Damian Comans - Photography

British Library’s Entrepreneur in Residence

Damian Comans — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 15:40:42 +0000

I recently had the pleasure of photographing one of the nicest guys I’d met in a while, entrepreneur and gentleman, Mr Stephen Fear. When you sit down to chat, you instantly know that Stephen is someone you should pay very close attention to. Stephen went from living in a small council flat with no room for an office, to become a millionaire by the time he was 20. He then repeated that millionaire bit many, many times over. If you have a spare few minutes the background of his life is pretty amazing. There’s a great 3 minute article on The Daily Express.

One of the interesting parts of his background story was that Mr Fear started his business by operating out of an old red phone box and convincing a telephone operator to be his secretary. Since Stephen had just recently been given the honour of being the British Library’s Entrepreneur in Residence, London PR experts Jargon PR organised for a red phone box to get shipped in to the British Library. Paul from Jargon PR and I arrived early and awaited the phone box’s delivery. Thankfully it was on wheels so we were able to scoot it around to a few different locations to see what worked best.

The day we shot this, the sun was absolutely glaring down. Very rare sight for London! After we’d got all of the “safe for PR use” images, I decided to use the sun to my advantage and get a couple of more interesting photos to show my client.

Here’s a quick overview of the lighting set up:

And here’s one of my favourites:

We then headed inside to the Business and IP Centre and shot a few corporate portraits for use in both online and printed media:

The Business and IP Centre is a great resource for anyone running or looking to set up a business. It’s all free and you get access to many reports you’d normally have to mortgage your house to obtain. Even better than that, having even 5 minutes access to Stephen Fear could be game changing for your business. If you would like to “Ask and Expert”, you’ll need to apply through the British Library on this link. I’d imagine that competition to see Stephen will be very tough, but you never know your luck and I whole heartedly recommend at least trying. He summed up all of the issues with running a freelance photography business in about 3 minutes, without me even opening my mouth! Tough to hear but essential if one is to survive in this economy.

Thank you to Jargon PR and of course to Stephen for his expert modelling skills and humour on the day. I had a laugh and learned quite a bit during our brief afternoon together. Can’t ask for more than that!

Cheers,
Damian

Rapid fire portrait session for London SEO experts Distilled

Damian Comans — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 22:58:54 +0000

I photograph a lot of portrait sessions in London, however this has to be one of the fastest paced! Industry leading SEO experts Distilled had their Seattle and New York teams over for an event in London. Long story short this gave us one morning to photograph all 45 of them. Each person had to be photographed on their relevant team colour, in a normal natural pose and also one that was a little bit crazy. This gave as a chance to play (within time constraints of course) and come up with some fun and memorable headshots. Thankfully Distilled are a young and vibrant bunch so we bashed through the portraits and had a great laugh along the way.

Here are some of my favourites:

Rob Ousbey from Distilled put together this stop motion video of the London team’s images after the shoot. It amused me greatly so felt I should share it with you guys!

After the individual portraits, we headed to a pub in central London to do a big group shot (and for the team to enjoy a well earned drink!). It was a super dark pub, in a basement with very unflattering lighting. To light them all evenly required rather careful placement of 4 flash units: 2 soft boxes, a white umbrella and one bare bulb. All needed though if were to have any chance of pulling it off!

Distilled have come a long way since their humble beginnings. I first met one of the directors, Will, at a business networking event some 7 years ago. Over the years I’ve watched them grow exponentially, move offices (countless times) and secure some very major clients along the way. They now run SEO conferences attended by people from around the world and are considered by many to be the experts in their field.

Big thank you to Will and Duncan and all of the Distilled team for having me along to capture these images for you. It was a fast and hard day but great fun which I think can only be a testament to the culture at Distilled.

Cheers,
Damian

St Wilfrids Chelsea

Damian Comans — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:54:44 +0000

Here’s a few images from my shoot with St Wilfrids care home in Chelsea. St Wilfrids were updating their brochure and wanted some new imagery that showcased the human side of their facilities.

My new assistant did a great job of keeping the bags guarded:

Big thank you to all of my models. You did a fantastic job and I hope you enjoyed the day

Who said you should put the camera away when it’s raining?

Damian Comans — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 20:04:35 +0000

It’s raining, after midnight and cold. Perfect conditions for a photo shoot? We thought so. Thankfully all equipment survived and Nadine wasn’t complaining too much

Here’s a few of our favourites:

Thanks Nadine for braving the elements xx

Thanks also to Canon for making equipment that is at least mildly water resistant!

A super fun Melbourne wedding

Damian Comans — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 13:34:12 +0000

Here’s a few favourites from my close friends Lauren and Warren’s wedding in Melbourne. I met Warren about 10 years ago in London and we’ve been mates ever since. Woz is a down to earth, genuine, honest bloke who I really look up to. He also has the most contagious laugh, which is super handy at parties as you can always find him no matter how crowded the room.

Lauren is a perfect match for Woz. She keeps him in line but always does so with a smile on her face
She’s smart, funny, very sweet AND looked absolutely stunning in her wedding dress.

My aim for the day as with every wedding, was to try and capture true emotion and really tell the story of the day through my photos. They’re a happy, fun and cheeky couple, so I wanted the images to reflect that.

It absolutely bucketed down when we went off to do the couples portraits. Made for some cool atmospheric images though. For this one we had about 5 umbrellas going, covering flash units etc. Thankfully the couple stayed reasonably dry. Can’t say the same for myself but was all worth it!

Scott, delivering his best man speech. Notice the image in the background? Warren’s face on Justin Bieber’s body. Hilarious. Had the entire room keeled over.

Nana was so cute. I love moments like these.

Thanks again for having me there Woz and Loz. Was an honour to be there and has ended up being one of the best weddings I’ve ever had the privilege of photographing.

Big love,
Damo