. They sell precision cut metal that is then made into component parts, whether that is block metal, sheet metal, or tubes. The tolerances on the cuts are incredibly small, and AMS have built up a good reputation within the industry.

Dealing with large amounts of metal means very large warehouse units, plus very large cutting machines. I visited their site in the Black Country and Bolton to get a variety of images that could be used in marketing brochures etc. The brief was to get some abstract shots, some photographs of the machinery in action and some of the people working the machines. I took two slightly different angles when it came to the large machines – one more natural with the machines in action, and another angle
with more stylised images, isolating the machine and the workers and reducing the distractions from the background. This leaves options open when it comes to the use of the images over time. When I am producing a photo library for a company, I always think a couple of steps ahead to make sure the photographs have longevity.

If you are looking to develop an image library in your industry please contact Associated Images Ltd to see how we can help get the right photographs for you.