Lights, A Camera & A New Website

I was so pleased when Hannah (maker of beautiful lamps),  told me the other day her new website had just gone live!  It has been great being part of such a creative process, buzzing with ideas, discussing the style and feel of the photographs I was going to take for the new site.  Plus - working with your friends, that's pretty cool too!

Hannah came back from her adventure in Japan, head full of ideas and bursting with inspiration.  It was a rainy morning, so we saved the walk we had planned, and popped out for a cuppa instead.  She showed me the most beautiful book she'd picked up on her travels - 'Flower Book' by Rari Yoshio. 

photo by Hannah Nunn

Packed full of gorgeous images and delicate line-drawings, stylish in its simplicity, it formed a good source of visual inspiration for the new look site.  You can see and read a little more about it here. 

To start us off - we went to Hannah's workshop for the first day.  It's a beautiful space at the back of Radiance with natural light pouring through the window - perfect!  We wanted to create simple, clean, beautiful images and this style developed throughout the day. 

We carefully selected props that Hannah had in the studio to reflect the style, and angles to reflect the workspace.

From these shots the super duo Ffion and Robert started on the website.  Ffion came up with some stunning designs and it was really great to see my photos coming to life on the pages!

Then came the lamps themselves.  I knew this was going to be a bit more challenging technically.  I wanted to capture the glow of the lamps and to show them within their surroundings.  Our eyes are very clever and they can differentiate light sources, but it's a little harder to achieve with a camera.  I didn't want the lamps to come out too over exposed in the photos and lose the delicate designs.  So, I created a little burst of fill light with an off camera flash in a softbox.  It did the trick. 

I also wanted the warm colour of the lamps to be consistent, so I played around with the colour temperature until we were happy that what we were seeing in real life was reflected on the back of the camera!  

We had the occasional trip out to pick up flowers & props from the Antiques Centre.  Then, at lunch, we sat round the table to chat with the web team who'd walked down the hill to join us.  It made a change from quickly scoffing a sarnie at my desk!  It was a very pleasant couple of days.

Then came the editing.  The web team were busy working behind the scenes, waiting to put the photos into place.  Ffion works calmly, creatively, and at super speed.  She popped round after the shoot and edit.  We would select an image, re-size, and in no time at all, the image was then uploaded to the website.  

I SO have my eyes on this wall panel for my office!

We also spent a bit of time taking a few photos of Hannah's book Illuminate coming out in November. Have a sneak peek and a little read about it here - it's gorgeous!

 

Sometimes, photographing and editing can be quite a solitary thing.  I don't mind my own company,  but this website project was a real change for me in the way I work.  It was great to be included from the initial concept and to be part of a creative process.  But for me, most importantly, as part of a very lovely team. x

Take a look at Hannah's  new website site here.