A picture can tell a thousand words - and whilst it can take just one photographer to execute, it takes the planning of a thousand ideas to bring to bring a single vision to life. The brief always serves as a steer in the right direction for any still life shoot and a great brief can provide a useful audit trail when qualifying the final image - does it set out what the client hopes to achieve? Is the end goal even achievable? The entire process, albeit a creative one, still relies on a combination of strategic technical and artistic ingenuity with well-thought-out flexible workflows. This is what transforms ideas on a mood board into high quality images, in this case to be used to gain traction for social online and digital platforms.

On some shoots, I’ll work with the stylist to create, source and execute a brief; on others, these are provided by agency art directors, or by the clients, themselves, as in this gallery, featuring a selection of my favourite still-life photography for British cosmetics brand, Clive Christian.

“Perfumes that perfectly capture the grandeur and elegance of the Russian Baroque period, symbolling the beauty, elegance and presence of this culturally rich and romantic era of history”

They provided a brief which included a realistic overview of what they were looking to convey - this step in the process should never be underestimated - and submitted with plenty of time to make any tweaks to the overall plan and also to source the props which would be used to create each unique image, all of which stand out on a screen or mobile phone.

With each beautifully crafted bottle looking identical, it was important to style each fragrance according to the blend of ingredients and incorporating a select array of textures, in the end producing an inviting and stimulating cohesion of visual and olfactory appeal

If you have and idea or vision for your brand, get in contact to discuss your next still life shoot.