Photos of Lawyers
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I am seldom asked to make photos of lawyers especially those that include personal branding. Roscoe Fernandes came to me as a referral from a great client of mine. We set up a zoom and within 30 minutes he had ageed that I would indeed take some photos of him for better personalisation of his website and also to help progress his social media profile via Linkedin. He told me he had once posted an image of himself on a scooter in Hamburg and this had received over 3000 views! This was somewhat surprising for someone who perhaps had not considered the power of photographs in business before and had never had a professional photo taken in his life!
moreYou can understand so much about they way people conduct business by the way they behave around others. My new client Roscoe Fernandes – Employment Lawyer , he immediately trusted me. He listened well and he readily responded to all my emails (pre-shoot) and usually within an hour to answer any questions that I may have. If he was unable to respond immediately, then his reply would be there waiting for me early the very the next morning. We were planning a shoot and he accepted that I needed answers.
Pre-shoot we talked about his demographic as we would make images to recreate meetings and client interaction. We discussed his USP. He specialised in discrimination employment law and so we factored this in to his shoot for better ‘people’ content.
So how many ‘models’/ candidates had he managed to agree for his photo shoot? He was apologetic, one had dropped out , he had only managed to find THREE!
THREE people had agreed to take time out of their own businesses to help him recreate the perfect photos, willingly and without pay. What a brilliant illustration and character reference for this lawyer. It proved that he is deeply likeable. Roscoe arrived at a pre-agreed client venue as did his shoot ‘models’. They were all willing, curious, attentive and fun to work with. They talked easily with me and the shoot candidates waited eagerly for me to call them, without any complaint.
The commercial meeting shots had been completed and it was felt that everyone had enjoyed this experience way too much! We were then ready to complete the last hour in a courtyard of a Nottingham wine bar and the bar owner, yet another friend of Roscoe’s. Roscoe is a bit of a wine boff; an aficionado and this part of his personal brand and lighter side, we wanted to capture through photos also.
Roscoe was so excited by this point. He had, I think enjoyed the shoot and like many clients it was just a relief that it was pretty much now over. He was ready for a glass of fine wine to celebrate with his clients and friends. He invited everyone to the wine bar! I was thinking by this time that we still needed to complete the shoot? That we still have images to make!
So we arrived at the wine bar and Roscoe bought great wine for everyone, including me. We quickly completed our shots because I was aware that Roscoe was ready for a drink and I was satisfied that we had sufficient photos by this point. We completed the shoot and Roscoe thanked everyone with a thoughtful bottle gift (including me!) He had personally carried a large box across town to the wine bar to present everyone with a fabulous ‘Thank You’.
We had an awesome end of lockdown-lifting and sun-filled Friday afternoon. Sat outside together drinking great wine in a quiet Nottingham courtyard bar. And I made some new friends for sure.
From a few hours in to our shoot I knew that Roscoe was just brilliant around people. He had a natural way and kindness. People liked him, trusted him and appeared to do anything for him. This makes for a great employment lawyer.
How you behave around others quickly illustrates the kind of person and business that you are.
Photographer: Suzanne Fells
Client: Roscoe Fernandes
Date: May 2021
Location: Nottingham city centre.