Richard Boll

Category Archives: lifestyle Photography

Behind the scenes of an International Airport Photography Shoot

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Filed under Advertising, Advertising Photography, Airlines, Airport Photography, Editorial Portrait, Environmental Portrait, Global Advertising, Lifestyle, lifestyle Photography, Location Photography

International Airport Photography

Managing a complex, large-scale photography shoot on location in a bustling, fully operational international airport comes with a unique set of challenges, including:
• Organising a big production team and a complex shoot schedule
• Navigating airport security with large amounts of equipment
• Working with a mix of airline employees and professional models
• The specific considerations for working with child models
• Shooting in various locations including check-in areas, waiting rooms, business lounges, family areas, and airport corridors
• Arranging for areas to be sectioned off to separate the shoot from public areas of an airport

Emirates Airline, Dubai International Airport (DXB)

I was commissioned by production agency xpogr to photograph an advertising lifestyle campaign for Emirates Airlines on location in Dubai International Airport (DXB). DXB is the primary international airport serving Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is the world’s fifth busiest airport by passenger traffic, carrying the highest average number of passengers per flight.

Emirates Airline operates the largest airline hub in the Middle East at DXB Terminal 3, handling 51% of all passenger traffic, and approximately 42% of all aircraft movements at the airport. The brief was to shoot a series of bright, colourful, high-quality images showing confident, friendly, and approachable customer service representatives, featuring the iconic Emirates brand uniform. Guests including couples, children, and families were to be portrayed looking relaxed and happy.

As airports are often stressful environments where long waiting times can be experienced, the goal was to create images showing a happy, family-friendly premium experience.

Lifestyle photography for Emirates airline in Dubai by Richard Boll. A female member of the airport staff with a girl at the Unaccompanied Minors entrance.

My photography assistant and I flew from London to Dubai in style with Emirates who kindly provided us with business class seats. It was extremely comfortable and the high level of service and food provided was exceptional!

It was a very enjoyable project over five days with:

• one day for location scouting with the art director and producer

• one day for a pre-production meeting to discuss and finalise all aspects of the lifestyle photography

• three days of photography in various locations around Dubai airport

A family in an airport photographed for Emirates airline by lifestyle photographer Richard Boll.

Clearing large amounts of equipment through security can be time-consuming and needs to be factored into any shooting timetable. It was also challenging taking pictures in a fully operational airport with many passengers and staff members to work around.

The shoot was deemed a great success and several images from the shoot have been used for a global advertising campaign and on the Emirates website. More images from this project can be seen here.

Wharton School & United Airlines Executive

I carried out another airport photography project at Heathrow, shooting corporate portraits of a senior executive from United Airlines for the US-based Wharton Magazine.

A portrait taken by a United Airlines airplane at Heathrow airport by editorial photographer Richard Boll.

United Airlines was formed by the amalgamation of several airlines in the late 1920s and is now a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois. As of January 2024, United operates flights to 238 domestic destinations across the United States and 118 international destinations in 48 countries across all six inhabited continents. The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania was established in 1881 as the first business school in the United States, and the world’s first business school affiliated with an institution of higher learning. According to the 2022 Financial Times MBA ranking, it’s home to the world’s best MBA programme.

It was an interesting experience shooting portraits on the live runway with United Airlines jets in the background of the shots, resulting in strong final portraits which were very well received. These corporate portraits have been used extensively for a business profile interview in an editorial magazine feature for the Wharton Business School.

Airport Runway Photography

Another photography project that I carried out at a large airport involved shooting images in the air traffic control centre and on the runway. I took pictures of planes landing and taking off and photographed different locations including the meet​-and​-greet areas, departure lounges, and waiting rooms.

An airplane at Heathrow airport by commercial photographer Richard Boll.

The shoot generated a lot of strong content, and it was a fascinating insight into the workings of an international airport.

Planes at an airport by lifestyle photographer Richard Boll.

You can see more of more of my lifestyle photography here and more of my portrait photography here.

To discuss your requirements get in touch.

London Lifestyle Photographer: Cambridge Satchel collaborate with Roald Dahl Company to design new Matilda movie collection

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Filed under Advertising Photography, Cambridge Satchel Co, Commercial Photography, Editorial Photography, lifestyle Photography, Luxury product photography, Product Photography

Cambridge Satchel

The story of how ‘Cambridge Satchel’ was founded in 2008 is a well-known tale. With only a small budget of £600, the business was established from a kitchen table in Cambridge. 5 years later, the brand was worth over £50 million.

The company celebrates brilliant British craftsmanship and exceptional materials. Combining a blend of old and new, their handcrafted, ethically sourced leather bags and satchels have a traditional taste, brought to life with style, finesse, and fun. Their products are designed to last and carry a lifetime of learning, curiosity, creativity, and adventure.

London product lifestyle photography for Cambridge Satchel Company in London

Collaborations

Cambridge Satchel only collaborates with people and institutions that they admire. In the past, they have worked with the Royal Opera House, the University of Cambridge, The Prince’s Foundation, and the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST). Each of these institutions is founded upon a commitment to opportunity and education.

The movie of Roald Dahl’s ‘Matilda’

I was commissioned as a London lifestyle photographer to take both product and lifestyle photographs, for Cambridge Satchel’s new collaboration for the ‘The Roald Dahl Story Company’. A collection of bags, notebooks, purses, keyrings, luggage tags, and bookmarks, available in 6 limited edition colours, were embossed with designs by illustrator Quentin Blake and quotes from Roald Dahl’s ‘Matilda’.

A satchel from the Matilda movie range by Cambridge Satchel Company in London.

All of the lifestyle photography was shot in and around Covent Garden in London, where the company had set up a pop-up shop. The product photography was taken in the interior of their very elegant London store. Beautiful winter light enhanced the lifestyle photography taken around Covent Garden.

It was a very enjoyable shoot on both occasions, working collaboratively with the company and combining their ideas with my own suggestions. Their handcrafted bags and accessories are both stylish and high quality, and it was a real pleasure to photograph them.

Lifestyle photography in London for Cambridge Satchel Company

Cambridge Satchel were so pleased with the images from the shoot, that they have used several of the lifestyle photographs to promote the Matilda range in various fashion blogs including Fashion Network and Fashion United.

Image taken by London lifestyle photographer Richard Boll of a woman taking a book from a satchel in Covent Garden in London.

To find out more about Cambridge Satchel and their products, visit their website. More examples of my lifestyle photography can be found here and more of my London product photography can be found here.

Managing Large Scale International Corporate Headshot and Lifestyle Photography Projects

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Filed under Corporate headshot photography London, lifestyle Photography, Photography Projects

Large Scale Corporate Photography Projects

Over the years, I’ve managed several large-scale corporate headshot, portrait, and lifestyle photography projects for companies such as Citibank, T. Rowe Price, Lazard Bank, Octopus Energy and American Express. I’ve carried out different types of photographic shoots in locations including Bolivia, Dubai, San Francisco, Boston, Helsinki, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, and Paris.

Corporate clients commission the corporate photography to use extensively:

– throughout their website
– in magazines, promotional materials, and blog posts
– in press releases and presentations
– on social media
– for internal use

Compilation of corporate photography examples taken by Richard Boll.

Most shoots take place in London and throughout the UK, but I often travel abroad to photograph employees at their partner offices too. As you can imagine, there are many moving parts involved in organising a large-scale, international corporate photography shoot. Depending on the complexity of the project and the number of locations, it can take several weeks to organise. Here, I share my process and how I manage global shoots for corporate headshots, portrait, and lifestyle images on a significant scale.

Pre-planning & Project Management

– Client Brief: One or more online meetings may take place to discuss a client’s desired images. Headshots are typically requested for between 50 and 200 people. Most clients request a uniform, formal, and professional result against the same background. This background can be a paper backdrop or the interior space of an office. An advantage of the paper backdrop option is that the look and feel of the portraits can be unified from shoots in different offices in different countries. Sometimes a client will request spontaneous corporate lifestyle images taken in specific locations around an office, showing people working at their desks, socialising, or having meetings.

An example of a page of uniform headshots taken by Richard Boll.

– Timetables: I work closely with internal office managers to line up diaries of the employees being photographed. These tend to be extremely busy people who travel regularly, and inevitably, they’re not all going to be available on the same day and in the same week. I often have to revisit locations to photograph people missed from the original shoot.

– Sourcing Locations: A significant amount of time is spent finding suitable locations for the shots. The client can do a walk around of their office spaces and remotely show me still images and videos that they’ve shot. Between us, we roughly work out an initial approach but typically, an in-person recce of the locations is also required.

– Recce Time: If I have to travel to another country, I tend to book in time the day before the shoot to come to an office to carry out a recce with the client, to look around their building, to find specific backgrounds that will be effective. Often, a client requests headshots taken in the same location, whereas some clients want a range of different backgrounds to generate variety within the shots. Depending on the nature of the offices it can be a challenge to find a range of backgrounds that are a) available and b) look good for the headshots.

A variety of examples of corporate headshot and lifestyle photography produced by Richard Boll.

– Flights & Hotels: Booking flights and hotels for multi-location shoots can be a time-consuming task. Flight times have to tie in with different time zones and shooting dates, sometimes allowing sufficient time to recover from jet lag.

– Transporting Equipment: Transporting photography equipment internationally can become a complex process. Considerations include ensuring that cameras, lenses, and lighting equipment are packed securely, to avoid damage. Lithium batteries have their particular packing requirements for flights regarding the number of batteries allowed and whether they must be taken within carry-on luggage as opposed to going in the hold. For some countries, paperwork must be completed for equipment to be taken through customs, and failure to do so can result in some or all of the equipment being seized until permissions have been cleared.

– Digital Operators: Typically, I will source digital operators to work with me on these shoots. In most situations, my camera is tethered to a laptop attached to a large screen, so the client can view the images as they’re being produced. The digital operator will create multiple backups of all content taken and label the files as we shoot. They will also create multiple formats, for example, low-resolution JPEGs for selection purposes, and high-resolution TIFFs and RAW files for retouching later.

– Sourcing Professionals: I can also be responsible for sourcing, managing, and paying suitable professionals for multiple shoots in each location, e.g. lighting assistants, hair stylists, and make-up artists.

– Supplying images: After the shoot, the client is supplied with low-resolution images to make final selections. I’ll typically send 30-40 shots of each person and the client will narrow these down to approximately 5 shots to show the individual. One or two final images per person are typically selected for optimisation.

An example of corporate lifestyle photography carried out in London by Richard Boll.

– Retouching: Retouching selected images is a significant task in each large-scale project. I could easily end up shooting over 200 headshot and lifestyle images that all need to be optimised and refined afterward. This is a process I can complete for a client although this is often carried out in-house by the client.

Email richard@richardbollphotography.com to discuss your next large-scale corporate photography project. See more corporate portrait and lifestyle images I’ve shot here.

Hospitality Photography: London’s iconic OXO Tower Restaurant showcase delicious British menu, mouth-watering cocktails and stunning views

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Filed under Commercial Photography, Food photography, Hospitality photography, Lifestyle, lifestyle Photography, London

OXO Tower Restaurant, Bar and Brasserie

For over 25 years, the OXO Tower Restaurant, Bar and Brasserie has offered a relaxed atmosphere to enjoy memorable food and drink experiences, using only the best of British seasonal produce and serving the finest wines.
Situated on the 8th floor of the iconic OXO Tower on London’s South Bank, the restaurant boasts stunning views of St Paul’s and the river Thames. From birthdays and graduations to a romantic meal out, it’s the perfect setting for any special occasion with the views to match.

A member of staff at the OXO Tower Restaurant Bar and Brasserie in London with a tray of drinks.

Double Commission

I first shot promotional images for the OXO Tower Restaurant last summer and then again a few weeks ago. Both shoots were really enjoyable and generated some great content. The restaurant is a fantastic environment to photograph in. Due to its top-floor location and floor-to-ceiling glass windows, the natural light up there is great with nothing to block the view.
It’s a real gift to be asked to take photographs there and the staff are great to work with too. Typically, a shoot like this would take about 3 to 4 hours starting at around 6pm in the evening. I took a range of different photographic shots including still-life food and drink, documentary lifestyle, the interior space of the restaurant, and the outside terrace area.

Hospitality photography taken for the OXO Tower restaurant Bar and Brasserie in London by Richard Boll.

Food & Drink Photography

The food and drink photography shots were the most formal and composed, similar to taking a still-life photograph. It was an honour to take images of some stunning plates of food that had been specially created and prepared for the shoot by Executive Head Chef Jeremy Bloor.
I combined the approaches of photographing the dishes on a table set up for dinner and incorporating waiting staff holding plates of food. As well as delicious food, the restaurant is well known for its mouth-watering cocktails and I shot several composed images of these throughout the shoot.

Food photography at the OXO Tower restaurant in London by Richard Boll.

Documentary Lifestyle Photography

I always enjoy using a ‘fly-on-the-wall’, documentary photographic style here, as it gives a real flavour of the buzzy but relaxed atmosphere in the restaurant. For example, I photographed lifestyle shots of staff behind the bar making cocktails, kitchen staff preparing dishes and the waiting staff serving food and wine.

It’s always interesting shooting in a live, natural environment where there are customers and staff present. The atmosphere at the OXO Tower is great and really lively. Both of the shoots were dependent on the weather (especially the images taken on the outside terrace) but thankfully, I got lucky on both occasions and had natural sunlight and fantastic sunsets to work with.
I’m pleased to report these promotional images have been used throughout the OXO Tower Restaurant website, on their social media, and some of the images have also been featured on the Time Out website.

Drinks photographed in London by Richard Boll for the OXO Tower Restaurant.

Why not try the best of British menu yourself at the OXO Tower Restaurant and sample one of their famous cocktails? See more images from the promotional shoots.

 

Lifestyle Photography for Wizzard Advertising Agency in London

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Filed under Advertising, Advertising Photography, Commercial Photography, Environmental Portrait, Lifestyle, lifestyle Photography, Location, Location Photography, London

I was recently commissioned as a lifestyle photographer by the London advertising agency Wizzard. The taxi company has taken the risks posed by Covid-19 very seriously and is taking significant measures to protect their customers in London. I was asked by Wizzard to source models for the lifestyle photography and suggest suitable locations in London. The models were then selected and the shoot was carried out in a relatively quiet square in Pimlico in London. Due to the prevalent risks posed by Covid-19 everyone on the shoot was observing social distancing and wearing PPE. More of my lifestyle photography can be seen here.

Taxi driver with PPE mask photographed by London-based photographer Richard Boll

London lifestyle photo shoot of a model with a taxi.

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Global Lifestyle Advertising Photographer for Campaign for Emirates Airline in Dubai

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Filed under Advertising, Advertising Photography, Airlines, Commercial Photography, Editorial Photography, Global Advertising, Lifestyle, lifestyle Photography, Location, Location Photography

I had the wonderful opportunity to collaborate with the production agency xpogr in Dubai as a lifestyle advertising photographer for a new campaign for Emirates Airlines.

It was a five-day project, with one day for location scouting with the art director and producer, one day for a pre-production meeting to discuss and finalise all aspects of the lifestyle photography, followed by three days of photography in various locations around Dubai airport.
I flew from London to Dubai with Emirates who kindly provided me with a seat in business class. This was extremely comfortable, and the high level of service was exceptional!

The photographs for the advertising lifestyle campaign were taken in Emirate’s lounges throughout the airport, including the first-class lounge, the Cigar lounge, and various family-dedicated lounges, as well as their dedicated check-in desks, the Spa and the various Emirates dining areas. The campaign was hugely enjoyable and was deemed a great success. I very much look forward to working with xpogr as a lifestyle advertising photographer again soon.

More of my lifestyle photography can be seen here.

london lifestyle advertising photography for emirates airline global campaign

advertising-lifestyle-photograph-of-child-playing-a-computer-game

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London Chauffeur Service commissions Richard Boll as a Product and Lifestyle Photographer

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Filed under Advertising, Advertising Photography, Commercial Photography, Corporate Photography, lifestyle Photography, Location, Location Photography, London

I was recently commissioned by Wheely as a product and lifestyle photographer to produce images for marketing, editorial use and social media for their London chauffeur service. The commission involved a detailed recce of various locations in London prior to the shoot, and liaising with producers, stylists and models regarding the logistics and timings of the shoot.

The company Wheely has launched a luxury ride-hailing app, offering a chauffeur service in London. It is an online service for ordering luxury and executive rides, from licensed and carefully selected drivers. The Wheely chauffeurs all have tested knowledge of London geography and have several years of executive driving experience. The rides are paid for with a credit or debit card linked to a user’s account. The license has been approved in London until 2023.

More of my lifestyle photography can be seen here.

 

Driver in Wheely Mercedes in London

Driver with Mercedes welcoming his passengers using the London chauffeur service.

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Location Lifestyle and Furniture Photographer for AXYL Range of Furniture in London

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Filed under Advertising, Commercial Photography, Furniture Photography, lifestyle Photography, Location, London, Product Photography, Studio Photography

The AXYL collection is a collaboration between Layer Design and the British furniture brand Allermuir. The range comprises of furniture pieces each fully made from reclaimed materials.
It is the first time the London-based designer has collaborated with Allermuir. I was commissioned as a studio furniture photographer and location lifestyle photographer in London in a joint commission from both Layer and Allermuir. Produced with editorial and advertising potential, the images have been published across various design industry platforms including Dezeen, Domus, Urdesign and Designboom.

The studio product photography for Layer was carried out at Holborn Studios in London.

To see more of my furniture photographer work click here.

 

AXYL white table and chairs in still life product photography studio. Furniture Photographer Richard Boll.

AXYL chairs in London product photography studio. Furniture Photographer Richard Boll.

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Product and Lifestyle Photographer for nolii in London, summer 2018

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Filed under Advertising, Editorial Photography, Editorial Portrait, Environmental Portrait, Lifestyle, lifestyle Photography, Location, London, Product Photography, Publications

Throughout the summer of 2018 I was delighted to be commissioned as a product and lifestyle photographer to produce a variety of images of the new range of mobile phone accessories from nolii.

 

The nolii products were designed by the industrial design studio Layer, owned by Benjamin Hubert.

The project drew on a range of disciplines, including product and lifestyle photography. I photographed the nolii products at Holborn Studios in London, and carried out a lifestyle shoot in various locations around East London. A team portrait of the nolii team with Benjamin Hubert was also required, which was taken in a cafe in East London.

The images have had a great deal of exposure, having been featured across the nolii website, as well as appearing in magazines including Wallpaper•, Dezeen, Medium, Design Week and Designboom.

More of my lifestyle photography can be seen here and more of product photography can be seen here.

lifestyle photography of woman in cafe with phone accessories

Lifestyle-photograph-of-man-in-London-cafe

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London advertising photography for London and Sussex lifestyle shoot

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Filed under Advertising, Advertising Photography, Commercial Photography, Editorial Photography, Environmental Portrait, Global Advertising, Lifestyle, lifestyle Photography, Location, Location Photography

In March of 2018, I was commissioned to carry out a three-day London advertising photography shoot that started with a day in Holborn Studios to take lifestyle and portrait photographs. This was followed by two days of shooting in locations including Seaford, Cuckmere Haven, and the South Downs, producing outdoor lifestyle and portrait images for an advertising campaign.

It was a wonderful team to work with, including the great assistant Scott Hobson-Jones, model Rebecca Pearson, stylist Kyran Low and makeup artist Roth Trophy.

More of my London advertising photography and lifestyle images can be viewed here and more of my portrait photography can be viewed here.

 

woman on a Sussex beach

lifestyle-photography-woman-horse-advertising

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