I was recently commissioned by Wilson Hartnell a PR and communications agency based in Dublin to do some corporate photography on behalf of a company called Cerenovus a research and development facility who have recently become part of the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson and who are based in Ballybrit Business Park on the outskirts of Galway City.

The photography brief involved business headshots of some of their staff for their website and professional profiles. In addition some environmental portraits were required combined with working shots of the labs. Basically the photography brief required that I create a set of imagery that conveyed  the story of the facility. The ultimate purpose of the photography was to help attract new talent in what I have been told is a very competitive workplace.

Firstly I decided to concentrate on the individual headshots on a grey background. I usually find that this is a very flattering option and works well with the range of clothing that can presented to you on the day of a headshot session. Once I had completed each headshot I then concentrated on some environmental portraits that individual as to ensure that there was an efficient flow to the shoot. Efficiency is the key with you come to what is essentially a live workplace, minimal disruption is the key to an excellent headshot photoshoot on location.

I had been told that there were ten headshots in total but as is always the case this can fluctuate on the day of a shoot and this was the case here also. I ended up photographing eighteen headshots in total. As well as the efficiency on my part the people involved were also very efficient and came at intervals of twenty minutes allowing me enough time to complete the different type of imagery that was required for each person.

The second part of the shoot involved the working shots of the laboratories. I always have a little discussion or more of an argument with myself when it comes to photographing in labs. There are two approaches that I could take in terms of lighting, the first being where I use flash as the main light source with the available light of the location being a secondary source. The second approach is a more lifestyle airy approach where I use flash a fill for the subjects, this give a more airy light approach which is less dramatic in terms of lighting as using flash as the main light source. Even though I prefer dramatic lighting when it comes to my photography I think its very important use the type of lighting that will best suit the location that you are photographing. In my experience laboratories are usually clean bright locations and I decided to go with a bright airy approach.

Here are a small selection of some of the images from the shoot.