Through a mutual connection, American Natural Gas hired a Colorado-based photographer Sean Boggs to shoot industrial photos. Sean hired an ad agency that specializes in industrial and architecture photography to help him market himself. He and the agency have been working together for the past six years, now. ANG was also a client of this agency, so when the company needed images for its marketing materials and website, the agency recommended Sean for the project.
When planning how to execute this project, Sean looked at examples of work from previous photographers who had shot images for ANG. The ANG team communicated back and forth via email with Sean. They explained to him the expectations for the images and what they hope to see in Sean’s work. They also shared what their likes and dislikes were from previous photographer’s photos. Additionally, ANG showed Sean the development of its new website. This gave Sean a better understanding of how he would be able to visually please his client.
Initially, they hired Sean to shoot images of three of ANG’s gas stations. After he sent the photos to the team, they immediately loved them. Thus, they hired Sean to shoot the other ANG locations. This project spanned over one month. That was super quick since all the stations are in 19 different areas across the country, including the Midwest, California, Arizona, and many other areas across the United States.
Sean resides in central Colorado. Therefore, if the location was less than 10 hours away, he would drive, which allowed him to be able to bring a lot more of his equipment. If it were further than that, he would fly. Along the way, Sean turned in his images to the client for feedback. In turn, the feedback from ANG’s team was positive. The only suggestion they made was for Sean to use a drone for some of the locations to grab aerial shots. Since this project required Sean to visit such a vast amount of locations, he wanted to create visual diversity. He aimed to offer some unique options instead of capturing the same photos every time. Based on ANG’s new website and what its team was looking for, Sean took the creative liberty to shoot abstract industrial images. ANG loved this idea!
Aside from the amount of travel, the most challenging part of this project was the post-production. It involved a lot of retouching to remove cars, people, and power lines to give a cleaner look to the images.
I do all of the post-processing myself because a lot of what I shoot, and the way I shoot has a lot to do with the result of what comes out, and I can’t imagine someone else being able to create what I envisioned without knowing how and why I shot what I shot.
Overall, Sean loved working on this project. The beauty of being a photographer is that there is work wherever you go. One of the reasons Sean took on the assignment, in the first place, was so he could also shoot stock photography for Cavan Images. Additionally, he aimed to complete a few side projects and meet some interesting people along the way, too.
The industrial setting is something Sean is very interested in. Therefore, this project granted him a “backstage pass” to see all of the back ends of ANG’s stations. He had the opportunity to meet its technicians and visit some fascinating places. ANG is rapidly expanding and buying more natural gas stations around the country. With that being said, Sean is crossing his fingers that he will get the bid to capture images of the new stations once they are open for business!
See more of Sean’s photography on his website.
Further Reading
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