So you booked a personal brand shoot, but now you have, ahem, questions. As a brand photographer, I am committed to educating my clients on everything branding and brand photography throughout the entire process, but there are a few questions I still get asked from time to time. My goal is to help you feel even more prepared, especially if you have a question you’ve been afraid to ask. Maybe you’ll see it here.

These Austin brand photos for a local copywriter take a fresh, edgy spin to capture her personal brand. It is one of my new favorite sessions to date!

As a business owner, you see your brand going through a period, not unlike the dreaded awkward pre-teen stage.

You’re asking yourself: Should I niche down? How do I pick a niche anyway? What is my brand identity? *angsty screaming* Who even am I?

Take heart. If your future brand could come visit you today, this guide contains the advice and tips your baby brand would need to hear from them.

At some point in this entrepreneurship journey, you realized that you needed to show your face more. Word on the street is it’s crucial for building that like/know/trust factor that gets paying clients in the door. Now every other entrepreneur you know is posting gorgeous, laughing professional pictures of themselves on Instagram.

Meanwhile, your pictures are, well, lacking. So you did what any good small business owner does, you went looking for a good photographer. Now you find yourself faced with a multitude of choices….and questions.

Like just about anyone else, I’ve been sucked into working with some businesses who portrayed a killer image on social media, only to realize that sacred truth once again: Instagram is not reality.

There were promises of a streamlined, detailed process and ongoing education happening for their followers. These businesses LOOK good. They SOUND good. But then when you start working with them, you realize their client experience is, well, lacking.

So I set out to study what mistakes they were making with their client experience and then used that information to do things differently in my own business. Here’s what I learned.

Whether you’re preparing to work with a brand photographer for the first time, or you’re giving it another go after being burned by past experiences, take the right steps and get intentional with your plans so that you set your brand photo session up for success and prevent common photography mistakes.

Doing things that will contribute to the longevity of your photos and position you as a credible professional with real value will pay off for you BIG in the long run.

I knew a CRM was going to be a financial investment but also would require a lot of time upfront so I wanted something that did it all. I compared Dubsado to HoneyBook, 17 Hats, Tave, and a few companies met some or most of my “must-have” list… but here’s where Dubsado really turned the tide for me…

I work with business owners to help them enrich their online presence with personal brand photography and from time to time, potential clients will ask me: What do you think about using Stock Photography to hold me over for a while?

I have some opinions on the matter of opting for stock imagery over personal brand photography-- and my guess is that you do too, even if you haven't realized it before now. For a moment, just think about what happens when you land on a website that is clearly using stock imagery. What initial reaction do you have? Be honest.

For her personal brand session, we incorporated her love for plants and floral elements and her beloved brand "mascot", her dog, Yoda, into her brand photography session. Heather is a bright and quirky person so her photos needed to reflect that. We wanted her session to be creative and personal and to show her heart for animals, her love for the environment, and how these things influence her beauty standards and approach to her services.