Dale McNamara- president of Wadom Industries-Bejing

An interstate client sent us a great testimonial the other day after we fast tracked everything for them which enabled them to arrange a portrait shoot for Dale McNamara send them proofs for approval and have the hi res image of selection edited and emailed to them to go to print that day for the shareholders report. My client said "we made them look very good in the eyes of their client being able to do it all so fast, we would be very happy to refer you to others, are you prepared to travel"?


Our subject was Dale McNamara the president of Wadum Industries was great to shoot, a really easy going guy. Often corporate subjects especially those high up on the management level are very busy and have a very strict time schedule and the pressure can be on. We can always get the shot but we want the shot that is both pleasing to the subject and the management,the PR company and the graphic artist etc. In this case our PR firm were also very pleased that the management team said we captured "the essence" of Dale.The PR company wanted Dale to have "at least a few images in a business shirt and tie". During the discussion about the "tone" of the images , format etc
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We were told how important these shots were as every other board member was dressed this way. Suggesting we could buy him a shirt and tie for the shoot or lend him one was part of the conversation. Finally we our contact said they would ring Dale and get him to bring along a shirt and tie or have him buy one on the way. Dale arrived, no business shirt and tie, he said that he wanted to be presented as people know him and his associates in China and he have a great relationship BECAUSE he is down to earth and presents as who he is all the time. I knew that the PR firm might not be pleased with us NOT supplying the formal corporate style images so I shot Dale with several different lighting styles.( see end of post)
Wadum Industries Bejing is the largest exporter of long wall (coal) equipment in the world.

Here Maree is GAFF tapng the subjects belt, I missed the image of Maree on her knees cleaning the coal dust off Dales shoes. Good idea to have that sort of stuff handy.....especially if you are shooting guys.We always have a black T shirt handy as many times we need to re iron a shirt.

I like shooting men with direct light, here I am using 3 gridded strobes to light the subject.There are times when I choose to let go of a technically perfect exposure to provide more emotion. As Dale was so easy going I knew that he would not be bothered by producing an image that lit by hard light. Here I made the creative choice lighting him this way as he is in a hard working industry, COAL MINING. I also increased the side strobes exposure (camera left and right slightly behind the subject) to blow out the highlight on his cheeks. I believe this helped "pop" the image off the black paper background.




These last 2 images were shot with a 600w strobe hi camera left with a large softbox feathered towards the camera. A large gobo protects the lens from flare. Remember if your using a UV filter over your lens this can increase the flare , it introduces another layer of glass to refract the light.
There is a large styrofoam reflector camera right and knocked out the white background with another 2 600w strobes with barn doors. LARGE gobos reduce flare forward.
I like to produce the image requested in the brief and then give the client some extras in another style of lights.