Still Life Photoshoot

We love collaborating with like-minded creatives.

So when we met talented still life photographer Benjamin Swanson; there was no doubt we should do a shoot together.

Originally Benjamin came from a background in Sculpture, he then moved into Photography, specialising in object oriented works. Check out his website for work with; Wallpaper*, Dolce & Gabbana, Plumen, Nike and much more.

Below is an image from his “Conquest of materials" series.

Photography is such a vital element for Freedom To Exist as a predominately ecommerce brand; our designs are really carefully considered and there are a lot of subtle details you might initially miss; from the brushed bezel, concave crown and domed crystal.

Benjamin’s photos capture all these details beautifully; so, you can almost reach out and touch the images on screen!

A lot of work goes on behind the scenes and these seven shots were a full day’s work; plus expert post production from L²SB Studios.

Early on a blue skied morning, Kirsty (fte’s Creative director) made the journey East to Benjamin’s Hackney Wick studio. Still a creative hub for design, artist & photography studios, with that East London grit of old boozers, warehouses, independent cafes and graffiti (and giant turtles of course). Although the amount of scaffolding and building cranes shows times are quickly changing and soon the creative sole will be ripped out and filled with designer high end housing.

As with all photo shoots; the majority of the morning is spent setting up; getting the lighting, camera angles and compositions just right.

Benjamin uses a Hasselblad 503CW camera; and shoots all depths of field in focus to then be merged in post-production to create a crisp clear image of all elements of the watches.

For the photoshoot we decided to focus on Freedom To Exists, new (launches Dec 18) metal Milanese straps; which can be fully adjusted to any wrist size large or small. It has quickly become one of our most popular models so we really needed images to do them justice; showing how detailed and flexible the metal link straps are.

Quick lunchtime pizza stop at “Crate brewery & pizza” (it was sunny after all). Then back to capture the other images.

The full days shoot & hard work from Benjamin reaped the award of these seven still life images.

The expert retouching and post production from L²SB Studios gave them the final polish; even creating the subtle video of the second hand ticking around the dial; shown below.