I’m excited to share our new campaign for British Airways, shot at Heathrow Airport on a mostly bright and sunny day. Working with the team at Uncommon, there were two parts to this shoot, some of which includes unreleased content that we can’t share yet. However, we were also tasked with capturing lifestyle shots of the crew members, from the pilots and cabin crew to the ground staff. BA were really happy for me to get creative and shoot in my own style. It was really refreshing to have the creative team and BA at the beginning of the day show me a mood board of my work and say, “Just shoot how you shoot.”
Like all shoots, you can plan as much as possible, but there are always unpredictable situations that unfold, which you have to adapt to.
The first part of the shoot took place on a very cloudy and rainy day. Of course, we had to make sure the shots looked bright and sunny. There wasn’t easy access to power on the runway and as we were on the move, we used a Profoto twin head with 2 x Profoto B4 packs, rigged onto the side of a double wind-up. These are battery-powered, so we could move our artificial sunlight around the cast quickly and efficiently. However, they had a much slower recycle time than mains-powered packs, so if you’re like me and like to shoot quickly, they’re not always ideal.
For the second part of this shoot, we wanted faster recycle times. So this time we hired a generator. Along with a twin head and 2 x Profoto 11 packs, we could shoot quickly without missing frames or having any movement across the shots. The good news was, it was an extremely bright and sunny day, so although we got our kit up and ready to use, the sun was on our side. I’m a big fan of working with real sunlight and not overly complicating the set up. Sometimes it’s tempting if we have hired kit in we feel like we should use every last piece, but if the light looks good, then I love to work with the real thing. Being prepared and bringing kit for every eventuality is always key and of upmost importance.
Thanks as always to my agent Kim Pappas at Process and Ben at Bangerz and Nash for a smooth production, BA and Uncommon for the wonderful opportunity and of course the rest of the brilliant cast and crew.
If you spot any of these images out and about let me know!
Crew
BA Creative - Dan Taylor
Creative Production Lead at BA - Monika Magiera
Photographer - Will Hartley
Photo Agent - Kim Pappas @Process
Producer - Ben Nash Bangerz&Nash
Creative - Joe Sare
Account Director - Ross Keane
Producer - Peter Horrocks
LIGHTING TECH - Mark Griffiths, Peter Hepplewhite
GAFFER - Roger Richards, Jimmy Crippen
DIGI OP - Lisa Bennet, Neil Blake
HMU ARTIST - Beverly-Pond Jones
HMU ASSIST - Emilie Yong-Mills
DRIVER - Steve Pike
Lighting - Gripvan (London) Ltd
Wagon Wheels - Jamie Garrett
