Being able to collaborate in business is wonderful when it works well, and over the last year, I’ve started to collaborate with someone from my business network, Lewis Kidd, of Sims, Parker & Kidd who runs a drone business.
I was contacted by a prospective client, who had come across my website, loved my photography and said she wanted to use me rather than anyone else. This was mainly because she had seen all of the different types of photography I do, and the brief wanted quite a few different types of images captured.
The lady speaking to me, is from the Town and Manor of Hungerford, a charity (formed in 1908), that protects the beautiful countryside and an ancient set of rights for the Commoners and people of Hungerford.
They wanted a range of photographs, aerial views, and videos capturing their wonderful countryside, buildings and people. So, I introduced Lewis to them, as a separate company, although we would obviously be collaborating to get the best range of images for the clients.
Alongside photographing the swathes of beautiful land in the areas around Hungerford, we also had a number of little ‘hero’ video clips, which I did alongside the photograph. Hero clips are short attention-grabber videos, to draw in a broader audience. These ended up as 10 second shorts, which were then grouped together, cut and modified as headers for the website page.
The photographs have then been used in a lot of their promotional material.
Now we’re into the second phase, because they were so happy with what we’ve done in the first round of photography and videos.
I’ve been engaged for another four days, spread out over the next few months to capture the different seasons. Lewis will finish his second phase in that area too, so we have a mixture of aerial, photos and video.
How was the work planned?
Prior to us going out and working, ad hoc, I created a storyboard for the various locations and types of video/aerial shots – the footage we need. The client confirmed that was what she wanted, and then we go out and capture the images required.
Issues for drones:
Lewis had to plan carefully, because he uses a range of drones. He had to decide which drones, or craft as he calls them, for which purposes.
He has larger craft that allow you to work in higher wind conditions, but that means they’re not quite as manoeuvrable for flying lower down. Then he has smaller ones which can fly nearer to the ground, but you need the right wind conditions, the right light and sun.
We didn’t always work on the same days, so it was miraculous really that in such a short time, we ended up having such good footage, weather wise.
Issues for photography:
Also, the weather was a problem. But, the brief included some architectural photography, and photographing a town can be difficult. There’s usually a lot of traffic, so I got up very early, and started photographing around 7 am. It was also good because it was a golden time – the sun illuminated the building. I didn’t have a lot of time, because by 7.30 am the town got busy and traffic was driving past all the time.
I also had a range of other photos to capture; cows in the meadows, the river… a lot of traipsing around the fields and being bitten by insects. Then I had to capture lots of people on Hocktide day, which is an annual celebration in Hungerford.
Plus, during the Hocktide celebrations, I was taking photos and capturing video, so I had to take great care of my cameras during the day.
Weather issues for both of us.
We we were very unfortunate in that this year spring was late, so there was no foliage on trees. Secondly, the weather has been very unpredictable which meant that most days that he went on location, the weather was not suitable for taking out any of the drones.
After all of our hard work, it came together very well, providing the clients with a cohesive library of images.
The clients were so pleased with our work, that we get a mention on their website in the footer, with links to our websites.
Obviously, what we’ve done for Hungerford the town and manor can be applied to many other venues, boroughs, councils, historic estates, and we look forward to collaborating again.
If you’d like to read more about Town and Manor of Hungerford, and see the images we capture go to: https://townandmanor.co.uk/the-estate/
If you’d like to contact me about booking us for work, please contact me: neil@moore-photographics.com
