Brand shoot in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

Personal brand photoshoot for Kaz Riley hypnotist

I had a personal brand photoshoot with Kaz Riley hypnotist in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. I had spoken to Kaz a few times before the photo shoot and I knew that some of these pictures were to be used for her new book Woman.

Pressure

To be totally honest that I was a little bit nervous about this personal brand photoshoot. I knew that Kaz was a big deal, not just an award-winning hypnotist, in fact, she is world-renowned and maybe number one of her chosen field of sexual therapy. I don’t usually get nervous but I did have a few butterflies before I turned up.

The plan

It’s always good to have a plan but sometimes these plans have to change. When I woke up I pulled back the curtains to torrential rain which isn’t the best when you have an outdoors personal brand photoshoot. Where there’s a will there’s a way, we had a pretty strict deadline to meet as Kaz’s book was due to be released and the pictures were to be used for that, so there was no way we could postpone the shoot.

Plan B

Always have a Plan B. My Plan B was to leave nothing to chance and to chuck loads of lighting in my car so I would have something for everything. As soon as I met Kaz and we had a brew I knew the shoot would be fine. We just hit it off straight away. My first plan was to try and use Kaz’s room to create some pictures, I could see that this would only give us limited options so we resorted to Plan C.

Plan C

Knowing that the pictures were going to be used for Kaz’s book I knew they had to be good. I also knew that we had to give her options. It’s not my go-to but I realised that shooting studio portraits would be the way forward, so I went and got my white background out from the car.

Props

Kaz’s room is full of all sorts of props and in the brief, she had discussed using all of these. There was everything from hypnotist watches, jewels, sex toys, old school hypnosis equipment and pretty much everything else. We created a whole photoshoot with a few costume changes and lots of props which was great.

Back to Plan A

At some point in the shoot I looked outside and the rain had stopped so I suggested that we had a break and got outside to create some pictures. Even with someone as natural in front of the camera as Kaz there is a massive difference creating pictures outside than inside. Don’t get me wrong I can use lighting and I’m not just a “natural light photographer” but when I am outside with just 2 cameras (no lights) everything becomes much easier and more relaxed. We had about ten minutes outside before the rain came so it was back into the studio.

Energy

The best photoshoots are when the energy is good. Kaz was absolutely brilliant, she was up for anything and when I am given great energy all I can do is return that energy. The whole shoot for the six hours was just pure fun. We even created pictures with Kaz sitting in her big chair like some James Bond baddie and I even had Kaz jumping into a hypnotism hole.

Summary

The photoshoot was amazing fun! I think we created some fabulous pictures and Kaz got everything that she needed for her book. I’m really looking forward to our next rendezvous I’m sure it will be loads of fun. Now go out and buy Kaz’s book.

If you would like some fabulous pictures and even have fun then give me a shout john@johnsteelphotography.com