Miele Brent Cross

Miele Brent Cross opening event photography

London Event Photographer

Another client I’ve been working a lot for in the last 12 months is Miele, the German appliance brand. Their products have always fascinated me, as the price is high, but I’ve not had the chance to see them up close. Summer 2022 I was asked to video the Experience Centre’s at Touchwood Solihull, Abingdon in Oxford, Bluewater in Kent, Edinburgh and Central London.

Video wise it was pretty straight forward, a tour of the store, and some close up shots of each appliance in action.

Fast forward to March 2023 and a new store was being planned for the Brent Cross Shopping Centre in London. The site next to the Apple Store had become available, and Miele was the perfect fit.

Fast forward to September and the shop fit out was complete and the store was opened to the public.

I was booked this time as an event photographer to capture the opening of the store, the chefs in action using the appliances, the cutting of the ribbon etc. I was also asked to take wide shots of the store empty, and a few creative shots showing a busy store use motion blur of the pubic.

I arrived at Brent Cross on the Wednesday, Grand Opening. I pretty much got to work straight away and finished at 12. From there I had a look around the shopping centre, got some lunch and edited 10 photos… Did I not mention that Miele wanted edits on the day to publish on their social media??!

There I was removing fire exit signs in photoshop and editing in general like a mad man!

Edits were Air Dropped to the marketing team before I left, and they were on LinkedIn before I got to my Air B&B in Edgware!!

Teamwork makes the dreamwork!

Day 2, I arrived at 7:30am to photograph the empty store and capture headshots of the new staff members.

10:30am I was all done and on my way back home.

All in all a brilliant few days working for this amazing company.

Here are the edits used on Miele social media announcing the new store.

London Corporate Headshots

London Corporate Headshots

Leicester Portrait Photographer Location Headshots

For the last 6yrs I’ve been photographing the wonderful people of Mars Petcare UK. I’ve been to Melton, Nottingham, Bury St Edmond’s, Battersea Park amongst others. Previous work has mainly been events, the odd portrait at said event and a few warehouse/factory jobs for internal marketing.

Earlier this year I was asked to photograph their Global Sustainability Summit. This was the first face to face meeting of the global leaders where they were discussing all aspects of planet, food and crop sustainability. I actually found it fascinating! It was also nice to grab a quick chat with none other than Frank Mars, a truly dedicated man… and the 21st richest person in the world! Quite surprising that he was still using an iPhone 10, in 2023.

Part of this summit was to capture a professional portrait of each delegate, for the email signature, Linkedin profile and other marketing.

Now, with this taking place in a Sofitel in London, and I’d be travelling there by train, tube and foot.. my kit had to be scaled down size and weight wise. But I had to get the same (or at least similar) to my previous work. A new collapsible softbox was purchased, along with a small lightweight light stand, and a carbon fibre tripod.

I did lighting and set  up tests with this new equipment to make sure it was all up to the job, and it was. One thing I didn’t scale down was my studio light, I kept the faithful 300w strobe.

Travelling for the job was a struggle, even having a member of the design team with me to carry a lighting bag.. the camera backpack, tripod and softbox still weighed me down with the various tube stations and 15 min walk to the hotel.

The setup went well, we chose a dark purple wall in the hotel corridor. Same as all my headshot sessions, the clients can see the shots in real time on my laptop. this made the session run to time, and everyone picked their favourite image to be edited.

3 hours later and we were on the train on the way home.

What do you think of the images taken during the session?

#Photographer #LeicesterPhotographer #LondonPhotographer #PortraitPhotographer #HeadshotPhotogrpaher

Corporate Headshots

I first met Dan & Colette in June 2021. They had headshots in their kitchen diner ;-) Two lovely people who were obviously doing well in the world of finance. It was a nice surprise to get an email in Feb 2023 asking for more headshots, for a total of 8 employees. I arrived at the new offices and it was obvious to see the exciting growth this company has had in the last couple of years. 

I set up my fully mobile studio equipment in the boardroom and got to work, here are the results. Check out the little video too!

Business Portraits Leicester

Leicestershire Headshots & Portraits

Brilliant Business Portraits East Midlands

I had an email enquiry recently from the fine folks at Cresco, https://crescospreaders.com/ they were having a website refresh and wanted staff portraits with the accompanying short bio on each person.

We had a phone call consultation about the shots and decided to use a green background with a slight gradient, so it tied in with their branding colours. They have a great space to set up my mobile studio, a little more was appreciated as to create the gradient an extra light was required, but I’m sure you’ll agree the final shots look brilliant. It was also decided that I’d shoot half body portraits as opposed to tight headshots.

Mobile Studio on Location for amazing portraits and headshots in Leicestershire and the East Midlands

Everyone took direction well and we got the desired friendly & approachable results Cresco wanted to portray.

Have a look t a few of their shots below. Also, how amazing does their website look with the portraits on??!! https://crescospreaders.com/about-us/

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So Cresco was shot in the morning, and it was time for GP3 Financial Solutions in the afternoon.

GP3 are based in Oadby and were referred to me by two other companies I’d completed headshots for. 

For their s shoot, GP3 requested a slightly off white background and a more close up headshot rather than a half body portrait. I set up in their board room and set to work. Once again, due to everyone taking direction well, and seeing their photos appear in real time on my laptop, we actually finished ahead of schedule. 

While i do not like to rush these sessions, I like to keep a pace during the shoot. It keeps the client/subject on their toes and not overthinking it too much. Also, If i finish ahead of time I’m out of the building and not taking anymore valuable time from the clients working day. Everyone wins.

Take a look at a few of the shots and a short BTS (behind the scenes) video clip below.

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Pete Martin Photography behind the scenes. Portrait and Headshot photographer based in Leicestershire covering the East Midlands.

Leicester Portrait and Headshot Photographer

Leicester Portrait and Headshot Photographer

Location Headshots for Businesses

I love it when an email pops in from a contact I met a few years ago. Caroline Hunt owns Emerald Starfish recruitment, based in Market Harborough Leicestershire. Caroline had recently moved offices and taken on two new members of staff, so it was the perfect time to update the website with some fresh images. 

We did headshots in colour and black and white, and also did some environmental shot in the office and in the reception area.

Here are a few samples from the Emerald Starfish shoot.

Another nice surprise was an email from Northwood Estate agents. This was a new client for me, but a similar story to Emerald Starfish. Northwood was also recently moved office and taken on more new staff members. 

A date was set, but sadly I had to cancel!! 

Those who know me will know how much I hated to cancel and let people down. But I was ill, really ill… not COVID, but I’d burnt out. A GP advised me to rest, take more exercise, keep hydrated and generally take time off from my business to reset myself.

Northwood was re-arranged for the following week, and what a great shoot!

All staff members were ‘shot in the face’, two edits each provided in colour and black and white. I also did a couple of team shots while I was there.

There was a chap there who I recognised, but I could place him. Turns out his name is Elliot, and he used to live next to me 8yrs ago!! Small world!!

Here are a few photos from the Northwood shoot.

Party, portraits and another party!

Commercial Portrait & Event Photographer Leicester

Leicester Business Photographer

December 2019 I was asked to photography a works party and awards ceremony, the company was Industria Personel. Industria are a fantastic recruitment agency based in Leicester but with offices in Northampton, Manchester, Coventry, Uxbridge, Germany and Poland!

Fast forward to March 2022 and I get a call from Amanda from Industria about taking staff headshots of all of the senior recruiters in the UK offices in preparation for their new website.

After a few dates were passed around, the Leicester office was booked in. 24 people were photographed in a 2 hour session. A couple of weeks later Coventry was photographed, then Northampton, then Leicester again (as a few people were away and some people from the Birmingham office came over), then Uxbridge and finally Manchester. Phew!!

All in all over 50 people got ‘shot in the face’ by me, and we kept the look consistent in all the different locations.

Here are a few shots from all locations

Leicester Event Photography

Industria also celebrated their 20th year in Business, and I was asked to photograph the party at the Marriott Hotel here in Leicester. This was an incredible night, with lots of photos and stories from the early days of Michale Walker setting up the business. I honestly found that presentation about the company so interesting! The thing that really struck me was the culture, all of the staff genuinely enjoy working for Industria.

It just proved that if you have a great idea, determination and good people around you.. you can achieve anything. 

This year they hit the £50 Million Pound turnover, which is incredible, well done Industria! 

Here are a few photos from the party.

Leicester Branding Photographer

Next, we have to talk about ‘Branding’. 

I had an amazing video call with two ladies from ‘The Orange Notebook’, a brand marketing agency over in Birmingham. There is actually 3 of them, Beatrice however is based in Sweden! 

Their company needed a bank load of images for their website and social media, we put a plan together to create the images they needed. It was decided that we would meet at Medicine, a coffee shop in Birmingham that they often frequent. We would use Medicine as location 1, getting individual and group shots. A local photo studio was also booked so they we could get some more varied shots, such as clean studio images with the orange background to tie in with their branding. This was a really fun shoot, the 4 hours went really fast. Sadly I was still suffering from the effects of COVID and was really tired towards the end. I don’t mind saying, I slept for 13 hours when I got home!!

I also competed a brilliant branding shoot for the fabulous Sukh Kaur and her bespoke matchmaking service, ‘Matched by Sukh Kaur’. 

We met up at the Exchange bar in Leicester, grappled a coffee and talked about the shoot. This shoot was originally going to be a simple headshot session, but after Sukh saw some sample images from The Orange Notebook shoot, an upgrade was ordered.

The setting in Exchange bar is always good for photos, and the coffee is pretty amazing too! We shot in 3 different areas before heading to my favourite studio in Leicester, XYZ.

At XYZ we used the classic white and grey for headshots and also positioned their graffitied sofa near the exposed walls for a more urban looking shot. 

Very soon there will be a personal branding page added to my wesbite!

I can’t explain how much I enjoyed these shoots, it’s a different process to my normal portraits and headshots.. and if you know anything about me, you’ll know I enjoy a creative challenge. Branding shoots tick all the boxes for me

A blog about a vlog... ;-)

I did a vlog, now a blog about a vlog... ;-)

Professional Photographers Workflow

If you’re interested in what happens after a photoshoot, the stuff you don’t see… this is the video to watch!

In all seriousness, this stuff behind the scenes is mega important.

I had a phone call with a family member who was photographing a friends wedding last year.. I was also photographing a wedding. On a break I checked my phone and saw 5 missed calls from said family member. I called him back and he asked me a question…

“I changed lens towards the end of the ceremony, now when I look at my images I can’t find anything before the ceremony…”

My question back was “have you changed out the memory card for a fresh one??” he had not. So he did, and I arranged to meet up with him the following day.

Turns out he’d been victim to a fake memory card, which had corrupted and was overwriting old images when the card became full. So the whole bride prep and 90% of the ceremony was now gone forever.

The message here is he’s not a professional, and he didn’t have a professional camera.. a camera that has two memory cards. He put the images he had on his 8yr old laptop, and he was done.

This is very different to what myself and other professional photographers do.