Happy Hour

One tiny snag about shooting pictures for a living is that I can't share everything I do straight away.  Often my clients want to release their promotional material or whatever it is first.  And fair enough too.  That's why I can't put up anything from my recent magazine or theatre shoots.  I can share a little of this though, some work I did in a local hostelry.

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It was one of those informal shoots where my client had a family coming in for drinks and dinner who were happy enough to be captured. Kind of a fishing trip for shots for general promotional material. Not a bad idea, we got some useful stuff, but you're always going to get better results from a comprehensive brief. It dawned on me that this shoot wasn't all about the family per se, but more about good looking GV's (general views) and detail shots to build up the venue's promotional catalogue. Before our time was up, my client and I talked and I quickly did a few experiments designed to show him what else we could do. The shiny, colourful stuff behind the bar is great material for detail shots, so I created some impromptu lighting schemes with my flashes (one or two of which needed to be cloned out later - this was just a quick experiment) and looked for some creative opportunities.



You can tell I also pushed the envelope a little in the post processing. I'm sharing these because I don't really expect them to be used. It might not be the sort of thing that fits in with the existing promotional material - the less processed stuff should, but I like to offer clients something extra they might not have thought about and it always pays to push myself in terms of new techniques.



We'll see what comes out of this shoot in terms of further business. I was up front and told my client I thought I could do more for him knowing his needs a little better now. I also feel I'm just getting comfortable with this hyper-real look and how to achieve it efficiently. It won't always be appropriate, but it's another tool for my photgraphic trick bag.