Covent Garden Dental Spa had a photo shoot

Covent Garden Dental Spa had a photo shoot, and so did us members of staff too! Keep a look out for the pictures which will feature when we launch our new website.
The lovely lady who photographed us was Mi of True North Vision. Her first image was of our Endodontist Sameena, while doing a test of the lighting of the room, and from that one test picture, came this beautiful result and this is the blog Mi wrote which was inspired by the picture of Sameena.

I´m hanging over the arm rest of a massive dental chair, squashed in under the heavy steel beam that carries that bright light they use for interrogating our teeth. I´m trying to expose. My camera accessories are easy to reach on the little handy swing tray where you usually get served a turquoise mouthwash after drilling (must get one of these for my next studio). There´s always a new situation to adapt to when doing corporate portraits on location and you have to use your creativity and imagination to make it look like art!
I smack off a shot to test my lights. I´m not even holding my camera in position. I´m not looking at the object, Endodontics Specialist Sameena. But something happens in that shot and everybody loves it. It´s shot in a small dental examination room, a dentist tucking in her collar under the tunic, it´s the moment just before the real photo is supposed to happen. But this becomes so much more real.
Studio headshots with a white backdrop are perhaps not the most creative assignments a photographer can get, the ones we see on LinkedIn etc, but for me, this too can be art. I want to be able to look at every photo I take – and feel some sort of joy. Joy for the person I´ve depicted, pride for my skills to capture them. And looking at something you´ve created and feeling joy, that for me should be the definition of art.
If you look at the black and white world renown portraits we admire, they are stunning shots; the tone, the way they´re lit, the composition. The whole feel in the photo is magical and you know there´s someone behind the camera who´s got an open channel to the shutter gods. We´ve lost a little bit of that through the explosion of digital photography. We now call it headshots, not portraits. It carries a sign of swiftness, a bit of rush behind it. I´m sure the same amount of great portraits still are produced by talented photographers, there´s just an abundance of mediocre smartphone selfies going out online every day, where art isn´t the first thing that springs to mind.
I´m sure Dr Sameena looks at a repaired tooth and feels joy too. Her skills have created a beautiful result for a person who will carry her filling with pride – a piece of art in their mouth!
See my portraits here: www.truenorthvision.co.uk/portraits
The photos were taken at the beautiful Covent Garden Dental Spa in London.