Service Based Brand Photography

Natalie Steger- Female Entrepreneur & Founder of GSC

Natalie is one of the most genuine women I have ever met. She wants to help, encourage, and build others for success. When we were reviewing her questionnaire for GSC brand photography; she mentioned  ” There’s only love in this club”  and I told her that HAD to be her tag line because it is SO TRUE. She honestly loves each of her clients as she goes above and behind to make certain they succeed. Even if that means that she moves them into a larger agency. Her passion, her drive, it is all empowered by love and positivity.

Behind the Brand

Natalie reached out to me when she realized she wanted to rebrand after a small, quick launch initially. As a photographer, it is really important to me that my clients already have a designer and their brand board as well as brand direction lined up prior to our session. This helps me plan and make certain that our session aligns with the brand being built by a designer. Natalie didn’t have a designer yet so I recommended a few and was thrilled when she told me she hired Kacey of  Studio Blume.  Kacey was quick to built out the foundation behind the brand so we could proceed with her brand shoot and deliver images to Kacey in time to launch Great Social Club website.

Branding for a service based business

Service based businesses are a little different when planning for brand photography. Natalie Steger, founder of Great Social Club. GSC is a public relations and talent management company founded on integrity, passion, creativity, and love.  I am so excited to share more about our friendship, planning her branding session, and showing some of my favorite photographs!

A little of our Backstory

I met Natalie and her husband years ago when she had a small garage sale. I remember thinking, “wow, this is such a cool couple and I am so glad our little community has some fresh faces and diversity.” We live in a small, rural town with lots of buckle bunnies and almost no diversity back then. Luckily, our community has grown and diversified from what is was! At their garage sale, I purchased a bunch of art history books from her and was excited that someone actually knew about different artist as well as was passionate for art!

The Woman Entrepreneur

Little did I know, Natalie was an entrepreneur! At the time, she did professional makeup artist and was a skin guru ( I mean look at her pictures.)

 I later found her and had my makeup professionally done by her for the first time in my life! I admired her knowledge and passion for natural skin care and listened to her tell me stories of her families history along with the Vietnamese culture.  She had moved to our little town from DC and looking back, I am sure that had to be quite the shock! But years later, I am so glad she decided to stay in our little community, give it a chance, and grow her business. 

Clients Becoming Friends Becoming Clients

I started out as Natalie’s client with years of us occasionally running into each other. Last year we got the opportunity to truly know each other after I reached out looking for a model. Which then turned into her telling me about her soon to be adventure and desire to leave the wedding industry. Pursuing Great Social Club was her top agenda!  A we bonded over motherhood and entrepreneurship, I found Natalies high energy and positivity to be so refreshing. Her dream for her business was so appealing and as Covid settled into making life crazy, she managed to start up and create the most bad ass business! Because of this, she was soon looking for branding images and so we both became each others clients as well as friends. Which is truly  what I LOVE about all my branding clients.

 

Great Social Club Part One

Planning Your Brand Photography

Natalie appreciates the arts and values not only quality photography but also creativity. For her brand photography, we had to planned what she needed as her business was growing so fast. And honestly, outside of what we anticipated and thought she needed! Covid also complicated this further as we both were trying our best to be safe and not be around others but we knew that her branding photography also needed to show case her interacting with clients. So we decided to split her branding into two sessions with the first being to capture her work life at home. We planned her first brand photography session in her home where she primarily works. With covid, this worked out perfectly and truly showcased who she is along with her work style!

Branding Fashion

You should always consider your fashion when it comes to your brand photography. It not only needs to resonate with who you are and your style, but also your branding colors and aesthetic. Natalie also has the most AMAZING closet full of fashion! Because of this, she hired Simply Styled by Haley to help her piece together the right pieces. Haley truly has an eye for fashion and curated outfits that photographed perfectly! ON top of it, each outfit she pieced together items that I would have never thought about and curated Natalies style uniquely.

Brand Photography Props

Because Natalie’s  business is service based, she mostly works on her computer and phone from home. I wanted her brand photography to capture details of her essential items in flat lays as well as portraits and her working in her home office. Because of her new branding and wanting things to align visually, I asked her to look into covers for her laptop, phone, and airpods. I love clients who do this as it helps to protect their technology and makes it look oh so good!

GSC  Brand Props

-Notebooks that matched branding

-Fancy pens/pencils

-Covers for technology

-Favorite coffee mugs/drinking glass

-Everyday life goods like glasses and lipstick  ( We also pulled in Natalies fav candles that she always lights during work)

-Crystals

 

The Brand Album

Another aspect of Great Social Clubs brand photography is that we wanted a friendly, edgy, but slightly higher end vibe. The fashion aspect of this shoot is truly what made it so fabulous and authentic to Natalie as well as making her stand out. It truly is a matter of pull in all visual aspects so that when I come in to photography, I can create a story of who my client is and why they are doing what they are doing. Natalie has a background in modeling and this is part of what gave her business a foundation as well as knowledge. We were able to capture the portraits Natalie needed for her business but also the details of what she does behind the scenes. These images give her a brand photography album that she can use for website, social media, brochures, and much more!

Looking to learn more about Brand Photography?

Read my other blog What is Brand Photography