It’s always good to get a new client, but when that client happens to make chocolates you know life just got a little sweeter.

James Chocolates approached me a few weeks a go because being based in Somerset they wanted to find a more local photographer than their previous one (based in Essex) with whom they could build a relationship. I had a conversation with their marketing man Matt and took delivery of the first batch of these quirky chocolates to shoot.

Product photography isn’t my bread and butter, but having discussed my client’s requirements I knew I could help. I was pleased with the results from the first batch and more importantly, Matt and his designer were pleased too. Aware of what the designer needed to do with the photos once I’d delivered them I made sure I got feedback from the client and the designer to ensure I was presenting them with what they deeded and making the designer’s life as easy as possible.

With a few minor tweaks to the set-up I was presented with a larger second batch to tackle which included chocolate lollies for Halloween and Christmas treats. The results of the Halloween shoot are already in sales literature, and the Christmas one is underway.

Spooky Halloween chocolate lollies! Woooo!

One particularly tricky product to shoot was a selection bag which included a couple of large chocolate lollies. I wanted these to stand on their stick ends, against the bag and with a little bit of an angle. Chocolate may be sticky, but it’s obviously difficult to attach chocolate objects to other things, especially when trying to attach a top-heavy lolly to a paper bag. I ended up using duct tape on the back of one, and Velcro to hold the other in place against the bag. Hopefully you’ll see the result another time.

The Christmas shoot included mini crackers with chocolate penguins in, but I wanted to make some of the penguin figures stand up as if they were marching out of the crackers, which is where shaving their bums (ok, their feet, but bums is a funnier word!) came in. It occurred to me, while shaving their “bases” with a craft knife, what a curious job I have sometimes and how the obsession to make something look just right can leave me doing strange things.