Edited and updated historical post from www.steers-gallery.co.uk
Some years ago, when I had delusions of being an adequate photographer, I was given the opportunity to shoot a corporate calendar for my employer. You see, I’d made such a fuss about the quality of the previous year’s effort that I think they decided it was the only way to shut me up. Late 2003 it was. My deadline was very tight, but I managed to deliver a dozen nicely exposed 6×6 slides of moderately interesting views, and even got involved with the graphic designer on the layout. In truth, the print quality of the final calendar didn’t do me any favours, but that was well beyond my control, and having sold a number of the images as framed cibachrome prints, I’m happy in the knowledge that my personal quality control was up to standard. It was a fun project, and I wrote an article describing the experience and speculatively sent it off to Amateur Photographer magazine. Joy of joys, it was published, and only slightly edited. Surely I was now set… the big league beckoned… a stellar career in calendar photography, or journalism, or both, was a certainty…
Hopefully, if I’ve hit the right keys, below should be a pdf of the 3 page article, which you’re welcome to skip if you really can’t be bothered to read.
AA calendar
To paraphrase Marcus Mumford, “If only my ambition was bigger than my apathy”.
It was 12 years before my second attempt at a corporate calendar. Hardly the meteoric rise I’d envisaged. An old friend who runs a successful business asked if I could supply some local scenes for calendar and website, and I readily agreed. This was my first all-digital project, mainly for reasons of time and cost constraints, and I’m pleased to say that the customer was very happy with the outcome, and that makes me happy too.
Unlike my first effort, I think this time I had a better understanding of what makes a successful local calendar shot. Simple uncluttered compositions of recognisable locations that will remain easy on the eye for the entire month. I hope I managed to achieve that with these images by design rather than luck.
By my reckoning, my next corporate calendar shoot should come in 2027. Maybe that’ll be the one that propels me to the stars.