“I hate having my picture taken”

If I had £1 for every time someone has said that to me over the years, I wouldn’t need to be a commercial photographer anymore. And if I had £1 for every time someone had looked at the finished results and said “Oh! It’s actually quite good!” I could have doubled my money…

Take the lovely people at MK Illumination, for example. They’re specialists in festive and decorative lighting. Walking into their Blackburn warehouse is like walking into the props department of a Disney movie. Seeing this many twinkling snowmen and glowing reindeer in mid-June is enough to make you wonder whether someone’s been slipping something into your coffee.

You might think that a team with this much design and decoration experience might feel a little more comfortable in front of camera. But oh no. Of the 15 corporate portrait shots I took, I think most people screwed their face up when it was their turn. Then, when they saw the results, they were all at least mildly surprised. In a good way.

I wasn’t here solely for the individual portraits. I was here for a group shot of about 25 members of the team, and a full workforce shot of 67.

You’ll have seen workforce shots before. Usually they’re tiers of staff in long rows, with the MD in the middle – a bit like your old school photo but with less bad hair. But when you do what MK Illumination does – and when you have a 30ft reindeer at your disposal – you can make your workforce photo rather more engaging.

I’m really pleased with this shot, because it brings with it a huge sense of fun, and an unmistakeable indication of what the team is capable of.

You may not have a 30ft reindeer lying around. And like MK Illumination, your people may dread the prospect of having their picture taken, but when you take the time to add a little imagination (and a professional photographer) to your business portraits it’s amazing what you can achieve.

What do your corporate portraits say about your business? Call me, and let’s see if we can freshen things up. You’ll find me here.

View some of my commercial photography portfolio
View some of my corporate photography portfolio
View my blog posts