OK confession time … this shoot was officially now over a year ago. But, never the less, I wanted to share the photos because it was such a fun day. I’d been waiting for a while to make sure that the photos had been used for everything they were going to be used for … and then … well time got away from me.

But here it is none the less.

So – the back story is, just over a year ago, this shoot was planned to take in some of the highlights of our dear little city of Cardiff, to showcase the guitars in cool and original ways. We wanted to focus on independents, and the kind of places that people who buy guitars might find themselves drawn towards anyway.

We ended up with a shoot list consisting of seven or eight different locations (many of which I’ve photographed at before while I was working on the Cardiff Arcades Project), with the same number of guitars (and a mandolin) to get through with three different models … all in one day, phew. We knew it was going to be tough work, but hopefully an enjoyable day.

We started off in Coffee Barker, managing to sneak in just before the crowds turned up to take some photos on the lush seating. We then moved on to Fire Island (now Urban Taphouse) to make use of the beautiful stone wall in the back room there.

As the day progressed we moved on to Hobo’s and the Fashion Quarter (stopping for a quick breather at the New York Deli on the way). After lunch at the wonderful Cafe Minuet in the Castle Arcade, it was on to Troutmark Books, Catapult Records and Spillers Records.

We ended the day up on the beautiful balcony of the Castle Arcade – a perennial favourite place of mine to shoot.

I’m pretty sure that the photos were what the folks over at Crafter were looking for (because they told me!) and I had a great time shooting them – a day taking photos in a variety of different challenges with loads to get through really gets my creative energy flowing, and I especially loved working with the different models we used. Probably the biggest challenge was figuring out how to reduce reflections flying off the gorgeously shiny guitars.

I used a Canon 6D for this shoot along with a 24-70mm, 50mm and 85mm …. a great camera to use, if you don’t have the budget for a 5D Mark III, this makes a more affordable full-frame option.

During this photoshoot I also managed to fall in love with one of the guitars being photographed and ending up buying my own … it’s the Twin Bird (er, the one with two birds on it).

Look out for a post about another advertising shoot I did recently…. I promise it won’t take a year for me to put the photos up.

For more on Crafter Guitars – visit the website here. You can see some of my photos there too, hooray.

Hope you like the gallery of shots I’ve taken – the client actually ended up with around 270 photos in the end. If you’ve got any comments, thoughts, suggestions or otherwise, please do feel free to leave them in the box … and if you’re looking for a photographer for your next shoot, please don’t hesitate to get in touch 🙂