A fun day at the office!

I had a lot of fun photographing this great team on a full day’s shoot at this well-established architectural firm in the city of Nottingham. The directors wanted images for the new website, articles, publications and social media.

Having shot numerous buildings for the practice over a few years now, it was great to finally get to meet the whole team, and to put faces to names. The office is based in an old building that has been beautifully converted over 3 floors into a modern and light contemporary space.

There is a wonderful roof terrace with tables and benches for staff to have lunch or simply take a break with views of rooftops and the city.

I’m so looking forward to photographing future projects for this team in the coming months!          

Breast feeding campaign in Nottingham

Small Steps Big Changes (SSBC) is a lottery funded organisation working with local communities to talk about and encourage breast feeding.  The campaign ‘Feed Your Way’ is a breastfeeding public health campaign designed for Nottingham. It was co-created with thousands of Nottingham families and residents, health professionals and business owners.

 The campaign focuses on the real, lived experiences of six Nottinghamshire families and they currently feature on billboards and banners across Nottingham City, including the City Council House on Old Market Square.

 I covered the launch event of the campaign in the ballroom of the beautiful Council House in the centre of Nottingham. The council are working alongside SSBC to help promote the campaign with a huge banner placed on the outside of the building.

Headshots for a newly qualified nutritionist

Janet has just qualified to become a full-time nutritional therapist and is in the process of setting up her business. She needed bright, natural and authentic images reflecting who she is for her new website and social media. We met pre-shoot to discuss the sort of images she needed and on the day of the shoot collaborated to set up the shots and bring her vision to life. We had a large kitchen to work in with plenty of natural light flooding in which help to make the fresh fruit and vegetables we were using look appetising and pop with colour.

W Creative Beauty Salon

I had the pleasure of photographing this new beauty salon in Nottingham recently. I loved the colour palette used in the main area downstairs from reception all the way to hairdressing in the back of this substantial space. Upstairs, where the treatment rooms are located has a different feel entirely, with a clean monochrome look but the two areas do work well together.

There’s lots of natural light coming into the building so it makes for a welcoming and airy salon to spend time in. I love the cinema seats in the reception area below those inspiring words and the pink neon on the brick wall behind the coffee bar. Not to mention the excellent playlist that I was listening to while I worked. Clearly someone has great taste in music!

A celebration of the great British garden

I had my work cut out for this shoot given how many buildings I had to get round but also extensive grounds that I could have happily worked in all day. The weather was beautiful and the garden was well organised with distinct areas for growing, playing and sitting in quietly to eat and drink, read, reflect or just listen to the birds. The colours and textures were rich and varied and I realised how much joy it gave the owners to walk around the space and enjoy the different areas of their garden.  I wanted to show how the distinct areas all connected so that prospective buyers could get a feel for the layout of the garden and just how much it had to offer. I admit that exploring and photographing this garden did make me want to have my own little green space to cultivate and maybe even photograph. In the meantime here’s some of my favourite shots from photographing this wonderful space.     

When one shoot leads to another......

I started working with a new branch of this estate agent and was pleased to be asked to also do headshots of each team member as they were looking to update their profiles in both print and on the web. The team wanted to have shots that obviously identified them as estate agents but also showed them as professional, friendly, trustworthy and open people to work with.  I look forward to working with them on more impressive properties for sale in the near future. 

Nottinghamshire Hospice

A little trip down memory lane here but a year ago the lovely people at Nottinghamshire Hospice got in touch to explain they had great news about some free promotional space which they would need images for. Nottingham City Buses had offered the hospice free advertising on the back of one of their buses and so I was asked to produce a range of images which meant working all over the site to cover the different services they offer, the staff that work there and the wonderful grounds the hospice is surrounded by. The building is a day centre and offers numerous services to people including a range of therapies, treatments, refreshments and a freshly prepared hot meal at lunchtime. 

Fortunately, I had a warm and slightly overcast day which meant there were no harsh shadows to contend with when photographing the grounds and people sitting on the benches relaxing and talking. In the end the main image chosen does, I feel, reflect exactly what the hospice is about and that is people. People and the quality of life they can enjoy for the days, weeks or months they have left. Nottinghamshire Hospice is a wonderful charity doing really important work to help people in the community.  if you would like to know more then here is the link to take you directly to their website: www.nottshospice.org 

International Women's Day - BBC Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Police

BBC Radio Nottingham invited firearms officer, Angie Cochrane, one of only 4 female firearms officers in a team of 52 from Nottinghamshire Police to discuss her career to date. She talked about her most memorable 999 call, her pet hens and what it's like being a woman in a male dominated environment.  I was asked to nip over to the BBC building to photograph Angie and Verity once they had finished the interview and managed to get this image of the two of them in the recording studio. The interview wasn't broadcast live but was part of a series of programmes being aired weekly over Women's history month of Verity speaking to different women about their careers. I have often passed the BBC Radio Nottingham building and wondered what it would look like inside so was very excited to finally be walking through the doors! I obviously didn't have much time to grab my shots, as both Angie and Verity had to get back to work but managed to get this shot, straight after the interview.   

Victoria Tretis from My VA Rocks

Victoria and i had a very enjoyable morning walking around West Bridgford to find outdoor places where we could shoot her headshots. Always wonderful to work with someone who is so cheerful, positive and up for trying all sorts of places to see what works best. Victoria was a little nervous at the beginning as she hates being the centre of attention but we talked a lot and shared funny stories and she soon started to relax. 

Charmaine Roche, Lifeflowbalance Coaching and Consulting Ltd

Charmaine has worked in the education sector for over 20 years initially as a teacher and now as a coach in education establishments working alongside staff. She specialises in coaching consultancy related to promoting organisational change, resilience, leadership development and well-being. As an executive Coach she works with teams individuals and groups. It was a delight to work with Charmaine as she was calm and easy to work with. Charmaine had requested a variety of images of her running a workshop at The University of Nottingham and also headshots which she could use on social media, publications and websites.      

Product shots for Nottingham based Crowe's Sauces

Having photographed the first iteration of Crowe's delicious chilli sauces back in November 2016 things have moved on somewhat for the owner Alessandra Crowe and a year later the business is going places. The production has now moved from Alessandra's residence to a unit at Sneinton Market and a now an even hotter sauce (can you believe?!) is being developed and tested. In December Alessandra is off the Brazil for a month to do research and see what other sauces she might be inclined to develop and put into production for 2018. In the meantime here are the latest product shoots. 

More headshots for East Midlands speech therapy business

So back to the speech therapy company for more headshots of a couple of new members of staff. The company had, of course, moved offices once more and are now situated in the loveliest coach house in West Bridgford. It was great to see everyone again and I even had time to have a cup of tea and a quick catch up with them afterwards before we all had to head off in different directions and get back to work.   

Nottingham's newest aquatics centre opens in Arnold

The owner of this new aquatics centre has already built a very successful online business selling fish and other pet foods. He now, however, has decided to take the next step and open what he hopes will be the first of a number of outlets in Nottingham and potentially across the UK. It was a pleasure working with him and his team in the new shop and already there were plans to purchase additional tanks for the tropical and marine fish room so it will be interesting to see what other ideas they have to utilise all the space this premises has to offer.   

Corporate Images for Online Marketing Business

I was commissioned by the MD of this business, specialists in online marketing, to shoot images for their website. Yet another East Midlands business seeing significant growth and quickly out growing their premises. It was a pleasure to work with a such a friendly and happy team and i look forward to working with them more on future projects. If you’re in need of specialist help with paid per click advertising then this is a great company to talk to and this is their website: www.keyprinciples.co.uk

Networking events at the Nottingham Playhouse

I was commissioned by a marketing company to photograph a series of their monthly networking meetings at Nottingham Playhouse over the course of five months. I had been attending these events to meet potential clients before being commissioned so I knew the drill. I really enjoyed being there as a photographer and photographing for the two hours. The Playhouse can throw up some interesting lighting issues in different parts of the space the meeting, networking and presentations took place but it's all in a day's work and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  

Nottingham Trent University Annual Green Academy Awards

I was so pleased to be asked for the third year running to photograph the NTU Green Academy Awards. The students come to study at NTU from all over the world and their commitment to sustainability and caring for the environment is really inspiring. Their innovative ideas for long term sustainable development is a testament to NTU's own work in the Green Academy to embed education for sustainable development across the curriculum of the whole University. Listening to the students, some of whom share their project ideas, and learning how they are choosing to make a difference, gives me encouragement that there is hope for future generations. These young people have a deep understanding that we simply need to care more for our environment and each other. The room is always buzzing with much laughter, positive energy and a sense of accomplishment and it is wonderful to get to witness the emergence of such talented individuals who will hopefully embark on rewarding and challenging careers in the years ahead. Well done Green Academy graduates of 2017!