I’ve been working with the John Morgan Partnership for a couple of years now and I was delighted to be entrusted with the photography brief for their Team Portraits.
In this blog you’ll see comments from me and comments from the JMP Team to give you a really good all round view from both photographer and Client experiences of the photo shoot!
The photography brief was created with the Team at JMP to reflect their core values and the Team as individuals as well as a professional unit.
Insurance is considered quite dry by some, however that doesn’t mean that the people who work in this industry are. Far from it!
We worked together to create these professional lifestyle and executive portrait images for the team.
C&M: Why did you choose Carlé & Moss / Nikki to take your business photographs?
JMP: “We have gotten to know Nikki via numerous networking events in Cheltenham and we instantly had a connection, we have a similar ethos for our clients and we knew we wanted to work with her.”
Photographed on location in the JMP offices in the heart of Cheltenham and during a small break in lockdown!
The executive portraits were smart and professional yet also showed the approachability of the Team. JMP is known for personal service to its Clients and so the photography reflected this.
C&M: What advice would you give anyone planning their own business photography session(s)?
JMP: “Knowing what you want to achieve is key and having an easy plan for everyone to follow but also being open to suggestions from Nikki as she has seen it all she has some great ideas and definitely helped us achieve a range of photography we can use now for our Bio’s but also team/office/group shots we can use in the future.”
We also thought it important to show the team in their HQ environment rather than against a plain Studio background.
When you call or contact JMP you can now visualise where the team member you are talking to is!
C&M: What was your favourite part of the photography shoot/session?
JMP: “Nikki made everyone feel so relaxed, none of us were keen on having photographs taken but she made everyone feel happy and even got everyone giggling.”
JMP are based in Cheltenham and work with many Clients within the local area as well as further afield. Having their HQ in Cheltenham is important for them as they love the area and have made it their home.
And therefore we wanted to draw this into the imagery. We took these images in one of the parks in Cheltenham which is just a stones throw from their offices.
C&M: What were the key images required for this shoot/session and what was the business need that drove this decision?
JMP: “They key was the individual headshots of our team members for our website “meet the team” page. We say we offer a personal service but our website did not show this, our key objective was showing off the faces of JMP.”
We also took the time to take the Executive Portraits outside in the park as well.
Including portraits a few months later when new starters joined the Business.
C&M: What was the business need that pushed you to seek out professional business photography?
JMP: “We promote our business as “the personal touch” but this was not shown via our website and social media we needed team and individual photos to show everyone who is a part of JMP.”
It was important for the JMP Team to have some fun and more personality lead photographs taken for their website and social media.
Behind every smile there is a person with a life outside of the office environment and they wanted to showcase this. So each Team Member brought in an item(s) that reflected their outside of work interests.
The result was these fun images of the team – a different take on executive portraits!
C&M: What was the inspiration or theme for your photo shoot/photography sessions?
JMP: “We wanted to show our professional side with group and individual photos but as a business we also like to have fun. We spend so much time at work it has to be enjoyable and we wanted to show everyone’s own personalities so the prop shoot was important for this.”
C&M: Did everything go to plan? Did the schedules, shoot boards and/or planning sessions help?
JMP: “Yes we were so happy with how the day went, the mood boards and planning beforehand really helped us get everything we needed within the time and we were even ahead of schedule.”
JMP: “The John Morgan Partnership offers insurance for everyone and we will find a solution which fits the individual needs of the client rather than trying to make the client fit particular products. We offer that personal touch in an industry which is fast becoming faceless and transactional. We can help businesses and individuals with a wide range of products.”
C&M: Head on over to the JMP Website (click here)