Personal brand photoshoot, Leeds, West Yorkshire

I met up with Merewyn from Sayers Solutions for a personal brand photoshoot in Leeds, West Yorkshire. I’ve known Merewyn for ages and have worked with her loads of times, however, she doesn’t like having her picture taken (which isn’t unusual) So what was the plan to create pictures of Merewyn?

The plan

As I’ve mentioned many times these shoots need a little plan. Usually, the plan is where the pictures are going? What the pictures are going to be used for? Location? As Merewyn does lots of different things and runs HD8 Network we went round in circles for a bit, but then she suggested Leeds, West Yorkshire. Leeds is where Merwyn’s heart sings! It sounded like a perfect plan to me, I’m also Leeds born and bred so I certainly wasn’t going to argue.

Capturing personality

I don’t blow my own trumpet very often but the main thing that differentiates me from most other photographers is the ability to capture peoples personality, get the real person underneath whatever persona you see. Merewyn has a big personality and it was so important that I could capture and portray this. It’s important to use techniques which help the person that you are photographing trust you. If someone sees me faffing about with my camera, looking confused then it’s not going to help. Hahaha, saying that for this shoot I was actually using my new camera’s and it was the first shoot that I had ever done with them which was a little bit daunting for me.

Make it easy, effortless and fun

Having done this people photography lark for quite some time I kind of know what I’m doing. Now, I just want everything to be as easy as possible. I take two cameras and two lenses and that’s it. If I can’t shoot something with a 35mm and 85mm lens then there’s something wrong with me. We have a walk around the City Centre, I see something that jumps out of me, it might be a colour, texture, some light it could be anything, but I see a picture in my head. I get my subject to stand where I need them and we just shoot. It’s as simple as that, then we either use the same location for a different shot or we move on. Everyone is always shocked at how much they enjoy the sessions and how easy they are.

The alternative Leeds

Merewyn was big into clubbing so it was like having a tour of dodgy night clubs, it was great as some of them are hidden down streets that I didn’t often go down. Well, there was a point in my life where I was in Leeds City Centre skateboarding at least five times a week so to be fair I know it better than most. The beauty of Merewyn selecting these hidden gems is number one, there’s not a lot of people there, number two, there’s usually some really interesting colours and textures and finally number three is Merewyn was reminiscing about the good times which helps her relax and makes the shoot a lot easier.

Done but not finished

There is a point on a shoot where I know that I have got more than enough pictures. At this point it’s about reading body language, is your client done? I saw this point with Merewyn, so a quick break for refreshments and I said it was time to head back, but we would go a different route. I knew at this point the gloves were off! I had plenty of safe shots in the bag, so now it was time to play! Do the stuff where I break the rules, don’t worry about the rule of thirds, or using leading lines, or triangular framing the rules are chucked out of the window at this point. So, we pretty much started to head back and just have a play.

Finally

We were done, we had spent a few hours walking and chatting nonsense, messing about and creating fab pictures. It was great to be able to get out and do my job again, this was officially the first day that I was allowed out to do my work, after four months of being locked away it was fabulous that I actually could still take a picture. My new cameras performed amazingly well and it was a massive boost to my confidence to see how effortless I can do this stuff. It’s made me realise that I love these sort of shoots and I do it different from the majority of other photographers.

If you fancy a personal brand shoot then get in touch and we’ll have a laugh and create some great art john@johnsteelphotography.com