Eagle, Colorado-based commercial photographer Sean F. Boggs utilized his industrial photography skills while on assignment for BP’s Wind Farms in Wichita, Kansas. His images were used for in-house training manuals as well as other marketing materials for employees. It was a fulfilling challenge and adventure, encompassing what Sean looks for in assignments — grit, culture, and “people work.”
Before the photo shoot, Sean sat in on pre-production meetings with BP’s Photography Director Patrick Di Nola and freelance Motion Director Laura Borgio.
The client’s needs and expectations, the setting, and the talent all play a huge role in the decisions that I make as I shoot.
Wonderful Machine’s Craig Oppenheimer also sat in on the meeting, as he connected Sean with BP.
I wanted to get Craig’s take on the value of a project and how to present it as professionally as possible. I believe that’s partly why he thought of me as my work was in his head when he started looking for help with BP. It shows the value of good consulting.
Sean appreciated the ecological and rural aspects of the project, describing the wind farms in Wichita, Kansas as “giant” — hundreds of turbines stretched out over roughly 2,500 square miles. He took in the rural scenery around him, noticing the cows grazing on grass and the buzzing of the tractors.
The slow-motion turning of the blades, the passing shadows, and the quiet swooshing sound of the wind breaking was hypnotic and beautiful. It was almost therapeutic, similar to the vibes put off by trees in a forest.
To capture authenticity in each image, Sean tailored his shooting style to the individual. His hero shots represent employees’ pride in their work and convey the feeling of working on these turbines.
One trick is to make a great portrait early on and then show it to them before you work again. Always start with moving stuff before the hero pose – it loosens them up.
As with any assignment, there were challenges — particularly in catching the perfect light. Luckily, when it was time to take portraits of BP’s CEO, Bernard Looney, a cloud bank acted as a diffuser from the sun, softening the high light source.
If we didn’t have the clouds I would have had to use a scrim on a 15-minute shoot. So, with that little bit of luck, I was able to make pretty dang cool portraits of this gentleman by dropping the ambient exposure down to make it a little darker.
We then added a natural-looking Rembrandt lighting highlight across his face and later Photoshopped a richer sky. He was very kind and down for all the work of modeling.
The talent were real people — that’s actually my favorite kind. Actors and models are great, but nothing beats an actual expert at what you’re shooting.
When it came to connecting with subjects and other creatives, Sean credited his past experiences as well as his background in cross-cultural communications and public speaking.
I’m uniquely accustomed to working with rural industrial and agricultural talent. I grew up working on a farm and later worked in the fishing industry, wild land fire fighting, and city firefighting. I can relate to the toughness and the way these workers approach bad weather and other challenges in the field.
This experience was great practice at quickly gaining the trust and confidence of talent. They have a very diverse employee group and the locals that share use of the land with them are another culture as well – it helped me to approach all these different groups with a couple of basic consistencies on my part. It was another great reminder that respect is the key to gaining confidence, so I show them all respect: crew, talent, and neighbors of the shoot.
We can almost always find something about our lives to bond over.
See more of Sean’s images on his website.
Let us help you Find Photographers, source Stock Photography,
and Produce Your Shoot — or just reach out to hear more!