Original Shot On Flickr
A few months back, I had an email completely out of the blue from an interior design agency; Absolute UK. They have carried out the interior design works for a number of hotels, bars and restaurants; including JD Wetherspoon pubs and Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall.
“Really like an image of Gloucester Docks you have on Flickr, would you be interested in having printed large scale for a staffroom wallpaper”
The email also included a link to one of my pictures on Flickr. I wrote back, advising that of course I was interested. However, the picture mentioned was taken in Feb 2013 on my first Digital SLR Camera, my trusty Nikon D3100. At 14.2 Mega Pixels, I wasn’t sure if it would print big enough for what they wanted. So I emailed over the original Hi-Resolution file and, as expected, it was too grainy (there was too much noise) when it was printed to the desired size. I was gutted.
Llanthony Warehouse, Gloucester
Newly Commissioned Shot
But thinking on my feet, if they liked the original image, why not see if they want to commission me to take a new picture of the same site? After all, my photography has come on a lot in the last 2 years and I’ve also upgraded to a full-frame Nikon D610 (24 Mega Pixels). After a brief email exchange, and some research on what to quote, I was hired!
I headed back up to Gloucester Quays, armed with my Nikon D610, ND Grad filters and my tripod. There was a nice amount of cloud cover to add some drama to the sky. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to shoot from the exact same spot, as the boats moored in the original shot had moved (I guess this was to be expected on a working canal). This meant the original composition no longer worked, so I had to quickly improvise. I found a new angle to shoot from and fired off a few shots. On the back of the camera, I could see the one I was most happy with, so when I got home it was easy choosing which one to process. I used Photoshop and Nikon Silver Efex Pro to convert the picture to Black & White and I modified the contrast levels to enhance the clouds in the sky, giving some added drama to the shot.
Wetherspoon Staff Room
Staffroom Wall
I was pretty pleased with the final effort and even more so when I emailed it across to my contact at Absolute, who said JD Wetherspoon loved it! Better still, it printed to the desired dimensions. It now sits proudly on the staff room wall at the newly opened Lord High Constable Of England, located next door to the Llanthony Warehouse on the Gloucester Quays. The image spans the whole wall; approx 4m x 2m!
I went to visit the site earlier and the duty manager kindly allowed me entry into the staff room. Needless to say, I was pretty stunned seeing one of my images printed to that size! It’s a shame it’s not on ‘public’ display, but I’m still incredibly proud of the final image and hopefully it may open some doors for more work in the future. Fingers crossed…
