Photographing the Corporate Culture
This was a special day for photographing the corporate culture of a very special group of people.
After all, it’s not every day that you have the opportunity to shoot in room full of cops. Or, at least I hope it is not!
Actually, standing in front of the entire shift of the North Attleboro Police Department, we were very careful to use the word “photograph” instead of “shoot”!
This photo of the morning roll call was created for a badge manufacturing company’s website overhaul.
The concept behind the shoot was to capture the feel of the corporate culture, that sense of comradery that the officers have, to support the message that the manufacturer understands the needs of police departments. This was one of four photographs we did on that property that morning.
Behind the Scenes to Capture the Corporate Culture
The marketing piece was a web site rebuild from the ground up, including an extensive database and image update.
The site would feature new pages to represent each of their target segments.
Our job was to come up with the right images to attract interest, reinforce the page’s central message and otherwise help the site convey the company’s overall brand.
To prep for this kind of shoot, the designer, the in house marketing manager and I sat down and mapped out what images would be appropriate for each page and then created a dream shot list. It was considered a dream list at this point, since we still needed to secure permission for creating photographs at the different locations.
Once we got permissions, we went on a walk through, dream list in hand, and began the process of planning out what each day of photography would look like, what we would need to bring in terms of lighting, what else would need to be brought in for props, where we would be able to set up and stage out of and which angles would be our best starting point for each photo set.
It sounds more complicated than it is in reality.
The collaboration between myself, the designer and the marketing director was a great way to set up for some great and effective photography.
For this location, we knew that the morning light was going to come streaming in the windows in the back. Which meant that we just needed to light up their faces and then start working with the group to get the right emotional feel.
It is a very interesting feeling to be creating a group portrait of a dozen or so heavily armed people!
Everyone was great to work with and they all got involved in the process. We had them in and out in 20 minutes so that some of them could go out on their shift.
- Tags: Boston, Location Photography
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