The Challis Family
While I almost never shoot family portrait sessions anymore, when I was contacted and asked if I'd be interested in photographing a family who are in the process of finalising the adoption of their two daughters, as a fellow adoptee I jumped at the chance. Making the decision to adopt and to give a loving home to children who would otherwise be without one is such an incredible thing to do, and the Challis' have given their daughters the gift of SUCH a beautiful family. It's a privilege to document a little piece of that and I wish them the most glorious future together <3
Shropshire Macarons Personal Branding
After working together a few times to create a gallery of creative product photographs for Shropshire Macarons' website and social media marketing, it was finally time to get the man behind the business in front of the camera for some personal branding portraits which are an absolute must-have for any small business
It was a really fun session, which George brought a tonne of personality to and which we split into two parts, one indoor studio style shoot in my kitchen, and a more laid back, location session out and about in Bridgnorth.
Pink Poppy Veils & Accessories
Pink Poppy Veils create ethereal, hand finished veils & accessories in various lengths and designs to suite every bride on their wedding day.
For the session brief I was tasked with capturing the many different lengths, edge detailing and back to back beading on each individual veil which meant working in my home studio with separate backdrops and light set ups in order to capture each element from the ivory tulle to the different types and combinations of beads and crystals, in their best light.
Pawfect Delights 10
My 10th (!) session with Pawfect Delights starred the faces behind the brand.
Fred and Florrie are a beautiful brother/sister pair of super smart Border Collies, both with a background in agility training courtesy of their lovely Mom Louise. Fred has lots of experience modelling (represented by Urban Paws), having starred in Adverts for Land Drover, Tails & Aldi and brought all of that patience and skill with him to the shoot, posing for the camera like the pro that he is for over an hour. Florrie being his baby sister, brought all of the show-stealing, step climbing, smiley faced personality to the shoot and between the two of them made for a super fun photoshoot to add to Pawfect Delights business branding.
JKB Proofreading
The January lockdown threw a spanner in the works for a few of my planned personal branding sessions, pushing them further back into the spring when we'd be allowed to meet with different households again and while that was rather frustrating at the time, it ended up to be a blessing in disguise because the spring brought with it far more colour and light for outdoor portraits than the earlier months ever could have.
Jessica's of JKB Proofreading session was one of these rescheduled bookings, and when we first spoke she expressed the same sort of dread about the photoshoot as I hear from the majority of my portrait clients. As producers and content creators we are happy to be faceless, to operate behind the scenes and it can be a huge challenge to put yourself in front of a stranger's camera, even when you know how great it would be for your branding. As I always say, I'm forever in awe of those that do finally summon up the courage to do it, because it's never as painful as people thing and LOOK AT THESE PICTURES.
Portrait sessions don't have to be torture, you don't have to pose or smile, or do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. My goal with every shoot is to get to know you, your business, what makes you tick and every now and then I'll take a picture while we chat and walk around somewhere pretty.
Black Cat Designs
Black Cat Designs are a new, Shropshire based business who create stunning acrylic signs and stationary for weddings, businesses and personal decor. Ever since I found their instagram I've been hoping for an opportunity to work with Krissy, and when I spotted their beautiful social media signs I just had to have one reached out to find out if she'd be interested in doing a little collaboration.
After my first ever styled shoot last year I came to really appreciate how valuable having a handful of professional images can be for a new business, even if they're just of one item. Having a high quality products and a brilliant brand ethos is essential for business success, but having some high quality photos to go with that can be such an effective way of kick starting your brand and showing off your products in their best light, but it's sadly often something that people aren't able to justify the expense of right away and so goes on the backburner for months and years.
I'm going to try to offer more opportunities for collaborations where time allows, so if you've set up a small, product based business in the last 12 months, aren't currently working with a photographer and would love to have some images of one of your products, get in touch.
Nicola Peake Mentoring
Nicola is the powerhouse behind Chouxlicious who I've been fortunate to work with since their launch last summer. After such an incredible year of success with her Afternoon Tea service Nicola set up a Nicola Peake Mentoring, a service to advise new foodie businesses on how to achieve similar success, and so booked a personal branding session with me to give her new clients the meet the person behind the brand.
Nicola is one of those people who even after spending just 30 minutes with I walk away with so many new insights into ways I can make my business stronger. She's an incredibly inspiring business women, mother and friend and I'm so excited to see where this next venture takes here <3
Krafty Gifts UK 19
Latest work for Krafty Gifts UK updating their huge catalogue of products with images for their latest listings. As always with these sessions we shoot the items unprinted, before the numerous available designs are added by the Krafty Gifts UK creative team in post. This means that all areas of the products which are to be superimposed onto have to be clean, clear and correctly exposed so that the final image looks as accurate and seamless as possible.
For this session we worked in some coloured backgrounds as well as styled ones with props which was a fun way to introduce extra elements to the images and help them to stand out on third party selling platforms such as Ebay and Amazon.
Brunch In Brum
Brunch In Brum offer delicious handmade breakfasts and lunches
made using locally sourced ingredients from their space outside of The Axis in Birmingham City Centre.
I was invited along to shoot some of their menu to create some food photography for their website and social media in time for the launch of their Starbucks Frappe range.
Shropshire Macarons Session 2
For my second session shooting website content for Shropshire Macarons we continued with the dark, luxury theme which really made the colourful macarons pop against the background and created a stronger sense of brand identity throughout the images which looks great on the final website design.
Using ingredients as props is a great way to add extra interest without distracting from the hero item, and bringing along something as simple as a couple of flowers piece of ribbon can provide plenty of versatile options for incorporating brand colours to your promotional imagery.
