London-based photographer Pete Muller recently took on a high-profile project for Emirates, one of the world’s leading airlines known for its luxury services and global reach. The client sought Pete’s expertise in sports photography to capture new stills for this Wimbledon-themed print, digital, and OOH campaign.
Despite not having worked with Emirates before, the company discovered Pete’s work through online research, specifically targeting sports photographers.
I was simply sent an email about my availability and could I deliver the images by a certain date.
Pete’s reputation in the sports photography world, particularly following his award-winning shoot for William Hill, played a pivotal role in securing this project.
I shoot a lot of sports images and my William Hill shoot won a lot of awards. I would guess this brought me a lot of attention — both having the ability to time the shots perfectly, but also be able to create the scene from scratch and make it believable.
Before diving into the shoot, there were multiple video calls to discuss the desired look and feel of the images.
I did a couple of recces and showed them ideas of how I saw the final images looking. The client’s team showed me a TV ad they had done prior to this, which gave me an idea of poses and shapes they may have wanted.
The shoot took place in two parts and at two locations: first on location at Wimbledon, and then a week later in a studio.
We had access to Wimbledon centre court and I would love to have said, we shot there, but we could not. It was not the easiest to work around, as it was about 3 months before the championships, so there was a lot of work going on at the court. Luckily, we also had access to other courts the AELTC own and these were far easier to work with. We had booked a day at the court, but on the day, we only shot for around half a day, as I knew we had enough to work with. On the location, we just had the crew, which was two assistants, a digitech, a producer and an assistant, plus the staff from the AELTC.
It was not good weather for us in the afternoon, as it got too sunny. It was overcast and it actually rained whilst we were shooting, it was also very windy. I really wanted it to be overcast, so I could control the light and direction of the shadows and have the lighting effect I wanted and feel worked best for the shots.
The following week, Pete transitioned to a studio shoot to capture the models under controlled conditions.
This was perfectly controlled and we just had to get the angles, shapes, and proportions to match the location shots. In the studio, we had the hero model, three lighting assistants, a digitech, three background models, an MUA, stylist, producer and assistant, me of course, and a BTS videographer.
As mentioned, the weather was not great on the location day. On the studio day, the time difference between London and Dubai didn’t help, with communications, but we got there.
On my sets, I always want it to be fun and relaxed. I want people to want to work for me, rather than have to work for me.
One of the highlights for Pete was seeing on of his finals prominently displayed in public.
My favorite moment, as always, was seeing the massive poster up at the train station in Wimbledon. Always the best moment to see your work out there, plus in the program.
See more of Pete’s work on his website.
Credits
Producer: Pamela Nolan (Global Assignments Agency)
Hero Model: Kyle Vosper
Stylist: Rosalind Keep
Makeup: Liz Tarrant
Clients and Creatives at Emirates: Yasmine Saade and Richard Billington
Digi Ops: Will Corder and Sacha Philips
Lighting Assistants: Declan Driver, Sam Brown, Sam Robinson
BTS Video: Sam Willis
Background Model: Max Willis, Louise Young, and Duane Tucker
AELTC Contacts: Ben Brook and Emma Lerwill
Hire Studio: Malcolm Ryan Studios
Further Reading
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