Moodboarding: How to Inspire Your Brand Photos with Stunning Digital Visuals | Boston Brand Photographer

Picture this: You have booked your brand photoshoot, and you’re ready to make a statement with gorgeous, on-brand images for your website, but you arrive, and the vibe is “bright and casual”, not the “upscale and elegant” vibe you were going for. Didn’t you talk with your photographer about this beforehand?

Moodboarding (or modern-day Pinning on Pinterest) is THE best way to communicate what you want your branding photoshoot to look like to your photographer. In our initial conversation, I ask a lot of questions about your brand, your ideal client, and especially about what you want your photos to look like. As much as we chat about this, there is no replacement for visual representation. As I tell my clients, “modern farmhouse magic” can translate totally differently to two people. It’s always best to have visual inspiration to communicate your “dark, sophisticated, moody” or “bright, cheerful, casual” vibe.

Where to Start:

Create a Pinterest board you can share with your team. This part may feel like homework but it’s so fun, this is where your brand personality can really shine! Pinning images that reflect your brand's values, mission, and personality helps you define and communicate your identity visually. It's like giving your brand a voice without saying a word.

To Create your own Pinterest Inspiration Board:

1. Create a new board: "your business name brand photoshoot" and check the box to keep it secret

2. Search relevant terms. Use words to describe your brand, "bright, modern, minimal", and words relevant to your industry. This might look like "bright modern interior design brand photoshoot ideas" or another iteration of that. The goal is not to find exact images we will replicate, but to use your board to come up with the overall brand aesthetic that you are going for.

3. You'll want about 10-15 images on your board. You want to have enough variety, but too many could start to lose focus on the main concept.

4. Share your board with your team.

That’s it! Now you and your team of marketers, web designers, hair and makeup artist, and photographer will all be on the same page to help you create stunning visuals that are on brand for your business.

Baby Portraits: six months old, cheeks, and smiles-oh my! | Boston Photographer

The first year of baby’s life goes by so fast! Each month brings a new milestone, whether it’s sitting up, holding objects or crawling. While I absolutely love newborn shoots, it’s always exciting to work with babies within their first year. Just like each month brings a new milestone in development, a 3 month old and a 9 month old react differently in front of the camera. This past spring I had the lovely opportunity to work with Theo, a six month old, at their stunning condo in downtown Boston, and oh man, did he have the best expressions. Wait till you see those cheeks!

Theo was a natural, like ready to be on the cover of magazine-worthy. As a six month old he was sitting up by himself, and loved grabbing his feet or was completely fascinated by the drawstrings on his pants. While he went through the range of emotions like most babies, Theo was quick to offer back up a smile, thanks to his cheerleaders and support team, his mom, dad, and aunt! All of whom were running around behind me chanting, singing, playing peek-a-boo, and redirecting his attention with Sophie the giraffe. 

As you can see from the photos, Theo had multiple outfits which are especially helpful to have on hand on any infant shoot, (because babies can be messy). He went through his changes like a champ, and his wardrobe went great with the overall vibe of the space. Enjoy some of Theo’s moments below!

6 months is a big milestone! But no matter the age, if you interrupt nap time, there will be some tears.

Boston Portrait Photographer | Brianna's Day Off (Bueller....?)

Who wouldn’t want to skip school for a photoshoot? That’s what senior Brianna got to do for her senior portraits! Brianna is friends and soccer teammates with one of our Senior Reps, Alena. At the crack of 8:30am, we met at the studio for Brianna’s mill building inspired shoot.

Right off the bat, Brianna worked it. She has the natural smize down. For those of you who don’t know the Tyra Banks coined term, smize = “smile with your eyes”. And look at all of that hair! It was a bit of a wind storm when we made it outside, but she wrangled all of her long locks effortlessly.

I even have to say, that the more windblown her hair got, the better it looked, does this girl ever have a bad hair day?? After a quick outfit change, she pulled out one of our favorite winter accessories: the blanket scarf.

Not only is it perfect for a brisk December morning, you can’t help but have some fun with it. Soon Brianna was laughing at having to sway continuously, which brought out her fun, happy personality in the photos.

We ended the shoot across the street in the mill buildings. I am beginning to love this early morning winter light in the mills. Showcasing a bright red off the shoulder shirt with the gritty, monochromatic backdrop resulted in Brianna absolutely shining.

Boston Portrait Photographer Promo Video by Daniel Byers

Many of you have seen my fashion editorial style senior portraits. This market is so new to me, but the feedback from seniors so far has been so incredible, I knew I needed to get the word out about these sessions quickly. That led me to starting my first Senior Rep program for the Class of 2016. Aside from that, I needed to step it up and really show the EXPERIENCE these girls have when they shoot with me. I need a promo video, a legit, professional, bad-a$$ promo video, done by a professional video artist. Enter Daniel Byers, video artist extraordinaire. When you are done watching our video, go to his website immediately, www.skyshipfilms.com and be amazed by some of the work that he’s done. I actually almost couldn’t believe that he agreed to work on my video, after seeing the rest of his work.

We met, and talked about my process, and how to convey what shooting with me was like from a client perspective. I told him how hair and makeup was a big factor to not only the end result, but also to the whole experience. I also needed to express how important styling and accessorizing is to planning a session, showing how everything comes together is huge! Finally, creating a relationship and interacting with my subject is going to make or break the whole experience. Communication and allowing my subject to be vulnerable with me is the only way we’re going to get what we need from our session.

I knew I wanted Hayley to be our model for this video. She is easy to work with, has the sweetest personality, and takes direction very well. 

We were all lucky to work with Heather Lofaro, hair and makeup artist with incredible talent

Watch the video below for yourself!

When it came to shooting, Daniel was a pro. He had a clear vision of what we were going for and planned out the shots he wanted. I’m always intrigued by the creative process, so I enjoyed every minute of it. Hayley was also a champ… it was one of those icy April days that still feels like winter.

All in all, I am beyond happy that we made this video… now I can’t wait to do another!!!

See some of the final shots made while creating the video below.

See more images from past shoots with Hayley here

See more of Daniel's work here

Contact Daniel about creating your own promo video

Hair and makeup by Heather Lofaro

Boston Photographer | Personal Trainer and Fitness Expert

Haley is a personal trainer, beach body coach, mom to two beautiful little girls, and co-owner (with her husband) of PACE Fitness in Plainville, MA. And soon she will be a nurse on top of all that! To say she knows a thing or two about living a healthy life is quite the understatement. This girl lives THE healthy lifestyle. What I love about Haley is that her philosophy for achieving a healthy body doesn’t involve two-a-days or hours everyday at the gym. She believes in the 30 minute a day workout that everyone can make time for… and CLEAN EATING. She is actually living proof that this works.

For Haley, this photo shoot has to encompass a lot of things – she is well rounded in health and fitness and that’s important for her loyal clients and fans to know. Beauty, strength, versatility, and FUN are a few key words we were going for.

Haley doing yoga with her oldest daughter

We started warming up with some yoga, and incorporated her daughter, Lilly into a few shots. Haley is a strong believer that just because you have the kids and can’t get to the gym, doesn’t mean you can’t get a good workout… include your kids!

You’d think someone with a body like this would walk around in their bikini all day everyday (I would anyway), but Haley’s humility and modesty is so sweet. She was a little shy, and I was lucky enough to capture some genuine giggles between shots.

We had to get some shots in PACE fitness, the gym where her and her husband do personal and small group training. I LOVED the purple wall, and Haley looked pretty bad a$$ posing against it. Time kind of got away from me on this photo shoot, but Haley was so fun to work with, and I really wanted to make sure we captured her many fitness personalities. (scroll to the bottom for video)

I love Haley’s fitness philosophies, she makes it sound so simple. Clean eating 80% of the time, and 30 minutes a day. She truly believes that this tone and muscle definition is possible for any average person.

Haley on healthy eating:

“If your diet consists mostly of unhealthy, processed foods, you won’t see results. The 80/20 rule applies here again. At least 80% of your diet must consist of healthy, whole foods if you want to see your abs.”

Haley on our photo shoot:

"I wanted my photos to be more than photos. I wanted someone who could capture my personality and the idiosyncrasies of my expressions and body language. My goal was to come across as approachable and non intimidating and she did just that. The moment she walked in I felt at ease, I felt comfortable and able to be myself."

fitness beauty shot

Check out Haley's video short below. If you like it, please subscribe to my You Tube channel and share!

For more info about Haley:

 Fortier Fit Nurse Website

Visit Haley’s FB page

Visit her BeachBody website

PACE Fitness

For more info about having a shoot like this:

Contact me

On to more photo galleries!!!

Boston Photographer | Modeling Portfolio for Hayley

Hello! After a long winter hibernation, blogging is back :) and I'm starting with one of my favorite girls from the fall....

Hayley came to me because she was interested in modeling. She contacted me, asked all the right questions, and booked an appointment for a consultation. For a 15 year old, I couldn’t have been more impressed with her professionalism right off the bat. (I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if she grows up to be an incredibly successful business woman). When I met Hayley and her mom, I saw how excited and serious Hayley was to dive into this new adventure and see if she had what it takes to model. We went through styling and location options (more on styling here), and planned everything out for her first shoot. She loved the idea of shooting in the mill buildings around my studio, so that’s where our main focus was going to be.

The day of the shoot, Haley and her mom showed up at the studio, after stopping at Robert Jason Salon for hair and makeup, well prepared and with positive energy. We started shooting and Haley was a dream to work with. She had never modeled professionally before, but she took my direction with such ease and confidence, I would have guessed she had been doing it for years.

The shoot went so well, we lost track of time, and were really racing against the light to fit our last few shots in. For the end of the shoot, we really wanted to get a few sunset shots on a pretty farm road in Andover, 15 minutes from the studio. It was already dark out, but Haley and her mom were up for giving it a try, so we headed over there as the darkness was dropping in quickly, and got our last shots in.

When Haley and her mom came back to the studio for our viewing session, they were blown away with the results. I was so happy to show her how truly BEAUTIFUL she is.

Boston Family Photography | Public Garden Portraits

I met Kelsey, Jeff, and and their beautiful baby girl Emily through Kelsey’s sister, Amanda. Amanda contacted me because as Emily’s godmother, she wanted to give Kelsey and Jeff something really special for their Emily’s christening. Amanda took some time to meet with me to go over my process and product options to make sure I’d be a great fit for a family portrait session with her sister’s family.

Kelsey and Jeff live in the South End, met at Boston College, and Jeff proposed to her at the Public Garden, so Boston is clearly a special place to them.

When I met with them, they were so excited for the photo shoot, and we decided to have it along the Charles, and of course the Public Garden, at the site of the proposal.

The bench at the Public Garden where Jeff proposed to Kelsey

I photograph A LOT of little boys… newborns, toddlers, kids, teens, for some reason my portrait sessions are male dominated. For this reason alone, I was excited to photograph Emily before I even met her. When I met Emily… those EYES! Her gaze was just so stunning, so intense, I fell in love a little.

Kelsey and Jeff were so laid back about everything, they really made the session a lot fun and so easy. No offense to all you dads out there, but I KNOW you’re not always excited for the family portrait session, you don’t hide it well. Jeff was involved, and really easy to photograph. I love the honest moments captured in the shot of him holding Emily’s hands, and of them as a family holding her up. The sincerity of the moments when they can forget the camera are truly some of the best.