My first commercial commission - for 02

viewfromthenorth

viewfromthenorth

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Andy
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http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...-news/london-road-fire-station-urban-11055107

So, 3 weeks ago I was approached via my website by a PR agency and asked if I could help them on a project. Being a cynic, and having been approached for usage of my photos in the past, my slightly narky response was my usual 'if this involves me giving you photos free of charge in exchange for 'great exposure and publicity', then I'll politely decline, but if you have something else in mind, I'd be happy to talk". Their response was, we want you to take some pictures at several locations using the new Samsung Galaxy S7 as part of the O2 launch are you interested? Oh and we'll pay you and arrange the locations.

Naturally I said I'd be delighted to help you, when and where? Fortunately it was quite straightforward. The brief was to demonstrate the cameras low light capabilities, in a number of derelict locations which is my specialty, albeit I normally use a full frame DSLR and some good lenses.

So a week later at 7AM on Monday morning, I was stood outside Picadilly Railway Station in Manchester with a mobile phone and a head full of self doubt and a London PR girl for company. Here I am, an amateur photographer, plucked from obscurity to shoot photographs on a mobile phone for a huge multinational, wondering what I'd let myself into.

The first location was London Road Fire Station, situated opposite the station. I took around 200, these are just three - you get the idea, especially if you've ever visited my website (see link in the footer).

London Road Fire Station by Andy, on Flickr

London Road Fire Station by Andy, on Flickr

London Road Fire Station by Andy, on Flickr

I took the liberty of taking a tripod and a Joby mount for attaching phones to it, so this helped a treat in very low light, especially where light painting and long exposures were required.

Next was on the train to London for another location, unfortunately redevelopment was well under way and it could have been any building site on earth, so I returned north empty handed, with the request for the processed pictures to be sent by Wednesday morning. Eek, I was back at my real job the 8AM the following day.

The next day I got a call asking when I could go back to London. I agreed the Friday, and was told they'd sort the locations out. These haven't been formally released to the press yet, so I can't publish them yet, I'll maybe post them later.

Either way, it was a real privilege to have two days in the life of a pro. Not sure I'd want to do it full time though, I quite like my day job. But the publicity is always welcome, and apparently a couple of nationals are interested as well. And the London Press will be sent the London stuff tomorrow I think, so we'll see what happens with them! And the photos will also be used in store in some way (still not sure how), so happy days:)


http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...-news/london-road-fire-station-urban-11055107
 
Must feel really good (after the initial cynicism) to be asked.....and paid, to do something like this. :cool:

Presume you haven't earned enough to give up your day job yet, but hey, who knows what lies ahead. (y)
 
Well done, must have been quite a thrill :)
 
I notice the MEN involved. Did they pay or just take a freebie!

Interesting opportunity and we'll done for grabbing it.
 
OldCarlos said:
Must feel really good (after the initial cynicism) to be asked.....and paid, to do something like this. :cool:

Presume you haven't earned enough to give up your day job yet, but hey, who knows what lies ahead. (y)
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It was nice to be found! Probably more a reward for longevity than anything else - I've had my website for 9 years next month.

gramps said:
Well done, must have been quite a thrill :)
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I've never explored for the thrills, but it was certainly fascinating. That said, climbing up to the top of the hose tower was an interesting experience, scared the **** out of the PR girl and the site supervisor who waited at the bottom of the rusty ladder.

EdwardL said:
Oh well done and that must be really exciting - what a wonderful gem to add to your portfolio. Congrats!
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Certainly is and a great opportunity to see somewhere I wouldn't otherwise have had the opportunity to see.

skiking said:
I notice the MEN involved. Did they pay or just take a freebie!

Interesting opportunity and we'll done for grabbing it.
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No freebie phone from O2, this was a paid job from the PR company / O2, plus travel expenses. Which was nice.
 
Meeten said:
Well done. Nice to hear a feel good story. You will be beaming each time you see one your pics out in the public....
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Yes that would be nice, still unclear as to exactly what will be used in the city centre shops, and how they are going to be used though.
The London pictures haven't gone out yet it would appear, not sure what is going to happen with them. There has been interest from some of the online versions of the daily newspapers so I'll keep my eye out for where they end up.......
 
What a great story! I don't know you but I feel really happy for you. Well done and congratulations! :)
 
Nice one - good opportunity and some nice contacts made I'm sure.

Until I left in 2014 I was O2's chief (and only!) sports photographer which was rather good fun, though I usually had a brief as long as your arm on match days.
 
Thanks everyone:)

It just goes to show how important a good website is, as without that I'd never have had the opportunity. I'm well aware that I'll probably never get another opportunity like this fall into my lap but I'm glad I did it.

But more importantly it shows the value of persistence and sticking with something so that you become proficient at it as well as photographing stuff you have a genuine passion for. I hope it inspires others to believe that with some luck (and a lot of effort that most people won't see) miracles can happen!
 
Great stuff!


What's the o2 connection though... are they going to use them as well?
 
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Pookeyhead said:
Great stuff!


What's the o2 connection though... are they going to use them as well?
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I was commissioned by Hope and Glory PR who are working on behalf of O2. One of the phones selling points is its low light ability and they wanted something to demonstrate that, so the PR company pitched the idea of an urbex style shoot. O2 liked it so a Google search was done, my website was found, I was approached and the rest is history. I believe O2 had the say as to which images went out.

I'm well aware that my stuff is very niche and once the fuss has died down I return to obscurity but I'm doing what I can to leverage the publicity!
 
Rokkin said:
How did you find the S7?
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Very impressed with the camera - caveat to this is that I'm not well up on phones, and don't know how good the previous iterations of Samsungs are. Screen is light years ahead of my IPhone 5S, and the HDR mode is extremely effective. Works very well in low light. I've printed some pictures out A3 and they look OK, if lacking in detail a little in some areas. One observation (not a criticism) - not sure why it needs 12mp - how many people print out big pictures, or any pictures at all off phones? Sure, I get the argument about larger files allow you to crop - but same argument applies - how likely are people to crop? I can't quantify this, but I imagine that the overwhelming majority of phone images never leave the phone, or go straight onto Facebook, instagram, etc. A full gallery of the images is on my website here: http://www.theviewfromthenorth.org/london-road-fire-station-samsung. These have seen some post processing in lightroom and Nik Color Efex so aren't straight out of the camera, however, the only changes are to contrast and saturation, plus a vignette.

Can't comment on the rest of the phone as it had no sim card or apps.

ADMIN - please feel free to remove this as I'm mindful that this may appear as advertising or a paid review (although I was only paid for 2 days photography and haven't been paid to endorse the product).
 
Rokkin said:
The S7 actually has a lower MP than its predecessors. Samsung appear to have stopped pixel chasing (for now anyway) with the larger sesnsor.

Its nice to see 'real life' examples rather than some perfect blue skies beach scene they always drag out.
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Thanks for that - didn't know the previous phones had more mp, like I say I'm not well up on phones. One of the selling points is its low light ability, which is why they wanted me to shoot it in low light conditions and it did work well. I did use a tripod for some pictures in Manchester but didn't use it at all in London (despite carrying the damn thing round London for a day....).

I'm not sure of the equivalent focal length of the lens - it feels about 24mm but I've not checked the specs.
 
viewfromthenorth said:
Yes that would be nice, still unclear as to exactly what will be used in the city centre shops, and how they are going to be used though.
The London pictures haven't gone out yet it would appear, not sure what is going to happen with them. There has been interest from some of the online versions of the daily newspapers so I'll keep my eye out for where they end up.......
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You should know exactly how the pictures are being used before you quote a price!!
 
Not asking you to. Just pointing out that you shouldn't quote a price until you know how the client intends to use the images.
 
snap-happy said:
Not asking you to. Just pointing out that you shouldn't quote a price until you know how the client intends to use the images.
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I think there's a slight gap between what was in the contract and what they are actually doing, inasmuch as they haven't managed to pull off as much as they intended to yet and I don't know whether they will end up doing everything. But that's their call, they own the images:)
 
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