Guest Post: My Personal Branding Photography Session with Janssen Photography
What is a personal branding session like from a client's point of view? Jill Lush from Lush Marketing kindly blogged about her experience. We had a photo shoot at the end of February, aiming to tell the story of her brand. Here she tell the story of the shoot:
So what is brand photography, I hear you ask?
Good question! In marketing our businesses, we tell the story of our business. Images, pictures and videos help to tell this story visually. Drum roll please….hence the need for an excellent photographer that specialises in this area.
Karin Janssen is not only easy going and very easy company during the photo shoot, she is probably the most talented and creative photographer I have the pleasure to know. When she said it would take about 3 hours, I thought poor Karin having to be behind the camera all that time. I’ll admit I thought poor me and that my smile will be glued to my face and I’ll be blind from the camera flashes! Not the case thankfully for either of us!
Karin firstly asked me to fill out a questionnaire before the shoot. I’ll admit that it made me sit back and think about my business a bit. What is my business vision? What do I want to get across in the photos? What are my likes and dislikes? After carefully taking the time to answer the questions, it helped Karin to understand what I wanted to portray and what my brand stood for. I discovered the importance of colour to me in relation to my business-not something I was very conscious of previously. I thought that might be hard to get across given that it’s just me and my MacBook! I did think our photos would be a bit boring, but Karin totally thinks outside the box!
“Do you know of a colourful wall nearby?”, she asked. A few WhatsApp messages later and some good friends came up with a great suggestion of a colourful mural wall by the beach near where I live. I did think that dodgy graffiti and my brand might not mix, but how wrong was I?! With her attention to detail, a few pose changes and a giggle in between poses, Karin captured some amazing shots!
I’m not one to normally like photos of myself and at family events I tend to be behind the camera rather than posing for it. However, even after the first few shots Karin showed me how they were looking on her camera. I think this helped me to relax and put my full trust in her. I was pleasantly surprised that I quite liked what was taken!!
We started the photo shoot in my home on one of the sunniest days of the year so far. Not bad considering the same time last year we had a snow storm!!! Karin happily set up scenes around the house and I watched on in awe at her eye for detail and light.
We then ventured to one of my favourite local coffee haunts, The Pigeon House. Thankfully it was early in their trading day so it was quiet. They very kindly let us take over a corner of the restaurant and Karin started her staging the scene process! I happily watched on and participated when I needed to. We enjoyed some refreshments before embarking on the final leg of our shoot.
Off to the beach we went! Not something I’d normally do in February. Given the great weather though I didn’t freeze myself to death while Karin tested shots with light. I basked in the early spring sunshine and enjoyed the fresh air. I knew I would be cooped up inside working when we were finished. Karin sees things that I don’t even notice and incorporates some lovely backgrounds and colour into the photos.
Even when I think we’re finished Karin sees a spot on the way back to the car that would be a great backdrop! Never one to miss a photo opportunity!
In a nutshell, not only does our morning together fly by, but I actually enjoyed it. Even though Karin kindly shared some of the photos as she took them, I was pleasantly surprised with the gallery she emailed me later in the day.
I was offered the opportunity to ask Karin to edit the photos. If you had told me yesterday that would be an option I would have wanted all of them photoshopped!!! However, they were so professionally done that there was little to be edited-removing light switches was about the height of it.
My only words of advice for future customers are:
Invest in that manicure you promised yourself (I wish I had when I saw the hand shots!)
If you have time, get your hair done too
Relax and be yourself
Place your trust in Karin – she knows what she’s doing
Enjoy it – the time honestly does fly by!
What I now have from Janssen Photography is a repertoire of photos to download and save. I’ll use them over the coming weeks and months to share my brand story with my followers. I’ll happily share the face of my business (me!) over the next while on my social media platforms.
It’s great to have professional imagery that is now available to use on social media, my website and anywhere else I need to use it for my business. The best part is that they are not random downloaded images from stock image websites. They are mine to portray my brand and what Lush Marketing stands for.
