CollectPlus

CollectPlus is a delivery service, mainly used by big fashion brands – making it easy to collect, return and send parcels. I only had a couple of hours with the CollectPlus team. My brief was to photograph them going about their day to day work, interacting and having a meeting. The aim was also to get across that the close knit team is smaller than some delivery services and can react to the changing retail sector’s needs rapidly.

The team were friendly, upbeat, full of energy and happy to be involved in the corporate photoshoot. As such, my job was easy. For these reportage style images, I keep my equipment down to a minimum. I use just one light and fire it at the ceiling. This way, the ambient light naturally takes care of the backgrounds. I try to blow the background out of focus as much as possible, using a wide aperture. This way, the emphasis stays on the people and any clutter is less obvious.

Some of these shots happened naturally. I only had to tweak a few details but other shots were set up from scratch and given direction. It can be tricky to get a team meeting shot to work well. I first have to position everyone carefully, bring in some props and then encourage everyone to interact ‘naturally’, constantly keeping an eye to make sure no-one is looking awkward. Very occasionally people have to be ‘fired’ from the team for just being too awkward or with their body language or over the top with enthusiasm! I try not to do my Alan Sugar impression but it’s hard to resist.… However these guys were really relaxed and easy with each other. You’d be surprised at what actually gets discussed during these shoots. People often need prompting with a topic of conversation!