A day in the life of a taxi

Before Christmas I was contacted by the largest taxi firm in Sheffield regarding getting some new photographs for their website and marketing materials. Terms discussed and agreed, we pencilled a couple of dates in the diary and were all set to go. And then the snow fell. And fell and melted a bit and then fell some more. As the images were to go on their website all year round, heaps of snow in the photographs would not be ideal. In fact it was about two and a half months before we finally managed to get the job done, and even then it began snowing again as we began to wrap the day up. 

Being such a big player in Sheffield, they had initially suggested 90+ locations that they'd like to photograph. After some gentle persuasion we managed to trim this down to a more manageable number. The brief was to shoot "A day in the life of a taxi" and the key was to get as many of the main locations in Sheffield photographed with one of the cabs outside as well as some generic photographs of key landmarks. The firm lined up a couple of cabs for us to shadow and a 4x4 to use as my office for the day, along with a portrait shoot outside the town hall to demonstrate the wide racial mix of their drivers. 

It was a great but very long day. One aspect of photographing a taxi on city streets that became quickly apparent is that you can pretty much park them anywhere for a short period in order to get the shot and nobody, police, traffic wardens and security guards included will even blink an eyelid. Try that with an ordinary car and we'd have been moved on time and time again.​

City Taxis drivers

City taxi outside NHS building

City taxi outside Grosvernor casino

City taxi outside Sheffield town hall at night

City taxi outside Napoleon's casino, Sheffield

City taxi outside the Crucible, Sheffield

City taxi outside the Peter Moorhead Haemodialysis unit, Sheffield

City taxi outside Morrisons supermarket

City taxi passing the Meadowhall Shopping Centre, Sheffield