For this personal branding shoot with Nat Knox, I photographed a mixture of portraits, working images and salon details to create a gallery that showed both Nat and what she actually does.

Nat is a Waikato hair and makeup artist, and at the time of this shoot she was working from her salon base in Casabella Lane in Hamilton.

Rather than focusing only on traditional branding portraits, I photographed Nat working with a model throughout a hair and makeup session. This gave us plenty of natural interaction, close-up details and behind-the-scenes imagery alongside her professional portraits.

Showing the person and the work

For a service-based business, I love creating photographs that go beyond simply showing what the business owner looks like.

Throughout Nat’s shoot, I photographed the different stages of hair and makeup application, the products and tools she uses, and plenty of those smaller moments that happen naturally while she’s working.

We also created wider photographs showing Nat within the salon environment.

Together, these images give much more context to her work while still keeping Nat herself visible throughout the gallery.

Creating useful supporting imagery

Not every branding photograph needs a person looking at the camera.

Hands applying makeup, hair being styled, products on the bench and close-up details can be incredibly useful supporting images for a website or social media.

They’re also a good way to build a larger image library without every photograph feeling like another version of the same portrait.

For Nat, this meant creating everything from wider salon photographs through to much tighter details of her working with a client.

Personal branding portraits in the salon

Of course, we still made time for photographs where Nat was the focus.

I photographed a mixture of seated and standing portraits around the salon, using the different spaces and backgrounds already available to us.

Photographing someone within their own working environment can be particularly useful for personal branding because the location naturally becomes part of the story.

Personal branding photography for service-based businesses

This shoot is a great example of how much we can cover when the person behind a business is also the person delivering the service.

Rather than separating portraits, working photographs and business imagery into different shoots, we can create them together.

The finished gallery gives Nat a collection that shows her personality, her work, the salon and all the smaller details in between.