There are some things you can plan for on a personal branding shoot.

Outfits. Locations. Props. The different images we need and where they’ll eventually be used.

And then there’s Melbourne weather.

Rebecca’s personal branding photography session in Melbourne happened on one of those winter days when the heavens decided to open just as we were getting started.

We’d planned to begin outside in the beautiful garden at our location, but it quickly became obvious that wasn’t going to happen.

At least, not yet.

Why having a shoot plan matters

Before every branding session, I spend time working through exactly what we need to create.

Not just “we need some nice photos.”

We think about the client’s business, where the images will be used, the stories we want to tell, locations, outfits, props and the different scenarios we need to capture.

And on Rebecca’s shoot, that planning paid off.

With the garden temporarily off the table, I could go straight back to our plan, change the order of the shoot, tell Rebecca which outfit we’d need next and start creating our indoor images instead.

No wasted time. We simply changed direction.

And as every Melburnian knows, if you don’t like the weather… just wait five minutes.

Sure enough, the rain eventually stopped.

When we did get outside, the garden was beautifully fresh, the greens were vibrant and the soft, overcast light was actually perfect for portraits.

Sometimes the conditions you hadn’t planned for give you something even better.

Business branding photos that show what you actually do

Rebecca is a psychologist, so creating beautiful professional portraits was only one part of our brief.

We also wanted her business branding photos to give potential clients a sense of what it’s actually like to work with her.

We brought in people to stand in as clients and colleagues, allowing us to photograph Rebecca working one-on-one, using some of the therapeutic tools that are part of her practice and mentoring other psychologists.

Alongside those images, we created professional portraits and more relaxed lifestyle photographs.

Together, they give Rebecca a varied image library she can use across her website, social media and marketing.

Adding video to the branding library

We also added video to Rebecca’s session.

We filmed a series of Q&A-style videos where she talks about different aspects of her work as a psychologist and her mentoring of other psychologists. These can work beautifully on her website and can also be repurposed into social content.

And we created some of my moving portraits — short pieces of video that complement the still photographs and add another layer of movement to her content.

They can be used individually, combined into Reels or montages, or incorporated into a website alongside her photography.

So rather than walking away with just a collection of photographs, Rebecca now has a versatile library of still images and video content she can use in lots of different ways.

And that’s really what I want from a personal branding session.

Because great personal branding photography shouldn’t just show people what you look like.

It should help them understand who you are, what you do and what it might feel like to work with you.

Even when Melbourne weather has other plans.

Ready to plan your own personal branding session?

Every personal branding shoot starts with a plan — but that plan is built around you, your business and what you need your images to do for you.

Whether you’re stepping into something new, changing direction, or simply ready for an image library that better reflects where your business is now, we can create a session that feels natural, considered and genuinely like you.

You can find out more about my personal branding photography packages HERE

Or book a time for a relaxed chat HERE and we can map out what that could look like for you.