dramatic image of reach stacker with shipping container at Doncaster new i-port freight Terminal

The new I-port freight terminal facility and the logistic park Doncaster, located directly off J3 M18 motorway was my home for 5 days earlier this year.

Reach Stacker in action, what a Monster

One of those mega transportation hubs the i-port freight terminal combines road and rail links for logistic specialists Verdion, a real estate investor, developer, and assets manager, already on-site food specialist CEVA, Fellows and a huge warehouse for Amazon and Lidl, it is not until you see this storage warehouse up close do you realize how big they actually are.

The initial commission of 3 days of photography was to cover off as much of the fished infrastructure, warehousing, and the i-port terminal itself. The creative possibilities would seem limited at first with just large Warehouse sheds but with the freedom and direction from Barques and art direction from Scott Heeks, the creative director made the project one of the most satisfying of the year so far.

dramatic-image of reach-stacker with-container

The fascinating and often the most rewarding aspects of commercial photography is taking every day the plain and with all your skill turning it into images that are interesting, engaging powerful and most importantly become an essential part of the marketing strategy, the client Verdion “using the latest materials, products, and construction techniques create flexible and energy-efficient buildings designed and built to be best in class” is extremely proud of their offering and required the photography to communicate their ethos.

This is all great but if you turn up on a cold grey day in winter the chances are the images aren’t going to do the job, we chose well with the first visits those very sunny but freezing cold winter days, fine when you are in the sun but bone-chilling in shade or when the sun goes down, which we certainly found out as a number of dusk and night shot where required, standing on a traffic island for two hours required all the layers I could get on plus scarf, hats and gloves and your still cold, are these Rab jackets really for climbing mountains ? or is Doncaster colder

i-port freight terminal

Arriving on site at 7.30 for an early start we had the whole terminal at our disposal including two of the largest vehicle I have ever seen the Reach Stacker used to move shipping containers from lorry to Terminal park to train, absolute monsters, everyone on site could not have been more patience and helpful moving trucks, containers around at my requests.

The sun is low in the sky at this time of the year I used to my advantage shooting into the light, using flare and the dramatic backlight gave the images a modern palette.

Later visits in the year to cover the practice runs with the first freight trains, covering the reach stackers in use alongside video crews and drone photography, proved to be a bit frantic with images sorted and processed that day for PR launch.