Originally planned in for around April but having to be delayed due to the ongoing pandemic to the colder months of Autumn, I had the amazing opportunity to photograph the Tudor boutique that recently opened within the Westfield London shopping mall in Sheppard's Bush.
It was a reasonably early start, I headed out around 7 am to ensure I got there on time (London traffic can be a nightmare) and make sure I had the time to sort out my security clearances with the mall management.
To try and help mitigate overcrowding on public transport and let those who need it more keep social distancing during rush hour, I decided to drive into London. It wasn't too bad a journey, I live about 30 miles outside London, but with normal traffic, once you get into London the journey is about an hour and a half it took about 2 hours that morning arriving around 9 am.
Parking at Westfield is super easy now with Smart Parking, just drive up to the gate and it automatically reads your number plate and lets you in, when you leave it records your exit time and charges you accordingly, no more finding the ticket and waiting at the pay machines on your way back to the car.
Once at Westfield, I just had to find my way to the contractor sign in and get my badge for the day, then find my way to the store, this took approx. 30-45 minutes, Westfield at Shepherds Bush is a very large mall indeed, I did get a little lost at one point and added around 3200 steps taken in total from car to store.
Once I made my way to the store, the shoot went well there were some normal annoyances with mall shoots, for example, a Pretzel stall about 2 meters outside the store (which smelt amazing and made my stomach grumble with hunger) and the architecture of the mall limited what could be done with the external shots but like all shoots, I do the best I can and came out with some great looking shots of the store.
The Tudor visual merchandising is great, I loved the style and design of the store, it did present some photographic issues, such as the deep black branding areas with bright areas in the ceiling and walls which are always tricky to capture on camera, within the same image and have both looking perfect.
Editing and retouching the images did take a little longer than normal, this is mainly due to the contrasting black and bright sports as mentioned previously but also ensuring the lens distortions were not causing a distraction in the images, as due to the size of the store required a very ultra-wide-angle lens to meet the clients brief.
All in all the shoot went really well, the staff were super friendly and helpful and I really enjoyed being able to shoot the first Tudor Boutique in the UK.
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