Having a "personal brand" is a relatively new term. But it's something I've been doing for years - slowly curating my business to subtlety emit the essence of who I am, my philosophy's & what I'm all about. Incorporating this properly is not only hard because you need to know yourself well, but how you want others to perceive you.
There's only 2 things I want- 1. clients to know me before we even sit down for a cappuccino and 2. my work to speak for itself.
Work hard until you no longer need to introduce yourself..
It's a tall order when you ask a like-minded professional to capture this "essence" through photography. But at the time, all I knew was that I wanted light and airy imagery and a photographer that didn't make me camera shy. Did I forget to mention I'm insanely picky? I hate cutting corners and better yet wasting time. I really am a "go big or go home" kinda girl and that's a tough act to follow. It's true, I demand nothing but the best from my team and more-so the industry professionals I work with.
So before we delve into the awesome team who made the shoot what is was- let me set the scene days leading up to the shoot. I was pretty much hanging on by a thread. We we're in the midst of the most logistically intense weddings we had ever planned to date. I'm not talking small operations here, I'm talking about 300ppl + vip guest list in a venue that doesn't have a stick of furniture, electricity or even running water.......paired with Madison being the first planner to undertake Zibbi's inaugural wedding in their industrial space... To say I was stressed is an understatement. Basically the last three months had been solely dedicated to clients and my 10 minute return-time on emails. I almost cancelled our shoot. But I sat back and thought to myself - you know what?! It isn't fair to them. I organized all of this and I'm not going to flake out and disappoint- noway would I let this stress own me.
“It’s either cappuccinos with Hugo or Champange on the balcony....with Hugo. That’s how I see her - and thus how we shot her. There’s just no two ways about it.”
So who were these awesome ladies that raised me up when I felt overwhelmed?! Who made me feel beautiful and laugh uncontrollably? Well, it's no other then Laura of Laura Kelly Photography, Kirsty from Topknot and Klava from Klava Zykova MUA. Words can not express how lucky I am to have these girls in my life.
Since this shoot was to profile our team, it was important to me that we all looked natural, approachable and recognizable. Kirsty and Klava pulled this off magnificently with a crisp fresh makeup looks and effortless hair styles that matched the girls personalities.
I have to give Laura a little bit of extra credit. I really was stumped on how to create this shoot. It's easy for me to do fabulous things for others and hit it on the nail. But when it comes to myself...I'm overly judgmental and overthink things almost to obsession. It only took a three second pause on the phone and Laura replied "I'm thinking patio, sunset, you and your girls sipping champagne, just loving life." Her exact quote, I died! All we had to do was factor in Hugo (you all know who that monster is) and we were good to go:)
Not once did I feel awkward in-front of Laura's camera. She made us laugh, she captured us candidly and did little to no touch ups on the images afterwards - she's that good. I'm thrilled to say Laura killed it in ways I can't even explain.
It's rare that I step back and make time for me. Its all to easy to become consumed with the needs of others, that you forget about the most important person -yourself! Thank you Klava, Kirsty and Laura for helping us shine bright and capturing our bright light!
