Starting Out - The Good Sauna
After years of odd jobs for friends here and there, and 18 months working full time in a creative role, I’ve finally decided to pursue more freelance work and focus on growing my portfolio. Funnily enough, at around the same time, the folks at The Good Sauna opened their site in Manchester. Two fresh starts occurring at around the same time can only mean one thing - helping each other grow.
Huddling around the fire-pit after a refreshing ice bath.
Deciding to venture into the world of freelancing (albeit I’m at the toe-dipping stage) was a hard decision. Having the belief in my skills to the point of charging someone for them wasn’t easy, but I’m glad that I have that confidence. I knew the best way to start out was to have a wealth of work behind me, so I began to look for the next opportunity to arise.
Queue, The Good Sauna. This was maybe the most organic way a project could come about. I met Ol and Jonny at their soft open event for family and friends, my friend works there, and coincidentally my uncle also knows them from school and also attended. We discussed how hard it is to get started and get the word out when dealing with a new business, and that quality imagery goes a long way. Enjoying the venue and liking the guys so much, I decided to offer my services to these wonderful people free of charge. After all, helping them helps me, and vice versa.
The cold plunge is as good for your body as it is for laughing at your mates’ reactions.
“It takes a lot of trust in someone to allow them to photograph you in what is a fairly revealing situation..".”
After that, all that was left was to organise a date with a bunch of close friends. It takes a lot of trust in someone to allow them to photograph you in what is a fairly revealing situation, I’m very lucky to have such a close network of friends that have that trust in me (it helps that I was able to offer them a free sauna experience too). When the day came, I was relieved to find all my friends at ease and enjoying the day for what it was, with the camera taking a back seat.
Especially in lifestyle shoots, I’ve found taking a step back and observing with the camera brings about the best possible results, rather than having strict poses in mind. It’s something I’ve now built into how I work - having rough ideas of moments I want to capture as opposed to having them completely story boarded and pre-determined. Though I did learn a valuable lesson on this shoot - timings. I found out just how much time I need to allow for shoots like this one. Two hours is about the bare minimum amount I need to ensure everything runs smoothly and I capture the observational content I enjoy.
Cold showers prepare you for the plunge.
This was a wonderful beginning to what I hope to be a budding career in freelance photography & videography, and I can’t thank Ol and Jonny at The Good Sauna enough. I would highly recommend anyone in the Manchester area to check them out and treat yourselves to a well earned rest that has tonnes of health benefits.
