Five powerful prompts to explore before your next personal brand photo-shoot
Photo from my Southsea shoot with the wonderful graphic designer Jodie Elliott of Rad Creative
A personal brand photo-shoot can supply you with SO MUCH MORE than just photos.
If you’ve had a shoot before, you’ll know that the experience invites you to reflect not only on what you’re going to wear and how you’ll style your hair (although these are important questions too!!), but also more deeply on:
what your business is really about and how you want to communicate that,
what energies & values are at the core of your offerings now,
who your work is for, and why it matters. (No biggie!)
When these questions are explored with curiosity, self-connection, and a good listener (hi!), the insights that come help us understand the nature of your personal brand, and create a deep, shared sense of the soul of your work.
These reflections give us a vision of what’s going to be most important about the look and feel of your new shots, the energy to capture, body language, as well as material elements such as the style of locations, outfits to wear, props to bring, and more.
This is super inspiring for creating a vision for your photo-shoot, of course, but also a very powerful exploration for realigning and reconnecting with your business in general.
This is one of the many ways a photo-shoot can be a transformational and expansive experience, before we even get the camera out! (You can read more from my clients here.)
Here are five questions I always ask my repeat clients (or those who’ve had photoshoots before), to help us learn from what really worked last time, and honour the ways in which they and their brand has evolved.
You are not who you were when you had your last photos taken!
Take a few minutes to journal and reflect on each of these prompts to get the most out of your next photo-shoot.
WHICH PHOTOS DID I love the most (and still love!)?
And what is it specifically that I love about these ones (e.g. the feeling it has, my expression, the angle, my outfit, the location, the light, make-up, hair, etc)?
Which photos do I find myself using again & again & again (& wishing I had more of)?
Which ones were they? What was it about these specific photos that made them so useful? What does this tell me about the kinds of shots I need to come away with from my next photo-shoot?
What kinds of images were missing for me (if any)?
When was there a time I didn’t have the photo I needed for a certain post or purpose? What will be important to capture on the next shoot?
WHICH PHOTOGRAPHS from my last shoot created the most connection with my peeps?
Which images had the most engagement and interaction? Which photos did my clients tell me they loved the most? Which images seemed to help lead to an increase in inquiries, messages or sign-ups?
WHAT DO I WANT my CLIENTS and prospects TO KNOW ABOUT me NOW?
How have things changed since my last shoot? How have I evolved? How has my business transformed between now and then? What do I want them to know and FEEL about me now?
I hope you find these journal prompts super clarifying when thinking about the images you need next in your business!
I’d love to know what comes up for you! Comment below & let me know (or on the IG post here!).