Emergency Service Show 2017

Corporate Photography by Ceri Oakes

I am going to have to put this down as my favourite assignment of 2016. When a designer from the Emergency Services Times Magazine, who just happens to also be based in Whitby, got in touch to enquire about the shoot I almost snapped her hand off. The brief was simple. Charlotte had seen some portraits I had shot within my role as lifeboat press officer for Whitby RNLI and wanted to create some similar images of the other emergency services. Sick of using stock photos of models that didn’t really work in the industry the brief was to shoot real people, in their natural environment. The images needed to be gritty and evocative and illustrate that the subject has experience in their profession.

Basically I was allowed to be let loose with my camera, spending time on each shoot, working with the subject and the tools of their trade to create an image that told their story. I shot pictures of all the services from mountain rescue, to armed police at RAF Fylingdales, to the fire service and paramedics. I also visited the Yorkshire Air Ambulance station in Thirsk.

The opportunity to shoot images of local people at work in Whitby and surrounding areas for national reach was a very exciting prospect and I wanted to do the subjects justice. Not to mention the fact the images would be used in glossy print as adverts for the Emergency Services Show 2017 within a number of brochures and magazines, as well as online at www.emergencyuk.com

Below I have shared some of the finished adverts which will run throughout the year as well as a very small selection of the many images I shot during this project. I can’t wait to get hold of the magazine and see the images in print.

Thank you to all of the models, who took time out to allow us to take these photos, who were so patient and willing to try out all my ideas.

You can contact Charlotte of Friskywhiska Design on 07976917411