Brand Photography - do you need it?

I worked at a fabulous event recently (providing photography and videography like a busy little bee!) and someone at the event asked the panel for advice on how to “build a brand?”. One extremely successful business woman on the panel said '“I don’t know what that is, I’m a scientist”.

This was my most favourite line of the entire day. Honest, direct, no nonsense talk from someone sure of their place and themselves. Or certainly sounding it that day.

So do we really need to build a “brand”? It’s not my favourite word. Sometimes the connotations it brings up (social media influencers, hot shots on LinkedIn, you know who I’m talking about!) aren’t helpful. But the reality is, if you need to promote your business, you will need to show yourself in some way to potential customers. And how they perceive you through what you say and the images and content you share is important.

So how do we do that without making ourselves feel awkward? In truth I think it’s a combination of lots of different elements you build as you grow your business. What your customers say about you helps you to understand who you are and what you’re really delivering. And it isn’t something that can be rushed. It’s taken me four years to understand what I really bring to the table as a photographer, and that’s still developing.

What I have learned is that I’m very good at listening and helping to tell other people’s stories through photography, videography and film. Where you might not be able to see your strengths, unique abilities and character, I can.

And I can translate that into imagery people will relate to. So when it comes to building or refreshing your website, writing articles where you need to include headshots, developing promo materials, album covers or any combination of the myriad of content you might be creating, you’ll have authentic, empowering, honest imagery or video to tell your story. Brand or not, that sounds nice doesn’t it?