This video is a sneak peep into what goes into a personal branding photoshoot. The idea behind it was to produce content for Silver Fox Entrepreneurs. A website run my Jim James and aimed at helping male businessmen who may be starting a new business or upscaling an existing one. I think it’s a great idea because we all know that us guys are not the best at reaching out and looking for help.

Jim has built up a great and lively community, with a website that is full of useful information for those in business. What we both felt was lacking was the photography. Jim was relying on pretty standard fare stock photography that not only looked generic but it didn’t really represent the idea behind Silver Fox.

We chose to shoot the campaign in the lovely town of Bath, which is also where Jim lives and is just down the road from me. So all good there.

The venue was the Drawing Rooms and we were given full use of the space. Which was brilliant because it had loads of rooms each one having it’s own character. A photographers dream!

To help with the shoot I brought in one of my favourite stylists Nick Hems. He is a great guy to work with and as well as sourcing loads of great clothes for the shoot he brings in his fantastic energy and sense of style. The video was shot by William Sansom of Close Range Films. Who I’m sure you will agree did a brilliant job at capturing the day.

So here’s a transcript of dialogue:

Jim “Today we’re doing a personal branding photoshoot and the goal is to help me reposition myself as an entrepreneur who's been overseas for 25 years, I have come back to the UK to start a new business and to re-establish and refresh my look and my brand.

So the positioning of the founder and how they are seen and how they present themselves is really fundamental to the identity of the company.”

Marcus “I've been a photographer for about 20 years, so I can look at people's faces and work out which lighting and camera lenses and angles work best pretty quickly. With photography there is a lot of power in the photograph, the still image hold still holds a lot of power.

I've always worked with a stylist. A stylist is in touch with clothes they know what is in fashion, they know what's going to work and that’s their expertise, my expertise is as a photographer. They take all that responsibility of my shoulders”

Nick “For me it's about understanding what he wants to create and the message that he is portraying who is the person who he wants to attract into his circle which is the Silver Fox. He has a natural sense of style anyway it's that people warm toos as well is listening to his voice or see his face.”

Jim “Working as a crew it's been great fun, we also learnt a lot about each other disciplines, so we look at this what people coming together on spec can create and we've also got potential business opportunities well we can work together”.