Haines Boats | Product Photography

Commercial Boat Photographer

Product Photography – Haines Boats, Norfolk

Haines Marine are a Norfolk based boat builder, specialising in high quality low volume boats so product photography gets a bit interesting when you’re shooting a boat worth a third of a million pounds!  Haines are widely known as one of the best boatbuilders in the UK, probably even Europe.  So I was excited to get a call from Anglia Afloat magazine when they were planning a feature on Haines Marine.

The brief(s)

I was to spend a day alongside Justin Haines as he took the Haines 360 along the Norfolk Broads. I discussed the purpose of the shoot with Justin as well as Duncan, from Anglia Afloat, and the key purpose of the feature was to conduct a boat test and show general shots around the boat to support the feature. At the same time Justin was keen to get fresh images for their official brochure and so had quite different requirements for the images.  With these slightly differing briefs in mind I set about shooting the boat from a feature/journalistic perspective.  At the same time I was mindful that Justin wanted active as well as static shots of the boat for their brochure.  In the end I covered many of the unique parts of the boat for the in-depth parts of the feature but also hopped onto another boat we had at our disposal to capture shots of the boat “in action”. All in all it was a brilliant day with access to all areas, as well as two very different briefs to fulfil. The backdrop suited the boat perfectly as this an in-shore boat and the weather played a huge part too.

 

Editing

While the edit was, in the main, very straight forward with colour correction, exposure balance and mild cropping.  Due to excavation works alongside the river some composition and cloning work was required to remove the distracting backdrop. In fact one of the shots of the boat is made up of 3 entirely separate images blended together.  Also, with the internal shots there was exposure layering work to be done, time-consuming but necessary to get the right balance of light in the image and make it look entirely natural.

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Campaign Magazine Editorial Shoot | Editorial Photographer

Editorial Photography Cambridge Norfolk

Editorial Photography Cambridge Norfolk

Campaign Magazine Editorial Photography Shoot

Haymarket run a number of titles, both online and print. For this shoot I was to cover a feature for their online and print publication, Campaign.  I was needed to document the day in the life of a winner of their recent competition.  Jonathan had won a competition and his prize, as chosen by him as a keen cook himself, was to work alongside renowned chef Daniel Clifford at Midsummer House in Cambridge.  The brief was to capture a slice of the day with Jonathan, as well as documenting his time with Daniel as he took direction while creating some dishes.  A thoroughly enjoyable shoot, although at times a little cramped, after all the last thing you want in a working kitchen is a 6 ft  guy with 2 cameras round his neck!  I managed to stay clear of hot stoves and busy chefs though.

The article was published online at Campaign Live’s Website and on Brand Republic’s site, as well as in print for Campaign Magazine.

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Waitrose Weekend Magazine | Editorial Photography

Waitrose Weekend Editorial shoot

My first assignment for Waitrose’s Weekend Magazine.

I was called, very last minute, to cover a feature for their section called “My Weekend”.  This is a section where they interview people from all walks of life to talk about what they do that’s different at their weekend.  With one day’s notice, my brief was to get to the Lifeboat Station at Caister, Norfolk, just a couple miles north of Great Yarmouth, and get an environmental portrait but without it being too posed.  This is usually a straight forward task, and at a Lifeboat Station there would be plenty of backdrops available.  Having checked in at the office I met Paul, he was a friendly guy, but he had a job to do and I, understandably, had to fit in with his routine of setting up the Lifeboat for the upcoming drill that morning.  Paul was very accommodating but I had to pick my moment.

Editorial Photography Norfolk

In between his duties, and during constant rain, he called me over and said we had a few minutes as he had to launch the boat, although Waitrose would only use one shot I had to give them a wide choice to select from.  I climbed up on the boat and, with rain now pelting down, we quickly moved through a number of shots, while balancing on a wet Lifeboat.  Five minutes later, that’s it…we were done.  I hopped down from the boat and set off back home to upload the proof shots to the client.  A fresh and invigorating, if slightly wet, way to start your Sunday morning for sure.