The CSO Engineers of Greeley & Hansen

CSO means Combined Sewer Overflow, which is what happens when it rains a lot in Richmond and the storm drains become overloaded.  A "CSO Event" is when the storm drains and the sewer system combine and overflow into the James River.  Not an ideal situation, but apparently not all that uncommon with cities situated on rivers. 

A few years back, Richmond initiated a massive restructuring of the overflow system, to help minimize the amount of storm water that was flowing directly into the river.  The engineering firm that is responsible for our city's new system is Greeley & Hansen, which is based in Chicago, with a large office here in Richmond. 

A member of the communications staff in Chicago contacted us recently, and asked if we could spend a day photographing the Richmond engineers and staff in their offices, working in teams.  The folks in the Richmond office were great to work with. The goal was to create images that looked spontaneous and not posed.

As in most offices, there was a "break-out" area that allows a small team to sit together and work on something without the formality of a conference room.

I particularly like the image above because none of the subjects are looking at the camera.  I was holding the camera (on a monopod, if memory serves) just a few inches above the surface of the table.  My goal was to make the viewer feel like they were part of the meeting.

We were also interested in keeping the images crisp and a little on the "cool" side, reinforcing the modern feel of the office environment. It might look like we relied solely on the existing office lighting (overhead fluorescent fixtures).  If we'd done that, we never would have achieved the sharpness of this image or the direction of the light (our lights were placed about eye-level with the subjects.)

To add depth and interest to the composition, we placed a light in the small office that appears in the background behind the subjects.  Notice the slight blue tint, thanks to a blue gel photo assistant Hassan Pitts clipped to the front of the strobe head.  We also added a light in the hallway to the left.  It illuminated the wall behind the subjects (it too had a light blue gel) and added an edge/rim light to the woman seated on the far left at the table (notice the highlight on the camera-left side of her head.)