Commercial Feature Photography

As a busy working commercial photographer in Hull, I am asked to shoot a broad range of subjects for businesses to use for their promotion and communications. I've noticed a lot of businesses battening down the hatches where marketing and advertising is concerned during harder economic times - I would argue that this has actually been a perfect time for organisations to develop PR stories and really shout out about the successes in their businesses - surely these will be the stories that bring customers banging on the door!

I've recently been introduced to Mark (above) owner of the Millhouse Restaurant at Skidby who really embraces the PR mantra. I met him whilst shooting a wedding at the Millhouse and talked about his new website and blog. As the Millhouse has recently undergone a major refurbishment (looks great!), Mark really wants to communicate how hard he and his team have worked (again during really hard times). I was commissioned to shoot a couple of stories that Mark can use in his blog to connect with his clientele. Blogs are a great way of allowing customers 'under the skin' of your business and really involving them in what makes your business 'tick' - its culture, values and brand story.

Mark and I talked about the 'story' he wanted to communicate and we developed some appropriate themes. The Millhouse is all about fresh, seasonal ingredients and locally sourced wherever possible - this includes game. Mark loves to shoot - pigeon in particular - so we created some 'feature' style photographs of him in action like the one above. Other sets included cooking at home (Mark is a trained chef) and some very casual shots of him with his dog Enzo. The Millhouse will use the images to bring into focus the culture that exists at their restaurant and let their clientele have a closer look at what makes them tick as a food business. It's really refreshing to meet business owners that have embraced digital story telling/blogging as a way of reaching out to their loyal clientele and to those who havn't experienced their offerings before.

For the gearheads out their, I shot the image with a Nikon D700, 25-70mm 2.8 Nikon lens (1/250th sec, f11, ISo200) with a SB800 flash triggered with a SC17 flash cord, set manually at half power with the flashed zoomed in to 50mm)