Creating connections through brand photography
Amy Kolsteren continues our guest blog series. Once a month, we share a guest blog post from an industry expert. Amy is a business and personal brand photographer based on the edge of Kent in Folkestone, who is passionate about creating a happy and joyful experience for all of our clients and their teams!
In this post, Amy shares how brand photography can connect you with potential clients, some top tips for preparing for your shoot day, and some examples of how to use your images to get the best out of them.
Firstly I wanted to say a huge thank you to Amy for asking me to write a guest blog. I love writing but hardly ever make the time so it's lovely to have an excuse.
Let's start with a bit of an intro to me! I'm also called Amy (yes, it does get confusing when we're at the same event) and my business is Mooie Fee Photography.
Mooie Fee is all about encouraging people to be real and comfortable in their own skin, taking beautiful images that reflect my clients' true colours and personality, so they can go on to make real connections with their clients, which helps them grow their businesses!
I'm passionate about speaking out about being anti-fakery and anti photo manipulation. Now this doesn't mean I'm not going to edit out that spot that happened to appear the morning of your shoot (why is that always the way?). I'm just against changing anything that's inherently you.
Humans aren't perfect and it's what makes us more unique and beautiful in our own ways. Think about someone you love and I'm sure one of your favourite features of them is something they don't particularly like about themselves. We are far too mean to ourselves and that's something I'd love to encourage to change.
Let's get started with some thoughts on how brand photography can help you connect with potential clients.
Curating a large library of branded imagery will help create consistency across your website, social media and PR. This immediately elevates people's perceptions of you and your brand as it shows clear thought and shows you are established which will help to build trust.
Having a recognisable brand keeps you in people's mind, which will ultimately bring you more work as once people have a need for your service or product, you'll be at the forefront of their minds.
Beautiful imagery is always more shareable. People are getting a lot more picky about the quality of photography especially since the improvement of phone cameras and how easily accessible high quality imagery can be.
It's important to remember that you don't need to invest in professional photography straight away, a good way to see if it's worth it for you is to start elevating your own photos by learning how to up your game on YouTube or TikTok.
As mentioned at the start, I recognise how hard it can be to start loving photos of yourself. I thought it wouldn't be a Mooie Fee blog without discussing some active ways to begin the process.
On the shoot day. Be true to yourself. Choose clothes you feel happy and comfortable in, something you've worn a few times. Buying a new outfit just for a shoot isn't always the best option. You want to feel secure. If you did want to try something new, wear it a few times to get used to it.
Take lots of photos of yourself! They don't need to go anywhere, however, it's a key component of starting to get used to how you look. You don't have to be absolutely over the moon with what you see, but just recognising, ‘hey, I'm a person and this is what I look like’ is so important and almost always overlooked.
If you don't feel able to look at the photos straight away, put them in a folder and set a reminder to come back to them in a couple months. You'll almost definitely see yourself in a different light and be less hyper critical.
Look at your images with friends that you know will be honest but who will also hype you up! You're never going to love every single one of the photos you take but being able to look at them in a positive light first is better for your mental health. Picking out favourite photos over your least favourites is an important mindset shift.
So you've worked to get some photos together. It's time to start using them, but where should you start? No need to panic. I'm here to help.
Start by changing your profile picture on all your social media and to different photos. You do not need to use one photo across everything. Think about the audiences in each place the image is being viewed.
Look into potential PR opportunities. I highly recommend the book ‘Hype Yourself’ by Lucy Werner. She also has a deck of cards for quick ideas if you're not a reader.
Plan your content, you'll almost certainly get some inspiration from the new photos so use it! Even if you don't write the full content piece, make some notes and key points to come back to later.
Something important to note is: Back your images up in multiple places and make them easily accessible. A couple of my clients even have their gallery links saved directly on their phones phone pages so they can post whenever the inspiration strikes.
To conclude, I am obviously hella passionate about helping people get started with loving themselves and having fun involving themselves in their content and I really hope this has encouraged you to give it a go if you haven't already.
If you'd like to stay in touch you can find me on LinkedIn, my personal Instagram or my business Instagram. My dms are always open if you need a second opinion on some photos. Yes I really won't be offended if you took them yourself.
🔗 You can connect with Amy on LinkedIn, her personal Instagram, her business Instagram, or her website.
👀 Watch this space for more Guest Blogs throughout the year! If you’re interested in writing a guest post for The Bloom Blog, get in touch.
Bloom Creative is a design business based in Kent offering branding & brand refreshes, quality digital design, and eye-catching print design. You can browse our services or book in a free discovery call.
