A Day Shooting At Leeds Harley Davidson

When it comes to working on a personal project, what better brand to feature in your project than Harley Davidson

Having developed a good relationship with Leeds Harley Davidson, I was given the opportunity to shoot with one of their bikes.  As cool as the store is, in my opinion it reminds me of a movie set with stunning layout, branding and attention to detail. However I didn’t want to shoot in store, instead I used the ‘behind the scenes’ spot at the rear of the store, where I had previously shot some publicity shots for their Battle of kings custom challenge campaign.  The spot is raw, industrial and the perfect juxtoposition for the bike and models.

So after weeks of casting, and contact with the store, the day finally came to shoot.  Chris the store manager gave me the pick of any bike from the holding bay, can you imagine what this must’ve felt like?  I got to cast my own bike!  I was after a black muscle bike and there she was, waiting for me to pick her out with her shiny black and chrome finish.

Once everything was in place, I did my very best not to scratch or damage any paintwork (I held my breath lots on this day) after all, the bike was my responsability for the time I was using it the shoot was ready to go.

I had two fantastic models, Mathew (who I’ve worked with before on the ‘Date night’ shoot) and Nicola who I’ve never worked with before. Nicola was brilliant, she had tattoos that covered her arms and legs as well as having rebellious look, she had just the look I was after.

As with a lot of my personal projects I love to tell a story about the connection of two people, hence the title in this case ‘Love On Two Wheels’, As well as just getting some cool shots of each of them, ‘wearing’ the bike.

The shoot took about 2 hours to complete, it was a very informal fun shoot, which I think helps keeps the models relaxed, allowing the creativity and ideas to flow.  As the photographer, I always encourage ideas from the people I shoot, because they are a huge part of the project, I want them to feel involved and free to contribute their thoughts, because they are receiving the prints for themselves, they have to feel that the shoot was worth it for themselves too, which in this case I think they did.

Here are a few behind the scene shots from the day.. The actual finished shots can be found here.