A reflection on 2023. Inside the messy mind of a burnt out, self employed photographer.

Basically this is just my journal. But have a nosey through at my stream of consciousness and get all the raw, real emotions from the highs, the lows and all the in-betweens of 2023.

I was aiming for ten, but I just didn’t have the willpower to cut it down any further…

It’s interesting when you start to look back and reflect on a year. I got asked for a word to sum it up last night and I chose ‘bravery’. This year I’ve pushed myself far, far outside of my comfort zone, started hosting events, teaching Lightroom and I’m writing a course! But more on that in a future blog post. This one I wanted to dedicate purely to the photos that brought me the most joy throughout the year, why they are special to me and I’m going to try to not sob all the way through writing this.

So you’ve done the hard work, you got brave, you booked the shoot, you showed up, you gave good energy AND now you’ve got a gallery full of awesome photos of you, your workspace, your happy place and your lifestyle. Winning.

Bye bye Shutterstock. You’ve got a personalised photo gallery now.

Not your typical Google search that brought you here but I thought I would share some really useful and genuinely thoughtful things that small business owners in your life may actually want (rather than a panettone that will sit in the cupboard for the next 3 years).

I’ve tried to put together a combination of low and high budget options but to be honest, a lot of small business owners when coming up to Christmas are burnt out and exhausted.

This is a reflection on one part of the community and experiences that made me into the photographer and business woman I am today and a celebration of a human that inspires us all.

Laura got in touch for a number of reasons. She was about to move to the other side of the world with her graphic design studio, and her family to the sunny beaches of Australia and she wanted to keep some metropolitan, London vibes in her messaging to new and future clients. AND she wanted a celebration of herself and her successes.

So as you can imagine, I was jumping with joy at the prospect of combining branding photography with empowerment vibes.

Realising you need branding photos for your business is a huge step in itself. Firstly, it’s an act of self love and recognition of success and intention. If you’re looking for photos you’re ready to lean in and make your business thrive, communicate with your customers on a more professional level and challenge yourself to show up in a visible way! Congratulations!

It was very exciting for me to be asked to go to Bath for a branding photoshoot. I haven’t visited Bath before, have always wanted to go and with some magical twist of fate the shoot was just before my birthday weekend.

So I set off, fiancé in tow, to Bath for what will have been my wettest branding shoot to date. (Luckily I was armed with a raincoat and a transparent umbrella).

In short it’s your face. I mean I’m not wrong…

But seriously branding photography is a celebration of you, your business and your talents. It shows your current, past and future clients, who you are, what you do and how you do it in a way that isn’t dull, in front of a white background or lit so harshly your skin becomes a mirror. I’m not talking about stuffy headshots here. I’m talking about vibrancy, colour, personality, confetti, champagne spray, laughter, LIFE.

I loved this shoot. It was so full of energy, laughter and excitement and it captured the many expressions and personality traits of Beth. Although we snapped a couple of laptop/podcast mic stock photos for her library, most of the photos are stand out and different for branding photos. No fuzzy lamb couches or perfect, hazy white fake-ness. Just real moments, in real places where we had a real good time…

Once you’ve had your shoot you have a delicious gallery of personalised images all waiting to be used everywhere from websites and email signatures to LinkedIn and Instagram and even TikTok! You never have to try and disguise a gin and tonic in a badly taken selfie again (in fact you can even celebrate your love of gin and tonic’s in your shoot! More on that later…) and everything just becomes a bit easier.

I have never had stress manifest itself so physically in my body before.

Nothing had gone wrong, a client hadn’t not turned up - no one had been awful.

I was all set up for a break, I had a super exciting shoot to do whilst out in Lisbon, but other than that me and my brand new fiancé (still weird) were ready to sample all the wine, eat our bodyweight in pastel de nata’s and explore the sun soaked city.

I want to help struggling small businesses, so I launched my Micro Photoshoot sessions in February of this year. Booking a microshoot is the cheapest way to work with me but also guarantees you high end, brand photography perfect for a refresh headshot or that latest PR request. Sometimes you don’t need 100 images, you just need one really great picture of you turning up as unashamedly you.

Janet did not want to be in front of the camera. So much so that she actively avoided being in the majority of family photos and photos in all social situations. Unless gin was involved…

However, she had recently started a service- based business as a virtual assistant and she knew how important it was to professionally market herself as an expert.

Get your branding ducks in a row with my secrets to create consistent brand visuals. All without having a complete meltdown in Canva.

*Puts hand up to pledge* I’m a designer and I don’t hate Canva. For small business owners it is perfect. (Although if you can’t stand Canva check out Adobe Express - similar idea). BUT... Canva can be super overwhelming when you're new to it.

Take two or three colours from your primary colour palette and save these as an image to your phone. This is your brand tile. You can make a brand tile in Canva or any design program you have access to. Then every time you post a story, change the text box colours to your brand colours.

Let’s level here, you’re a business owner, you know how important having a clear cohesive (don’t panic I’ll grab the glossary out and explain) brand identity is to successfully connecting with your dream clients. But have you thought about the opportunity cost of not having it?

The joy of working with creative female business owners is that you immediately have something in common to chat about.