Hamish Gill
Tech Support (and Marketing)
Some time last year I received a phone call from a chap called Mark from a burgeoning company called Uniche Interior Furnishings asking me if i was capable of and interested in doing some "Vintage Industrial" furniture product photography. I said I was but would like to see the furniture first ... unfortunately, at that time there was no furniture to see, in this country at least...
As I understand it a few years back Laura, Mark's better half had decided she would like to start selling unique furnishings via the internet, I think it started with an idea of buying a restoring pieces here in the UK. One way or another the idea developed into something a bit bigger! After scouring the internet she found some manufacturers of interesting and unusual furniture in India. A few trips back and forth and they had sourced, chosen and ordered some furniture. Back in the UK they had a website build under way but needed some photos taking of the furniture when it arrived here. They had secured a warehouse to store it all and decided the easiest way to get it photographed would be to convert one end of the warehouse into a photography studio ... which is where I came in!
Marks first request from me was that I go out to the warehouse and advise on the space, or at very least confirm the dimensions would be great enough for what they had in mind and let him bounce some ideas off me for how to decorate the space.
I went out to see them, we had a brief chat and then followed them down to the "studio" ... I have to admit to being pretty horrified when I got there! I wish I had some photos of what it looked like! The warehouse had previously been used by a powder coating company and the area designated for "studio" was the area previously designated for powder coating! It was a mess, dark, dingy, closed in, black power everywhere!
Me, Mark and Laura had a bit of a chat and worked out that removing a wall was the way forward, it would then need plastering and a floor putting down... Unbeknownst to me Mark, in a previous life, was a property developer and the task in hand was small fry for a man of his skills!
A few moths later I returned to have a look only to find a clean tidy warehouse and a perfect studio space!
Then was the waiting game ... the Indians had to wait for the rainy season to pass so some of the materials could be air dried! Eventually, just before Christmas the furniture arrived! I originally quoted two weeks to get it all photographed, we had a week! So with a touch of stress hanging over all of us I spent a week in a fairly chilly studio with mark and Laura taking photos of some weird, wonderful and beautiful hand made furniture!
Thankfully for me, Mark and Laura are both really nice people to work for! On top of this Mark's skills with his hands and Laura's creativity and eye for detail make them the ideal clients as well as being pretty much spot on as suppliers of this sort of furniture... so all in all it went very smoothly!
This is the Studio space with one of their larger pieces, a large shelving unit come room divider
and the final shot
2 shoot through brolley diffused 800w visico flashes and a 500w visico flash with snoot for a spot for a bit of highlight on the back wall in the centre of the frame...
You can find it on their site here Large Iron and Wood Factory Shelves
After doing the individual products as you can see in the link we also did a range of set shots
My favourites though were the shot they use on their home page and the one at the start of this post...
This is the space with mark in action!
There is something hugely satisfying about this sort of photography, It was a fairly stressful week but it was a very enjoyable one! I really wish Mark and Laura every success with this, just listening to them talk about setting up their company, all the hurdles and complications they have had over the last ... months?... years?... is stressful enough! They really do deserve success, for all of the above but also because they are a nice pair of people!
Once again Mark, Laura, I really wish you the best of luck! I really look forward to spending some more time taking photos, drinking to much coffee, going slightly mad after agonising over the position of a stack of candles for an hour, and all in a nice warm studio next time ...
As I understand it a few years back Laura, Mark's better half had decided she would like to start selling unique furnishings via the internet, I think it started with an idea of buying a restoring pieces here in the UK. One way or another the idea developed into something a bit bigger! After scouring the internet she found some manufacturers of interesting and unusual furniture in India. A few trips back and forth and they had sourced, chosen and ordered some furniture. Back in the UK they had a website build under way but needed some photos taking of the furniture when it arrived here. They had secured a warehouse to store it all and decided the easiest way to get it photographed would be to convert one end of the warehouse into a photography studio ... which is where I came in!
Marks first request from me was that I go out to the warehouse and advise on the space, or at very least confirm the dimensions would be great enough for what they had in mind and let him bounce some ideas off me for how to decorate the space.
I went out to see them, we had a brief chat and then followed them down to the "studio" ... I have to admit to being pretty horrified when I got there! I wish I had some photos of what it looked like! The warehouse had previously been used by a powder coating company and the area designated for "studio" was the area previously designated for powder coating! It was a mess, dark, dingy, closed in, black power everywhere!
Me, Mark and Laura had a bit of a chat and worked out that removing a wall was the way forward, it would then need plastering and a floor putting down... Unbeknownst to me Mark, in a previous life, was a property developer and the task in hand was small fry for a man of his skills!
A few moths later I returned to have a look only to find a clean tidy warehouse and a perfect studio space!
Then was the waiting game ... the Indians had to wait for the rainy season to pass so some of the materials could be air dried! Eventually, just before Christmas the furniture arrived! I originally quoted two weeks to get it all photographed, we had a week! So with a touch of stress hanging over all of us I spent a week in a fairly chilly studio with mark and Laura taking photos of some weird, wonderful and beautiful hand made furniture!
Thankfully for me, Mark and Laura are both really nice people to work for! On top of this Mark's skills with his hands and Laura's creativity and eye for detail make them the ideal clients as well as being pretty much spot on as suppliers of this sort of furniture... so all in all it went very smoothly!
This is the Studio space with one of their larger pieces, a large shelving unit come room divider
and the final shot
2 shoot through brolley diffused 800w visico flashes and a 500w visico flash with snoot for a spot for a bit of highlight on the back wall in the centre of the frame...
You can find it on their site here Large Iron and Wood Factory Shelves
After doing the individual products as you can see in the link we also did a range of set shots
My favourites though were the shot they use on their home page and the one at the start of this post...
This is the space with mark in action!
There is something hugely satisfying about this sort of photography, It was a fairly stressful week but it was a very enjoyable one! I really wish Mark and Laura every success with this, just listening to them talk about setting up their company, all the hurdles and complications they have had over the last ... months?... years?... is stressful enough! They really do deserve success, for all of the above but also because they are a nice pair of people!
Once again Mark, Laura, I really wish you the best of luck! I really look forward to spending some more time taking photos, drinking to much coffee, going slightly mad after agonising over the position of a stack of candles for an hour, and all in a nice warm studio next time ...
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