Journey to "the Land of Flatness..."

What can I say I didn't invent the title, but when I heard our client ask whether we'd made it to "the land of flatness yet?" lets just say I've not been able to get it out of my head since...

Now this will not be my usual blog post, for one thing I can't really show any pictures from the project... as my client has plans... secret plans... so if I told you they'd kill me!

However for all those who contacted me, saying that I must be on holiday... as my phone was suddenly giving a very European ring tone... no, sorry all those bad jokes and cruel comments were wide of the mark... I WAS WORKING !

In actual fact we'd been working hard for over a week before we set off, checking equipment, checking equipment... and checking equipment again! A recent client suggested I was a little OCD about my gear... no wonder, we were travelling over 500 miles to another country so we'd best not forget anything! However for safety sake I also took probably more than I would need... which proved very useful!

Anyway we were travelling by car, as the client quickly realised the "excess baggage" would probably need them to have a long sit down! Customs at the port of Hull were clearly in a bit of a "moody", to say the least, but when the customs officer looked inside the car she quickly backed off... had "we packed all this yourself" indeed!  Any search of the car would have kept her at work late into the night!

Geography was always an interest when I was at school, indeed I can often seem to have the ability of a "homing pigeon"... where food is concerned! However having left the dockside in Hull we were still moving down the Humber Estuary nearly 2 hours later... Hull may be a port but it's not close to the North Sea!

Anyway after a great night at sea... it was great because the sea was calm... we docked in Holland and drove to Arnhem without problem... and very little traffic! A quick call to the client from outside in the car park was greeted with the memorable line... "so you've made it to the Land of Flatness then!"

Pictures... nothing much, just pallets of our gear... "yeah, we packed that all ourselves, what do you think!"... the client very kindly arranged a forklift to get all the gear up to the level we were working on... the ferry leaving Amsterdam... Oh and some beautiful woman who got herself in front of the lens, eh Claire !

To "InterNorga" inity and beyond....

Ok, Ok... bad title... apologies to Buzz, Woody, Jessie and all who have to sit through / watch Toy Story at least once everyday as I do at present, but you get the principal I'm sure...

I wish I could blame the girls love of all things Toy Story for my addiction to cartoons... they are certainly wearing a grove in this set of disks... but I was raised on Tom and Jerry... the "full fat", flat iron in the face, hammer on the toes version... not the "skimmed milk" version of now... but that's another blog post for another day!

Anyway back to the world of photography...!

It's always great to be asked to contribute to the ideas which form a client's Brief and even better to be acknowledged as having something to contribute! Not always the case at present, particularly with those have come to believe that photographers are only "data capture technicians" without any artistic skills or creativity of there own... that's right you in the back row, with the purple shirt and glasses who believe that composition, lighting, perspective and colour are all just "drop down" menu's in a photo application, I mean you!

We were recently sent a really great idea, just an outline on paper but full of possibilities, for one of our more creative clients... and asked for our input. Really should have remembered to think carefully before I replied... but what the heck...

They wanted to run a teaser campaign in the run up to the launch of a new product range, timed for the largest trade fair of their year... to highlight the artistic, creative nature of a new range of... plates !

Never mentioned a sports car, supermodel or pop band did I... so why are you surprised about the brief being crockery?

Anyway we knocked a few ideas back and forward, about art galleries, abstract art (yes really, Picasso if you want to know!) and exhibitions... oh and the product will be with you tomorrow and we need this shot by the end of the week! Never said this was going to be a month in the Maldives did I...

The result was a Brief that I was really interested to shoot, that I felt I'd helped contribute to positively, and an agency and client who were really pleased with the result.

How you support all those plates and bowls, not to mention tomatoes and asparagus without visible supports... or the need for complex montage or retouching... well that's what makes us more than just data capture technician doesn't it! Wish I had a "behind the scenes" shot of the rig but lets just say that my "photographers Meccano set" came in useful, as did a couple of roles of gaffer tape! And it's fun to chase tomatoes rolling across the studio floor... certainly more fun than standing in the one that got away!

The sequence of images ran across 4 separate Ad's prior to INTERNORGA, in Hamburg Germany, the European market... and were then picked up and used again by the South African side of the business, for an event they were displaying at later in the year. I bet none of those that saw the images knows ( or cares! ) where Darlington is, or that it's in the UK but that's just the power of what we do... work with great people to create great ideas and make clients happy!

So many thanks to Louise and Ruth, at Wildfire, for the Brief and putting up with my  rambling suggestions, scribbled drawings and our "wonderful test shots" which were laid out across the studio floor... and to John at CARLISLE for letting us all go with the idea... Thanks Guys!