photography – Barry Willis Photography

British Land Board

The original brief for this board photography was to shoot a set of portraits set against different abstract architectural backgrounds within the Broadgate Estate.

Each director will be positioned within a location that has a distinctive architectural feature. The images will be used with a tight crop, so there should be distinct background interest close to the directors’ head and shoulders. The primary format is to be landscape.
The head and shoulders will be the focus, with the subject looking off-camera. A variety of expressions should be captured but not too smiley.

We organised a half-day recce with the art director and client, from which I produced a recce report outlining the best possible areas and available light ideas of what the portraits would look like.
The art director wanted to have both the subject and background in focus. So although I knew we would have to deploy additional lighting, I was also aware that we had to be able to pack down and reset in a completely different location within 15 to 20 of each other.
I decided to base my lighting around my Profoto B10 and B10 plus kits and to use the 3′ Gridded Octa as my main light source and umbrella’s as any secondary lighting.
The final part of the jigsaw was to organise shooting the directors so that they appeared in different locations for each of the three-page spreads and make that work given the timetable we had to work to.
The one bit of good fortune was that we had 30 mins with each person, giving me time to work with each individual and understand and express their personality.
Although the original brief was to shoot everyone looking off-camera, a last-minute request asked me to shoot a few shots of everyone looking at camera… just in case.
In the end, the client reverted to having the majority of people looking at camera, which are the selected images below. I still feel that it was a much stronger set with everyone looking off, but hey, I’m just the photographer.

Working with two assistants over two days, we shot the following set of images.

Would you spend your holiday in a cage?

If you’re traveling on the underground, keep an eye out for the latest Doggbuddy Summer Ad Campaign.
I shot this back in May and had my favourite all-girl team on board including stylist Becky John, hair & makeup Sarah Jane Green and digital opp Jo-Anna Rohmann.
The creative director was Jonathan Howells of Dinnick & Howells.
One last mention to our models the Phillips family, for being such good sports about spending the day scrunched up in a cage!
Oh and how could I forget the main star ‘Arthur’… Woof Woof

Keep an eye out for two more themes following on later in the year.

Corporate & Industrial Spotlight

Hot on the tails of my ‘People & Lifestyle’ ProductionParadise.com Spotlight, my latest ‘Corporate & Industrial’ Spotlight has a distinctly ‪#‎science‬ and ‪#‎medical‬ theme.

Click on the link below to view more images
London: Barry Willis
‪#‎corporate_photography‬

What’s Your Winning Shout ? Day One

To shake off the January blues, we kicked off the year with another lively two day studio shoot for the National Bingo Game Association. Now in it’s third year running, the ‘Winning Shout’ campaign has been very successful both in terms of increased revenue streams and in re-branding Bingo to a younger audience.

It has been an absolute pleasure to be working again with the creative team at the Workroom and thanks go out to my team Boo (stylist), Dottie (Hair & Makeup) and Tristan (Digi Opp) for their energy, enthusiasum and creative contribution to another successful shoot.

These BTS shots are taken from last years shoot

Day One

Styling Briefing

Bingo_2015-2 — Martyn and Colin discuss styling with Boo

Bingo_2015-3 — Stylist Boo and CD Martyn

Getting the Models ready

Bingo_2015-17 — Boo Styling Terri for her first shot

Bingo_2015-16 — Victoria in Hair & Makeup with Dottie

On Set

Bingo_2015-14 — Martyn drops his pink ice cream

Caught Moments on set

Serendipity plays its part

Back in April 2015, for the second year running, I was commissioned by WARL to shoot a set of images for Abbeyfield Care Homes. The client wanted to promote the positive side of sheltered accommodation by producing a set of optimistic images with a bright, natural, real feel.

We cast the models, recced the locations and the shoot dates were set. On the second day we were shooting at a location in Radlett, Hertfordshire. Far from being put out by the disruption of a film crew descending on their home for the day, the residents were amused and interested with what was going on.

For the last shot, we wanted to set up a group shot around a piano in the living room. As the crew were setting up, I got chatting to an amazing lady called Elcy Sagen. Sadly Elsy had lost her husband six months prior. As we got chatting it was clear that she had lived a full and accomplished life and still had a twinkle in her eye. As well as running her own dental practice and speaking nine languages, it just so happened that she was also an accomplished pianist. It didn’t take much to persuade Elcy to be in the photograph and she captivated the models, crew and residents alike with her playing.

I was really happy with the photographs from the session and finally declared, “it’s a wrap” for the day. However one of our models, Gabby Fraklin, was so blown away by Elcy’s playing that she flung her arms around Elcy and they spontaneously started to dance around the living room.

I grabbed my camera, called the assistants back on set and was able to capture these final joyous shots of the day.

# serendipity

Lifestyle shoot for Reckitt Benckiser

This is one of my favourite shots from the recent Lifestyle shoot for Reckitt Benckiser

A wild and wind-swept Marianne

After spending a really nice day together visiting ‘Grandad Whitstable’ and doing some portrait photography for her art project, my daughter Mally and I packed up the gear and headed back to London. We decided to take a detour along the sea front at Herne Bay to watch the sunset. As we soaked in nature’s visual feast, I grabbed this windswept shot.

Production Paradise Corporate & Industrial Photography Spotlight

Here is my latest Corporate & Industrial Spotlight feature from @ProductionParadise.com.

This feature showcases some of my corporate photography commissioned over the past twelve months. Amongst others, this year’s clients have included Actis, British Land, Goldman Sachs, ICAEW, Kepler Associates, Lavendon, Low & Bonar, Morgan Sindall, Reckitt Benckiser, Royal London, SOCCO, and SP Angel.

The feature also showcases some of my video work for CLIC Sargent and The Workroom.

Click on the link below to view the rest of the images

London: Barry Willis