Following on from my post a couple of weeks ago about shooting a PR campaign for Active Tameside, here’s the continuation …

As I mentioned in the earlier post, the Marketing People at Active had planned a two-pronged campaign to promote use of the gyms and leisure facilities in the Tameside area.  In the first part, professional athletes were used to appeal to people considering going to the gym, or returning after a break.  Part of my brief had been to make the images ‘dark’ i.e. with the emphasis on the athletes, but with a darkened background (still visible as the gym, but very much secondary to the portraits).  The flip side was this part of the campaign, using non-professionals and using the idea of ‘light’.  Several gym members volunteered to take part in the shoot, though none of them were professional, using the facilities to keep fit, healthy and active.  There was, as you can see, a wider spread of ages and abilities … and a wider range of gym activities.  My job was to photograph the subjects participating in their regular workout – whatever that was, including whatever equipment or activities they normally enjoyed – rather than setting anything up.  For the technically minded, I balanced the ambient light in the gym with some fill-in using speed lights.

Again, what’s fascinating for me is to see how the final images are used, and what is done to them by Chris and Simon, the marketing guys.  I’ve been back to Tameside already this year (another post for the future), and have already seen pop-up banners and flyers that use some of the images from this session. Scroll down past the few examples that I’ve included here and you’ll see three examples of what has been done with the images to include them in the campaign material.

Whatever your PR and promotional plans, professional photos will enhance them!  Give me a call or get in touch via the contact form to discuss how I can help with promoting your business.