When overshooting leads to a breakthrough...
Sometimes the best ideas happen after the fact…
...better late than never, right, :)
Oftentimes, I go a little overboard with the amount of photos I capture during a branded lifestyle portrait session...
...okay, it’s EVERY TIME, but, what can I say, I want to make sure we get what the client needs for his or her image content portfolio.
The reason is simple - the more variety in the types of images that are captured, the more options the client has when it’s time to leverage these images for his or her website, social media, blog posts and other promotional opportunities.
By “variety,” I’m specifically referring to shooting every scene in wide shots, medium shots, and close-ups from a variety of angles and leveraging a unique mix of compositions to keep the subject matter interesting and fresh from shot-to-shot.
If you post images that look and feel the same, day-after-day, it will bore the hell out of your audience, and clearly, that’s not the road you want to travel down with your image content.
This is especially true when working with objects that have emotional resonance for you.
Recently, I was working with a client in her home, and I was capturing candid photos of a work/lifestyle scenario where she was consulting with a client.
Just as we were set to begin, she grabbed a bunch of stuff that she has at her disposal during a typical in-person, client consultation - her favorite pen, a journal to take notes, and, a set of bells.
Bells?
Apparently, before every consultation, she rings the bells to “clear the energy” in the room - she is a Feng Shui practitioner who integrates aspects of spirituality into her practice, so, this made a lot of sense as it was happening.
It’s always exciting when props we didn’t talk about during the strategy call present themselves because it’s another, unique, visual wrinkle to integrate into her image content portfolio.
I had her ring those bells at least 6-7 times more than she normally does, but, that allowed me to capture them from a wide range of angles, including when they weren’t in her hands.
Here are some of the final, selected photos:
When we sat down to look at the photos, and came across this set of shots, my first reaction was that I shot way too many, so, we deleted a chunk of them. But, she still appreciated this element captured during her session, so, we kept more than I thought she would need.
Fast-forward to when I was polishing up the photos in my office.
Once I made it to the section of the portfolio with the bells, I remembered during one of our strategy conversations prior to the session where we were looking to identify and establish several recurring content format types that she can go to month after month.
That’s when her “clear the energy” mantra popped into my head, and after putting two-and-two together, I immediately emailed her this idea:
What if you created a series of soothing and relaxing personal messages of hope and inspiration to “clear the energy” a couple times a month for your audience in order to set them up for an impactful day?
The bells would serve as a visual punctuation to these personal messages and since you have more than one photo to work with, you can space them out over the course of a couple weeks and months.
And, once you leverage all the photos I took, take your smartphone and shoot the bells in different areas of the house, so that you can continue to produce this recurring content format indefinitely.
She loved the idea and plans to implement it into her content calendar on a recurring basis.
When you can devise an image content strategy that leverages your portraits and other photos in a way that will not only visually punctuate stories that deeply resonate with your audience, but also incorporates every image in your content portfolio, then that’s a win-win if I ever heard of one.
After all, it’s not overshooting if all the images have a purpose, :)
Interested in finding out more about how to create your own recurring content formats that you can tap into every month you schedule your posts for social media consumption?
I can help you with that, :)
Set a time to chat with me, and let’s see how I can help you!
PS - For those of you who aren’t in the know, I mail out these blogs 3x a week, and lemme tell you, they’re a real party, so, if you’d like to get in on this, sign up for it here and I’ll throw in a free gift for you, because I care, :)