That Picture Makes No Sense

Rebecca doing lighting tests.

Quite some time ago, I received this in the commentaries:

"the picture on the front page makes no sense and says nothing about your business. maybe it's hilarious to you and your baristas but it does nothing to entice anyone to visit your coffee shops."

Seems that every once in a while I manage to hit some nerve somewhere with people that they just want to rise up in arms and burn me in effigy. Obviously, this person is upset.

Truth be told, the whiner is actually referring to this image on Spro Coffee's website. It's a group photo of the entire company (December 2009) in a mock male strip club (the Chippendale's dancers are also our baristas).

I guess I could be more understanding of the outrage if we were a bunch of guys ogling women, but if you want to make it sinister, it could be said that we're objectifying men and empowering the women. But it has nothing to do with any of that foolishness.


Devlin and Jeremy prepare themselves while Mia watches.

The company photo shoots are fun. Not serious. And they don't usually have anything directly to do with coffee. What does it say about our business? That we're fun, personable and don't take it too seriously. We make coffee, not religion.

I do have to wonder about the "enticing people to come to our coffee shop" thing. Clearly, this person is turned off by our not serious enough photo shoots. The person said so and, I presume, has chosen not to visit us. That would be a shame. But if one cannot relax a bit and not take themselves so seriously then perhaps our little shops are not the right fit for that person.

I'm afraid that person might be a bit too stodgy for our merry crew of baristas.


The Haus of Spro - (not the final image).

As our crew has been changing, the time came for another quick photo shoot. One that we could shoot relatively easily and before everyone started going on tour. This time, a Lady Gaga inspired shoot would be our target.

Gather the crew in the midst of the shift change, do a quick rehearsal, run outside and shoot some lighting tests, herd the group into the middle of street, make sure no one gets run over and start firing.

Click, click, click and another dozen or so shots later, the shoot was in the bag, the baristas went home (or back to making coffee) and a new, not serious enough, image was ready for the website.

So for those of you waiting for a serious photo from the Baristas of Spro, I'm afraid you're going to have to wait a while longer.

You can see the final image here.