Brand photos are crucial to a brand identity, and last Sunday I went down to San Diego to update mine. Here’s how it went:
Taking new brand photos had been on my mind for months prior to Sunday’s shoot. Not only had it been a year since I took my last photos, but those photos felt a tad bit dated and I wanted something that felt more mature, stylized, and neutral (to allow my work to showcase my use of color). Last year, when I took my last round of brand photos, I was just about 5 months postpartum and my sister took the photos of me in my dad’s warehouse on the backside of his office. I actually still love those photos, but craved something new.
A couple months ago, when I started getting more serious about updating my brand photos, I started researching local photographers who’s work I loved. Once my list was complete, I sent out a few inquiries and hopped on a couple calls. Ultimately, though, I asked my sisters to once again help me with my brand shoot.
Being a hardcore creative makes it hard to relinquish creative control over things, I think. Not only am I familiar enough with a camera to help my sister with the settings, but I’m even more-so familiar with editing software and techniques. Quite frankly, I like having the control of planning, shooting, and editing for my brand.
I will admit, I’m sure there will come a day that hiring a true professional photographer will make the most sense. But until then, I’ve loved working alongside my sisters and bringing what I have in mind for my brand shoot to life through my creative direction alone.
Once I made the decision to do things on my own, things happened pretty quickly. I found a beautiful home to rent out of North Park, San Diego and started pinning inspiration to a “brand photoshoot” board on Pinterest. I scheduled a day of pampering and got my hair cut and colored, and my nails done, before choosing outfits (mostly) from my own closet.
My sisters and I made an entire day out of the experience, which was so much fun. We first went to get lunch and lattes at Communal Coffee. I had the best blueberry earl grey latte and maple butter turkey sausage sandwich. We still had about 30 minutes to spare after eating, so we went to a Blackmarket Bakery and bought, again the best, brown butter shortbread cookies.
Once 4:30 pm struck, we made our way to the cute Spanish-style home to shoot some photos! I booked 2.5 hours, which was ample time (we actually left closer to 6 pm) to get what we needed done.
Brand photos are such an important aspect of branding that often goes overlooked. But with the right brand images and headshots, you’re able to convey the personality of your business and yourself in ways that graphics alone just can’t do.
Here are my top two tips for planning and shooting brand photos:
- Work with a brand designer first. This is so important! Understanding your brand strategy and positioning before you take photos is crucial to ensuring your brand photos are done in the correct style that makes sense for your brand and pairs well with your logos and other brand graphics. This is also a great reason to hire your brand designer to source your photographer or be a creative director for the shoot (and work closely with your photographer).
- Get an array of photos, so you’re not using the same or similar shots for everything. Also, get creative with cropping and styling the images! Another reason to hire a designer… because we know how to do this when it comes to graphic or print layouts. Just sayin’ 😉
And with that said, here are some more of the photos we got. Enjoy!
