Personal Branding Photography Vancouver, with Big Cat Creative

Personal branding photography Vancouver — Now more than ever, personal branding photography is so important. People want to meet the maker and get to know the heart and personality behind a brand. This helps them decide if that is where they want to invest their cash! This business owner definitely knows that and brought her A-game to her personal branding session. I was extra impressed because she lives in Whistler and came to Vancouver to do this session with me. It was flattering, to say the least! Kira Of Handle and Hone, referred Erica to me, so a big thank you to Kira! I am always so grateful for referrals, especially ones like this that end up being a perfect match personality and creativity wise!

Erica is the owner and principal designer of Big Cat Creative, which creates some of the most stunning websites I have ever seen. Her designs made me want to switch to Squarespace as they are that beautiful and well laid out. But that would take me forever to convert from WordPress so here I stay. However, if you are on Squarespace, you really do need to check her work out! And lucky for you, Erica has offered my readers a special offer, so make sure to look for that at the end of this post!

Personal Branding Photography Vancouver – A Full Day Of Fun!

Erica booked a full-day personal branding session. This includes having our amazing professional hair and makeup artist Jenny with us for the entire day. Plus lunch, on me! This full day of fun and creativity starts with an extensive onboarding process. This helps me get to the core of you and your business. Once we do, we can create content that connects you to your audience.

Once we know more about you and your business vision and goals, that’s when we start to plan the shoot. During the planning process, Erica shared her loves, from the outdoors, trees, working from bed, and ice cream. She even shared her dream of having a dog one day. (You will see how we worked those key elements in below!) She also shared what people loved about her business and how she wanted more images to show her. Before this session there was one tiny photo of Erica on her site so we needed to fix that!

The goal of any personal branding session is to create a range of images businesses can use in multiple ways.

These images help them connect with their audience through social media, the website, a print ad, or almost anything else. I just love seeing how Erica has put her photos to use. Below, you will see the samples that I pulled from her site.

While your logo and brand colours are important, your story is what really helps people connect to you. The photos we create together will tie in your brand message and visual identity. Then we take it up a notch. We highlight your brand story to show your energy and your “why” in an authentic way. To cover all Erica’s goals, we picked three locations (Jenny’s studio, a cafe, and my studio). We focused on creating content that she could drop her designs into. We also left white space to create ads and banners. We made sure to work on some of the fun elements, her loves, what’s on her mood board, and her bucket list. (A dog, lucky I have one).

I interviewed Erica about working with us on her personal branding photo session. This is what she shared:

PS… don’t forget there is a special offer at the end of the post!

What made you want to have a personal branding session?

As a designer, I always have appreciated great images. They can either make or break your designs! And while there’s a lot of great free and paid stock images out there that I could use, there’s something so professional and personable about having some photos of yourself. Except… I had NO good photos of myself. Not one!

I tried a couple of times to get friends and fam to do them for me, but they had no idea what my vision was, and because I’m a picky designer, they ended up going in the Trash folder and were a big waste of my time! 
As my business started to really take off, I knew that I needed to show my face more to develop my personal brand. But, (again) as a picky designer, I needed to do that in a way where the images were totally high quality, on-brand AND flattering enough that I didn’t cringe at myself when I looked at them (tough combo). So I invested in Michele!

Were you nervous about doing a branding session? 

Totally! But after talking on the phone with Michele, and then again over video chat, I wasn’t too nervous going into it. I knew the photos were going to be worth it, so I put my game face on and didn’t think about it too much. Then, when I got there, my nerves subsided even more as I met Jenny (the makeup artist) and Michele who were both so nice and laid back. Michele was telling me exactly how to pose and showing me what to do (which was perfect because I had absolutely no idea) and we had lots of laughs along the way!

What was important to you when looking for a photographer?

It was important to me that the photographer I chose 1. Understood my style and had examples of previous work that reflected the style I wanted, 2. Was someone that was easy and fun to get along with. Michele was both of those things! She was also organized, attentive and creative and great at her job.

What was your favorite part about the process of working with us?

Everything, really! Having my photo taken isn’t something I particularly enjoy, and it’s still not something I could say I enjoy, but it was so much better than I thought it would be. All in all, the planning and the day was seamless, painless, and dare I say it, fun! But the best part had to be the end result, I LOVE my photos and it made it all the hard work worth it. 

What would you say to someone thinking of doing a personal branding photography session with Michele Mateus Photography?

If you need brand photos, Michele is the gal to go to! Not only was the experience great, but I got so many awesome photos to use for probably a few good years, which was a great investment in my biz and brand! I would definitely go back to Michele again for another Branding session! 

Did you have a favourite photo from the shoot?

 OBVIOUSLY all of the photos of me and Michele’s dog, Ruby ha ha ha!!!

Behind the Scenes with Jenny V Hair & Make-Up Artist.

As I mentioned about our amazing Hair & Makeup Artist Jenny V is with us the ENTIRE TIME! Yes you read that right! We want you to feel totally pampered on this day and Jenny is with us making sure the looks she creates stays fresh all day, and is always able to switch it up if you want too. It’s a top notch service that we are so proud of! Erica looked lovely when she walked into Jenny’s Gastown studio, we just helped her get camera ready following her direction as to how she wanted to be seen in her photos.

Samples from Erica’s site and of her personal branding photos in action!

Special Offer!

Thank you Erica for having me as your photographer and creating these photos for you, I LOVE when I am mindlessly scrolling and see your ads and how you continue to put these images to work for your business!

Erica has so kindly offered my readers 15% off her themes! Use the code Michele15 and make sure to get in touch if you want to update your photos for your fancy new site!

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We would love to tell your Brand Story! Get in touch for a complimentary consultation.