Today I’m dropping in with one of my first ever branding photography-related blog posts! Brand photography is so important for small business owners to be able to visually and instantly showcase the heart of your brand with your dream clients! And your location plays a huge part in visually connecting with your audience and showcasing you in your element – EVEN if you choose to use a location that’s not truly your actual home for your shoot!

Here are 3 basic things to consider while choosing a brand shoot location:

Natural window lighting

You want to make sure that your location has a ton of natural lighting! This can really help elevate your images! The best way to make sure that you have enough natural light is to consider your shoot time and to make sure you have plenty of windows throughout your space to let in natural light!

Multiple corners

You want to make sure that not only do you have enough natural light but enough different corners / areas of the room to be able to shoot in so that you can get a TON of variety in a short amount of time!

On-brand

Is your location on-brand or your business? Does the decor, color and accents match the overall vibe of your brand? If not, it could be worth looking into another location that will be able to help visually convey what your brand is all about!

If you’re on the lookout for locations for your brand shoot, here is a list of 16 places to consider especially if you’re having your brand shoot done within Virginia!

1. Cloud Studio – Fredericksburg VA
2. Maryland Creative Collective
3. Quirk Hotel – Charlottesville VA
4. Make It Home Staging – Barboursville VA
5. MileStone Studios – Ashland VA
6. Peerspace
7. VRBO
8. AirBnb
9. A friend’s home
10. Local venues
11. Local hotel that matches your brand
12. Sonder
13. Vault Virginia
14. A local model apartment / townhome
15. Wool Factory – Charlottesville VA
16. Ironclad Coffee Roasters – Richmond VA

If you’re looking to have branding images taken for your creative small business, be sure to check out the Branding Experience – I’d love to work with you!

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Jontell is one of my very best friends and I’m so grateful to have met her and connected with her over Pigeon Hole brunch at UVA and our love of photography! Jontell actually dove into becoming a branding photographer over a year ago and it has been INCREDIBLE watching her flourish and work with so many incredible entrepreneurs over the last year! She had a video done for her website and asked me to come take some behind-the-scenes pictures and a quick few updated pictures of her while she had her branded setup within the space. I never got a chance to share these last year before the pandemic hit but as I was launching branding photography myself it was so fun going back through these! Jontell, thank you for being my go-to on all things photography and especially with diving into branding photography myself!

If you’re looking to elevate your brand imagery and connect with your dream clients this season, be sure to check out the Branding Photography Experience!

We got a lot of variety quickly with her outfits & different spaces! These were all taken within 30 minutes!

If you enjoyed this post, binge through these as well:

Branding Experience | Wedding Experience | Couples Experience |

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Meg of Captivating Complexion and I took her brand shoot pictures last week at King Family Vineyards and on the Charlottesville Downtown Mall! It was one of my first few portrait sessions back from quarantine and it was SO FUN!!!! I loved her different outfits, how she showcased her love for all things Disney If you guys ever need makeup done, you HAVE to reach out to Meg! She recently went full time with her own business after working for a company for years and this girl is already booking out SO fast for the fall! I can’t wait for another round of taking her pictures in the fall when she celebrates turning 21 and to many more shoots and weddings together in the future!! Be sure to give her a follow on Instagram and check her work out there 🙂 And now onto some of my favorites from the shoot!

If you’ve been following along, you’ve probably noticed a couple of changes around here! I have had the honor of going through a rebrand with the wonderful Alex of Alex Collier Design! I talked a little bit about it on Instagram the other day but after rolling with a logo that I had hand made myself in GIMP (the free version of Photoshop) about three years ago, it was time for a refresh! I think I had an inkling of the fact that although I loved where I was with my photography and my work and my website was in a decent place, something was missing. Savannah of Savannah Smith Photography clued me in to the fact that I might want to consider branding to get a level of cohesiveness, consistency and professionalism across all the space that I market my business.

When I stared looking for designers, I knew I wanted someone who I could have a personal connection with that would truly understand the heart of the business and my ideal client and convey the reason behind what I do and the value behind wedding photography! Enter Alex, a part of the Creative 24/7 community, the PERFECT fit!! Alex did such a perfect job of getting to really know my business well, helping me dig into the core behind it, and then translating that into not just a new logo, but a color palette, mood board, stationary and print collateral, web collateral, type faces, a mission statement and more! I knew I wanted the brand to be translated to my website since that’s essentially my online home. Alex redid my weddings website page on Showit and I absolutely love it sooo much more now!! During this entire process, I redid a TON of the website as well. It’s was a process and required a lot of long hours in the middle of busy season but has been so well worth it! Here’s a peek behind the scenes of the new brand and let me know what you think!

Here’s the primary and secondary logos! I love that I have a version both with and without the location and am absolutely in loveee with the blue!

Mission Statement

Manali Photography is a DC & Virginia photographer who celebrates alongside joyful couples as they fuse the traditions of their past with the excitement of their shared future.

Manali’s style is lively, romantic, and elegant, filled with joyful colors and true love.

Mood Board & Color Palette

Obsessed with this!

Snippets of the Weddings page, but really, go check it out live!

I already ordered new stationary collateral and I absolutely can’t WAIT for that to come in! Thank you Alex for doing such a wonderful job! If you’re a creative in search of a brand and website designer, Alex’s your person to go to!!

 

READY TO START PUTTING SYSTEMS IN PLACE IN YOUR BUSINESS?

If you’re wondering what the inside of a successful & streamlined photography business that focuses heavily on creating an incredible client experience, then the Behind the Business Course & Toolkit is for you!

It includes everything from email templates, client questionnaires, workflows for portraits & questionnaires, a breakdown of a profitable marketing strategy & how to streamline and organize each and every part of your business to grow it quickly through happy clients.

More of a visual learner? Be sure to watch the totally-free masterclass to uplevel your client experience and triple your prices!

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