Back on the Snow - Commercial Photography.

As a commercial photographer in Yorkshire, the last year or so has been pretty tough - as it has been for most businesses. However, it seems like economic recovery is starting to take hold and I'm certainly noticing a dramatic increase in the amount of commercial assignments I am taking on.

Commercial photography requires a totally different way of 'visual thinking' to my usual work shooting weddings in our region. Commercial images need to sell a concept, an idea, an emotion or just even plain old widgets! The interesting thing is that sometimes, my clients don't really know what they are looking for in an image! I spend a lot of time with my clients finding out what their business is really all about, it's a bit of detective work really - I need to know what makes the product or service tick and then translate that into a set of visual resources that ultimately creates desire.

I have worked with Snozone on a number of occasions during the past 18 months and as an avid snowboarder myself, whenever they need new images and I get the call I always get really excited. I was back down in Milton Keynes last week to create some new images for them and the shots above show part of what the brief required. Every Thursday night, one of the slopes is turned into a terrain park and the local freestyle riders rip it up! It's a superb challenge to do justice to the moves they pull not only from a reaction point of view but also from an equipment standpoint aswell. I hope the images in the collage show you some of the excitement I was feeling as I took them.

The images will be used in national advertising campaigns to attract more skiers and snowboarders to visit the indoor slopes in Castleford, Milton Keynes and Glasgow. A far cry from the old dry ski slope days, these modern indoor centres are superb for beginners to learn and for more experienced riders to regain their mountain legs before a trip to the Alps. Not only is the snow fantastic (amd it is real snow!) but the entertainment, restaurants and shopping around the slopes is first class.

My commercial portfolio has more examples of the type of work I do for local, regional and national businesses.