Corporate Away Day Photography for AW Hainsworth

Yorkshire-based specialist textile company AW Hainsworth has been an unrivalled market leader for 240 years.

Earlier this summer they asked me to document their annual company away day at Oulton Hall in Leeds. This was a particularly special event as the company were celebrating a milestone 240 years as well as handing out a range of awards to their staff.

Corporate Away Day Photography

Corporate away days like this are always fun to photograph. It’s often quite rare to have all staff in one place and they provide a fantastic opportunity to capture the true personality of a company.

At the end of the day, every company is as much about the people who work there as the service they offer. Events like these, that bring all the staff together and celebrate everyone’s hard work are incredibly important.

Capturing Natural, Candid Moments

There were a range of games during the day including a GPS treasure hunt. This was a dream to photograph as teams of staff worked together on a wide range of wacky challenges around the stunning grounds of Oulton Hall. I had plenty of opportunity to capture everyone having a great time.

Armed with iPads, teams were tasked with carrying out a wide range of challenges as they worked out clues that led them to various GPS checkpoints around the grounds. For some challenges, the teams needed to shoot videos which were later played back to everyone on the big screen. These ranged from beatboxing, to breakdancing and even spoof nature documentaries.

I love this style of shooting – working quickly and efficiently to capture moments as they happen. This was a day full of laughs and silliness and I really wanted to capture that feeling of being part of the event.

The main challenge here as a solo event photographer is trying to capture all the teams taking part in the treasure hunt as the various teams all disappeared in different directions.

I certainly covered a lot of steps that day! Mental note – Wear more comfortable shoes…