Branding Photography in Rochester NY: Entrancing Inspirations

If you have a follower on your social media account, they didn’t find and consciously decide to hit “follow” by accident. Something about you, or your business caught their attention.

This is one reason why your personal brand needs to stand out from the crowd. How is your business unique?

Personal brand photography can help you with that, like we did for Kim here. She wanted people to see that there’s more to her skill set than meets the eye, and that there’s research and training involved with her services. She wants people to see that she goes above and beyond for her clients.

The branding photographs we took, combined with the right captions on social media can elevate her as an authority figure in her field.

I can’t wait to see what she does with them.

5 Reasons You Need Quarterly Personal Brand Photography

You already know that personal brand photography is about more than updating your headshot. (And if you don’t, you can find out the difference in this previous blog post).

So once you’ve completed a branding portrait session, why would you need to do it again? Well, we’ve got answers.

Here’s 5 reasons why we think annual, semi-annual or even quarterly personal branding sessions are not only important, but necessary.

1) Seasonal / Style changes

You know what changes in Rochester NY? The weather. Using a sunshine filled summer branding portrait in the dead of winter may not resonate to local clients. It’s hard to talk about pumpkins and apple pie on your Instagram feed if your attire shows you in beach wear and flip flops.

2) New Products

Branding photography isn’t just about new headshots for your LinkedIn page. Are you an artist or a maker? Do you own a physical storefront? Did you create a 5 step productivity program? What new offering have you come up with in the last 3 months that you need to put out in the world?

3) Fresh content

You’re going to need to show more than the same 10 pictures. Eventually people will start to notice if you’re always showing up in their Instagram feed in the same outfit.

4) Stay Relevant

Current events are always changing. What was important to talk about yesterday, might be totally different today. Besides that, your field of expertise might change too. Stay on top of the changes in your own brand with timely branding photographs.

5) Growth

Is your business the same as it was when it began? Are you the same person you were when it began? Hopefully not. Hopefully, you’ve grown and evolved over time. The brand you created when you started your business should evolve as well. Your branding photos should reflect your growth.

So why is it important to update your branding photographs on a regular basis? In a nutshell? Change happens.

What's the Difference Between a Headshot and Personal Branding Photography?

A common question we get when people inquire about photography for small business is: What’s the difference between personal branding and headshots?

We’re SO glad you asked. A personal branding photography session differs from a typical headshot session in a few different ways..

When you have a business headshot taken, it’s usually a portrait from the waist up, smiling at the camera. You’ll use it on your social media profiles, and maybe a business website. That’s it, all done. It takes 30 minute at most.

Personal branding sessions do include some headshots, but they are also so. much. more.

To start, there are planning meetings. We ask questions about you, your business, and brand that go beyond your appearance. We go deeper into what your story is. Why do you do what you do?

You typically get generic backgrounds from a standard headshot session. Which is fine, if that’s all you need. However, a personal branding session is a customized experience. We help you choose the location, props and even help with outfit suggestions to help you elevate your brand.

Then, we take the photographs that tell that story. We take detail shots, lifestyle shots, behind the scenes shots, product shots and more all to further the story you want to tell your audience. You don’t get that with a business headshot.

Check out Jessica’s recent session to give you a better idea of what personal brand photography is all about, and what she got out of it.

The goal of a personal branding session is to give you a library of image options that will help your business be more profitable. You can use them in so many places. For some ideas, check out this previous post: 8 Ways You Can Use Your Branding Photography

Personal brand photographs are an investment, versatile and customized to your unique brand.

Because “generic” isn’t a word your brand should use.

How to Repurpose Branding Images Across Your Marketing

You’re a small business owner / entrepreneur. You have a great idea, and you want to get it into the minds of your audience.

So you write something for Facebook and hit post. Then you wait… but all you hear are crickets. What else can you do?

Here’s five ways to repurpose your idea while using your personal brand photographs across your marketing.

1) Blog

Whether you like it or not, blogging is a great tool in your marketing tool box. It can improve your position on Google while you share about what it’s like to work with you. The brand pictures you use in blogs should compliment you as a professional.

2) Share on Instagram / Facebook

Now, take that blog post and break it down into easy to follow social media posts. Link back to your website and use your photos to elevate your perceived value. Posts that include an attention grabbing photograph are always more likely to get noticed. Create several to share your content on social in different ways, because one post alone isn’t enough to get your message out. This is also why having an accessible variety of branding images matters.

3) Pin to Pinterest

Same information, but now create a graphic to go with your “3 Reasons You Need XYZ” blog post, and pin it! There are many ways to create valuable Pinterest content using your brand photographs.

4) E-mail Marketing

Do you have an email list you’re not utilizing? Never know what to write in your newsletter? Are your phone pictures cutting it? Level up your newsletter with your both content and photographs. These people chose to follow you in their inbox, so engage with them!

5) Printed Materials

Create a product catalog, or brochure that you can leave behind with current clients. Share a tip with them that keeps them coming back for more. Professional images will never not be useful on a printed brochure.

Getting your message out takes time and more than one marketing tool. The beauty of personal branding is that you can use this set of professional images anywhere across these platforms. Check out 8 Ways to Use Your Branding Images for some other ideas.

Because unless you have mass amounts of social media followers, there’s no button that magically brings people to your doorstep. Use the tools (and photographs) you have.

8 Ways to Use Your Branding Photography: Rochester NY Photographers

You’ve had your personal brand portrait session taken. Now what? Where do you use all of these gorgeous new branding images? Here’s just a few suggestions!

1) Your About Me Page Needs Updated Photographs

Obvious? Yeah, but you’d be surprised how many people forget to update their own website with their branding photographs.

2) Put Your Branding Photos on Pinterest

Bloggers. creatives and entrepreneurs of all kinds use professional branding photography on Pinterest to create graphics and share their content. Unique images will get noticed faster, while poor iPhone pictures get scrolled past.

3) Blog Posts

Use your personal brand photography in graphics, or stand alone in your blog posts. Written content requires great images.

4) Use Brand Photographs Facebook

Your cover photo and profile pictures are the first thing people see when they visit your page. Make them stand out! On top of that, posting with text alone isn’t going to show up in someone’s feed. You need something eye catching to get people to stop their scroll.

5) Instagram and Personal Branding

This is a platform based on pictures. First you have to catch their eye with your brand photos. Then tell your story with your caption combined with personal brand photography. Show people your personality. Share tips with your audience.

6) Brochures and Printed Materials

Print is NOT dead. Give someone a printed brochure that uses professional level photographs you’re showing them you mean business. And you can put these images on more than just an informational brochure. Use branding photography on business cards, postcard reminders, or even thank you cards.

7) Email Newsletters

Step up your newsletter game with more than text on screen. Show the people who chose to follow you that you’re a real person, and a professional by incorporating personal branding photography.

8) E-commerce and Product Branding

What do you sell? And are you selling it online yet? If you are, product pictures are a must.

These uses are just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many more ways that personal branding photographs can be used. Need more? We share a little bit about the HOW to repurpose your branding images here.

We’re here to help with your create these images. The work that we do before we ever take a single shot is what makes us different, and we invite you to find out how.

Branding Session for Art Therapist in Rochester NY

Therapy that doesn’t feel or look like therapy.

Sounds pretty good to me right now. Sarah wants those who come to her website to know that therapy doesn’t always happen in a sterile office environment.That’s exactly what it felt like walking into Spotted Rabbit Studio.

Brand photography isn’t always about a clean, tidy office space with white everything and perfectly manicured to do lists. This space felt down to earth, real, surrounded by art and supplies. It felt like creatives work there, and they do - but it’s in a way that helps others grow and feel more confident.

And all of that needed to be translated to images for their new website, so that’s what we did.

How can we help you show up for your business?

How You Can Help a Small Business in Rochester this Season

1) Buy Local:

Money in the community, stays in the community. It’s as simple as that. If you don’t feel comfortable going into their store or location, see if they have an online option, or give them a call to make a curbside purchase.

2) Give a gift certificate:

Have a favorite restaurant you love? Or photographer perhaps? (Yes, that was a shameless plug). Same ways to buy as #1 applies here too!

4) Get Take Out, and Tip:

I know restaurants are currently open, but that doesn’t mean they’re out of the woods. If it’s applicable and you’re able to do it, tip well. Service workers and small family run restaurants need your love.

3) Use your Voice:

Small businesses don’t just grow because of social media. Refer them, share your experiences, be their cheerleaders. And yes, you can do all of those things on social media too. Tag them in your posts, and let others know about them.

4) Engage:

It’s not enough for a business to have followers online, they need engagement too. Comment on their posts, like them, share them, and do it regularly if you’re able. Reach out to them and see how you can be helpful.

5) Leave a Review:

Have some love to share about a favorite business you worked with this year? Give them a google review. You have no idea how much this helps people find and trust a local small business.

Some of this is so simple and even free, so please give your favorite local businesses your love. They/we appreciate you so much and they need you more than ever before. If there’s any way we can help you in this season, please reach out. Let’s keep small business alive together!

Rochester NY Brand Photography for Consultants

After her personal brand session was complete Jessica said “Your process helped me take a more thoughtful and intentional approach to my brand.”

She also said “We laughed, we posed, my hair got frizzy…you made what can feel like a completely unnatural and awkward experience fun.”

That’s high praise coming from a business and personal development consultant. It’s also exactly how we want you to feel about your personal branding session.

She’s the Owner and Chief Transformation Officer of ApPROach Consulting. We recently caught up with her to review her personal branding photography session. We asked her five questions that might help a business owner decide if this is a worthy investment. Here’s what she said:

What do you do, and why did you choose to invest in your personal brand?

“apPROach Consulting is a strategic planning and business development consulting practice that serves individuals, small businesses, and non-profit organizations.  I believe that a great strategy for building your business is through creating a personal connection between the business owner and the client.  This is something that can be uncomfortable for business owners.  In my business development classes we spend a lot of time talking through how vulnerable it feels to put your words and your face out there.  Showcasing products and services is usually much easier.  I wanted to put my philosophy into practice by using my personal image to connect with my own customers and demonstrate the value to other business owners.”

Did you learn anything about yourself?

“Completing the personal branding questionnaire in advance of the photo shoot was a great opportunity to reflect on how I do business, engage with clients, and project my values through my services.  It is important for every business owner to pause and evaluate their values and their vision regularly.  Lori and Erin’s personal branding questionnaire is a tool I will revisit in the future to assess my brand as my business evolves.”

What did you enjoy most about your session? 

“Being photographed is usually an uncomfortable experience for me, like most people.  Lori and Erin made a typically awkward and unnatural photo shoot feel fun and exciting.  Because we had met and discussed my business and my goals in advance of the photo shoot, I felt connected to them both and at ease.  They truly partnered with me on my personal branding journey.”

How are you using your images? 

“I have featured my images on social media, approachconsultingllc.com, and I’ve updated my profile pictures in the many online meeting tools we’re all using these days (Teams, Zoom, GoToMeeting, Webex, Hangouts, etc.)  I have received great compliments on the updated images.  The new images capture my essence so much better than the traditional headshots I used to use.”

Would you recommend Lori and Erin Photography?

“Not only would I recommend working with Lori and Erin for any photography service, I would recommend stepping through the personal branding process with them to any business owner or organization.  The same way strategic planning helps align a person or team around goals and priorities, completing the personal branding questionnaire helps to solidify the image you have for your business.  Lori and Erin can take your vision for your business and help you craft the visual content you need to connect with your audience.”

We focused on more than updating her headshot. We planned, we worked together and created stories in images that she could use to connect with her audience.

And it wasn’t hard, in fact - it was fun for all of us. So if you want to learn more about your business, show up in front of your clients, and have fun doing it - we’re ready for you.

The importance of personal branding photography in growing your side hustle

When we started our businesses 12 years ago, we both started out running side hustle photography businesses. We wanted to know everything and learn as much as we could. We learned about lighting, posing, and sales - but no one ever really stressed to us the importance of having a strong personal brand.

Now that we are more established as photographers in Rochester, I often wonder how much faster would we have grown, if we had known way back then?

To all of you out there making your dreams happen, hustling your way to where you want your small business to be - We’re here to tell you that you need brand photography. And here’s five reasons why:

1 First Impressions

Plain and simple: If you look fresh, polished and professional, you’ll grow faster. Show up for yourself, and your brand. What is the first impression you want to give your audience?

2) Grow Up

I’m not trying to insult you, I mean as a business. Brand Photography is about more than what you look like in a headshot. A session with us is a process. We dive into learning about your ideal client. We brainstorm and plan. Along the way, you might learn something about your business. You might grow in ways you never considered before.

3) Stop Their Scroll

People have short attention spans. In the time it took you to read this sentence, someone has scrolled through Instagram twice. How are you going to catch their eye? Engaging images can do that for you in a way that your selfies can’t.

4) Be the Expert

Quality images create a mindset that you are the expert in your field. Ultimately, this mindset raises the perceived value of your work - and that’s the goal right? Do what you love AND make more money?

5) People Buy Who You Are, Not What You Sell

Once you have their attention, how are you going to keep it? Constantly selling your product is one way to turn a customer off real quick. People want to know the person behind the product. Even in a pandemic world (maybe more so), people want to connect to real people. They want to invest in you before they trust what you’re trying to offer them.

Now, we know you don’t have a professional photographer following your every move. That’d be weird. So occasionally selfies and phone photographs are fine.

But if you want to level up your side hustle, step up your visual brand. Connect with your people, but do it in a way that conveys the story of your business that you want to tell. You are the face of your brand, and it’s you that your audience wants to see.

So now that you know why, what are you going to do with the information?

Branding Photography for Therapists in Rochester NY

Before her branding session, Laura told us that people fascinate her. She told us that she loves their stories, and seeing something in it that they didn't see.

Same! Our style of personal brand photography is very much the same. We loved looking at her brand, and hearing her stories to see something she hadn’t thought of about her brand.

And then, we took those stories and created images to support them. For example: As a therapist, she believes that life is messy, and we’re all a little bit broken - like a chipped coffee cup. But, even though the cup has a chip in it, it still works and still functions as a coffee cup.

So we incorporated some of that idea into the imagery. We included some mess, some learning and growing, and her favorite chipped coffee cups.

We combined it all together to create both updated headshots, and stories she can use on her own platforms to show people who she is and what she believes.

The images don’t have to be neat, tidy picture perfect scenes if that’s not the right story. Because real life includes chipped coffee cups and messiness.

Personal brand photography is all about connecting to your audience. So show them your real you, and you’ll attract your ideal clients.

We Are Open Project: Business Photography in Fairport NY

The world shut down. Businesses on pause.

Throughout it all, we kept asking ourselves “How can we help the small businesses in our community?”

The answer was obvious, but we had to wait until our phase allowed us to open. So while we waited, we brainstormed the “We are Open Project.”

The goal was to showcase small businesses in our area on our social media outlets to show the community that these businesses are here, and now that they are able to open again, they would benefit from the community’s support.

We were so pleased with the businesses we were able to meet and photograph. We visited local pottery shops, consignment stores, urgent care and even churches in Fairport.

Just because these businesses are open now, doesn’t mean they don’t have new guidelines to follow that complicate business as they once knew it. The challenges will continue on as they maneuver them all. So they need our support.

This project was one of the ways we knew we could be helpful in a difficult time. We hope that our photographs will shine a little bit of light on our local businesses - and that you’ll check them out too.

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Sweet Charity

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First Congregational United Church of Christ

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Studio East Dance Company

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Lulu Taqueria & Bar

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Nancy Woolver, Financial Advisor

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RV&E Bike & Skate

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Firehouse Wood Works

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Blissfull Balance

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WellNow Urgent Care

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Lift Bridge Yarns

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Created By Us Pottery

The "We Are Open" Project: Branding and Small Business Photography

With the current emphasis on supporting small, local businesses, we want to help you show up in a way that resonates with your clients. You know what they want to see? You. The real person/people behind your business. 

Let us help you build the relationships that build your business. 

Inspired by others in response to Covid-19, we’re launching a special effort to help spotlight our local, family run businesses by supporting and celebrating them with photography. 

We call it the “We Are Open” Project.

There are a few ways to be involved, based on how your small business is doing right now.

I: Your business is thriving!

This is fantastic! Book a branding package with us and we’ll help you take it to the next level with a bonus strategic planning session on how to use your images on social media. AND if you book, we’ll donate a micro session to a business in need.

II: Your business could use a little love.

We feel you! Things have changed for everyone in the last two months. But, it is important to keep showing up! Book a micro session with us to get some fresh images and let folks know You Are Open!

III: Your business is hurting.

Times are rough, and though you know fresh photographs could help market your business, you just don’t have the funds right now. Nominate yourself or another small business to win a free micro session!

What is a micro session?

Lori and Erin Photography will create a portrait of you and your family outside of your place of business. You can hold signs, products, or whatever represents this time for you. 

We will be spotlighting each business who participates with a short interview on our blog, Facebook, and Instagram. These are quick sessions and include digital files that you can use on social media.

There is only a limited time to take advantage of this opportunity!

So if you’d like to take part in this project, please contact us with any questions or to get on the list! We’ll start preparing for your session so that as soon as it is considered safe to do so, we are ready to create your photographs!

Let us help you put your best face forward and get real, timely visibility for your services.