Aire Street Studios and Arctic Hayes Limited: Capturing with Brilliance!

Words & Images by Nicole.

Arctic Hayes is one of the largest independent distributors of plumbing products in the UK, and today we got the pleasure of working with them at their head office in Leeds, snapping pictures for their website along with supporting imagery for their customer’s websites. They have something for every plumber, from pipe freeze spray, to smoke pellets to check the chimney (which come in both orange and white, in case you have a preference) to soldering mats to carbon monoxide alarms, all of which I found in their very own catalogue.

The day started in Arctic Hayes’ warehouse, with our photographer Mark setting up his studio upstairs, fine-tuning the lighting and propping up the appliances to enhance the products’ best sides and angles. Meanwhile, Nicole worked on the blog and documenting the behind the scenes. From Arctic Hayes, their Marketing Manager, Richard Musgrave, and the Graphic Designer, Danny Oakley, supervised the photoshoot alongside Mark.

Mark made sure the photographs displayed all the signature blue and yellow graphics, designed by Danny. As the day progressed, the team went down into the warehouse to take some ‘action shots’, displaying a pipe and a device which measures water pressure, which otherwise might be known as a water pressure gauge. An action shot is vital to selling any product, showing off the efficiency of the item being used, as Marketing Manager, Richard, agreed with us, and, in layman’s terms, shows the user the product whilst in use, or being placed into use in a scenario which mimics real life. After throwing on a high-vis jacket, and a short health and safety brief, we were good to go down and frolicked around in what the warehouse offered. It wasn’t all fun and games and plumbing though. 

The team encountered one major issue; movement. Due to the action shot requiring a human (in this case, our talent for the day, now-model Danny) to hold the product, it affected the crisp shapes Mark typically achieves, creating a motion blur, which we wanted to avoid, but after some troubleshooting, we found a simple solution; trial and error. After an influx of shots, one was bound to be stable, despite natural human shaking. 

Just like that, the quality of Aire Street Studios’ work was back to its usual sky-high standards. The sharpness of photos is irreplaceable in photography. Remember, contrast and shadows can be changed in photo editing software, but sharpness is incredibly and notoriously difficult to recreate. And when it comes to marketing, it means these photos can be blown up on huge, unavoidable banners for Arctic Hayes. We got creative, and the grey brick and white radiator background in the images solidified Arctic Hayes’ marketing game, making the demo seem like it took place in a home, and not a warehouse. If those buyers aren’t convinced by now, we don’t think they ever will be.

Long story short, if you want to do it how Arctic Hayes does it, follow in their footsteps by getting in touch with us at Contact Page  for expert bespoke photography, tailored to your needs. Whether you’re a company looking to attract customers with our brilliant photography service, or an actor looking for headshots, we can do it all at Aire Street Studio. Whilst you’re at it, get your fix on plumbing needs over at *Arctic Hayes - Professional Plumbing Tools | Heating & Plumbing Supplies (arctic-hayes.com)*.