I was commissioned to photograph a UK advertising campaign for Turo.
The brief was simple on paper and demanding in practice: pair people with the right cars, shoot it in a way that felt like a real mood rather than a catalogue, and deliver images strong enough to hold up on London buses.
That’s the part I like about advertising work. You’re not just making a nice picture of a car. You’re making frames that have to survive at street scale - next to traffic, weather, other ads, and people who aren’t looking for photography. If the image is weak, it disappears.
The idea
Turo’s line was “Find your drive” - book a car to match the mood. Weekend energy. A smooth, luxe day. Heading out with a bike on the roof. Different people, different cars, same idea.
We shot three main pairings:
An orange Audi TT with female talent in a matching burnt-orange suit
A champagne Porsche Cayenne with male talent
A white Jeep Wrangler with a more outdoor, active feel
London itself did a lot of the work. A rooftop car park with Canary Wharf in the background gave us height, sky and a city that reads immediately as London - useful when the work is going to live on buses rolling through Oxford Circus and Liverpool Street.
Turo out-of-home advertising on the London Underground. The same campaign photography, cropped for Tube panels.
Turo campaign running on a London bus near Liverpool Street. The Porsche pairing needed to read instantly from the pavement.
Turo campaign poster on a London Underground escalator. Same Jeep pairing, cropped for the long panels that run up the side of the stairs.
Shooting for out-of-home
Campaign photography for buses and posters is a slightly different job from website or social work.
The image has to be simple. One idea. Strong shape. Faces that hold from across the road. Cars that still look like cars when they’re cropped into a long superside.
That’s why a lot of the hero frames are quite graphic - the Audi from the front three-quarter with the door open, the Jeep square-on against the skyline, the talent filling the frame with the car used as colour and attitude rather than a tiny product in the distance.
Lifestyle frame from the Turo advertising campaign. The colour match between the suit and the Audi TT was deliberate - it gives the ad a single, readable idea.
Hero car shot from the same rooftop. Clean enough for print, still loose enough to feel like a campaign rather than a brochure.
Interior lifestyle frame. These shots give art directors options - not every execution needs the full car.
The talent and the cars
Advertising photography lives or dies on whether the people feel connected to the vehicle.
The Audi work is more fashion-led. The Jeep work is more open and physical - roof off, someone actually driving, a cyclist in the layout version. The Porsche sits in the middle: quieter, more “smooth ride, luxe vibes”.
That’s useful for agencies. One production, several moods, a set of images that can be cut into different lines without looking like three separate shoots.
Campaign portrait. Tight crops like this are often what end up next to the car on a bus superside.
Jeep interior from the same production. Different energy from the Audi frames, which is the point of the campaign.
White Jeep Wrangler on a London rooftop with Canary Wharf behind it. Location does a lot of the branding work here.
From stills to finished ads
Once the photography was in, the campaign was built into layouts: car, line, talent.
Seeing those boards back on the street is the bit I still enjoy. You spend a day on a rooftop with stands and some Profoto lights, then weeks later you’re walking through town and the same frames are moving past you on a London bus.
Finished Turo execution using the Audi photography - built for out-of-home and digital.
Porsche version of the same campaign idea. Different mood, same advertising language.
Jeep execution. The photography had to leave space for type and still hold as a poster.
Another cut of the Porsche work, with the London skyline kept in the frame.
On the rooftop
We lit where we needed to. A big softbox on a stand next to a white Jeep, city in the background, cloud moving through. Not a studio. Not a closed set. Just enough control to keep the cars clean and the faces consistent.
That’s typical of the advertising work I do in London. When a full crew or studio isn’t available, I can still deliver the same standard on location.
Behind the scenes on the Turo rooftop shoot. Controlled lighting on location, city still in the frame.
Why this kind of work matters
For advertising agencies and brand teams, the useful question isn’t “can you photograph a car?”
It’s: can you make campaign assets that still work when they’re six metres wide on the side of a bus?
This job needed all of it in one production - hero car photography, lifestyle, portraits, interiors, and frames designed with crop and type in mind.
That’s the work I want more of. Advertising campaigns, brand photography and commercial commissions for agencies in London who need images that hold up in the real world, not just on a laptop.
If you’re planning a campaign and need an advertising photographer in London - cars, people, locations, or all three - you can see more here:
→ Commercial Photography
→ Automotive Photography
Or get in touch and we can talk through the brief.