As well as working our way through a constantly replenished slate of commissioned shoots, at Photography Firm we like to stay super-busy, so if we find ourselves with a little free time (there’s never much), we put ourselves back to work self-commissioning shoots intended for stock libraries (anything to avoid going to the gym!! – ahhhh, the sweet delusion of New Year’s resolutions…..)
When we want to expand our stock portfolio, we tend to approach businesses or sometimes existing clients, and negotiate a mutually beneficial solution. In exchange for their supplying us with quality people, products or spaces to photograph, we supply them with a few professional images at a heavily discounted rate. We’ve even been known to work for free if we’re desperate to get our hands on a new product (who doesn’t want to try out a hoverboard right?)
Ok, slightly less future-tastic, but a recent shoot saw us borrowing a large array of electrical supplies from a client, since the contents of our own toolbox was slightly underwhelming – Essentially a random assortment of rusted screws, half a roll of tape and 5 or 6 never-opened packets of miniature screwdrivers – look, they come in every set of Christmas crackers and we’re not just going to throw them away!?!
We set up some consistent lighting and then shot these supplies to death, splaying them out in busy scenes and stripped back compositions. The client received several banner images for use in dressing their website and we retained a large number of functional shots for our stock portfolio.
The images we produce are great for both our stock libraries and the promotion of the companies we work with. Professional images used for site dressing such as web banners or social media marketing help brand-building and industry recognition. If we can get interesting or marketable images whilst meeting great clients, we’re happy to work cheaply – In some cases, we’ve been able to help small and startup companies or projects whose media budget might not be indicative of the quality of their output, whatever industry that might be in.
Stock photography libraries contain a vast spectrum of images from every industry, interest group and topic you can think of. The world is a big and increasingly visually-demanding place. The need for quality images to differentiate yourself from all the online noise is more acute than ever, whilst the demands of the market mean not every company has the time or resources to commission their own photography – that’s where stock libraries can prove essential. Even if professional images of wall plugs or drill bits don’t float your boat, they’ll be exactly what a publisher, blogger or supplier is looking for somewhere to accompany their content. Since we’re on the handyman theme, we’re currently looking to expand our portfolio by talking to quality suppliers of hardware and DIY tools, painting and decorating paraphernalia and the like (honestly the studio’s in tip-top shape – we’re not simply fixing it up and and looking to blag free supplies!).
If you have a different product, service or project you think we might be interested in shooting, get in touch and we’ll see if we can get together and work something out…. As long as you’re not a gym.
Thanks for reading.
