Personal brand photography in Oldham

Anna from Boo Marketing photoshoot in Uppermill, Oldham

I knew that I would have a laugh with Anna from Boo Marketing when I had a personal brand photoshoot with her in Uppermill. Oldham. I had never actually met Anna in person, I had met her on a Zoom call but it’s never the same. I already knew that I would get on with her though so this was a photo shoot that I was very much looking forward to.

Arrive early

I am a great believer in arriving early at a location and having a little recce. It’s great to have a little plan before your client arrives. I had never actually been to Uppermill despite living about twenty minutes away so I was excited to have a nosey around. We had arranged to do the shoot mid-morning, which isn’t ideal but with our busy lives and school runs sometimes we have to take what we can get, but I knew that the light wouldn’t be on my side, saying that though I do love light and happy to work with what I get.

Have a little plan

I had chatted to Anna previously and in some of the chats, she had mentioned words like “blue sky thinking” and “stepping stones” and other little messages that I had picked up on. I knew at some point I wanted to go back and explore these words during the shoot. I had found a river with stepping stones so I knew that I wanted Anna to have a little play on these. Doing something like this early on in a shoot is a great test as if people are up for it you know the shoot is going to be fab. After the river shots, we headed around Uppermill looking for interesting looking backgrounds to create some fab portraits.

Reading body language and having a gut instinct

When doing a personal brand shoot, it’s really important to make sure the client is having a good time. This photoshoot took place on April 21 and it was a pretty hot day and mid-day which is notoriously bad for light. There was this point when I just thought I was forcing things a little and so I decided to move things on. I couldn’t get out of my head the phrase “blue sky thinking” as I had already had an idea for this.

Move location

After talking to Anna it was evident that she liked the outdoors and it was something that she wanted to portray. We headed off up the road to get to some hills. Just moving location into the great outdoors Anna all of a sudden relaxed and we started to create some fabulous pictures.

Wardrobe changes

I have mentioned numerous times that the best way to get the most out of a personal brand photo shoot is to have a few costume changes. Anna certainly did this and we would do a shoot for a few minutes then she would jump out of her car with fresh clothes. It was a great laugh. We ended up in fields with sheep and generally just having a laugh creating some fabulous imagery.

Check out the pictures and if you would like to have a personal brand photoshoot then please get in touch john@johnsteelphotography.com