An Intuitive Personal Branding Photography Case Study
A case study this week featuring Medium, Intuitive Coach, Counsellor and Author Ceryn Rowntree.
This is a great insight into just how individualised my Personal Branding Photography service can be. Given Ceryn’s gifts, she had a very clear vision of how she wanted her final imagery to look to support the next steps of her business.
If that sounds a bit like you too, then stick around.
About This Personal Branding Photography Case Study
Meet Ceryn Rowntree – Medium, Intuitive Coach, Counsellor & Author
Ceryn and I go quite a way back! We first met in 2014 when I was working from my city-centre photography studio. At the time I was offering a Vintage PinUp Photography service and she was one of my favourite pinup clients. Ceryn wrote me an incredible psychic angel letter BEFORE we met. I still have it now, and it still to this day bowls me over when I re-read it.
This time we created some intuitive personal branding photography for Ceryn’s next steps in building her business and personal brand.
Ceryn’s Expertise
Ceryn works with clients from all over the world to give readings and guidance. In addition to this, she is a fully qualified counsellor and explores new ideas through her writing. With her witchy groundings, she has a lightning personal brand, and I was filled with so many ideas instantly for our shoot together.
Intuitive Personal Branding Photography Planning
It was great to catch up with Ceryn. During a couple of great catch-ups, I took my usual scrawled-style notes. I NEVER share these with you, out of my self-consciousness about neatness, but on this occasion, I’m going to bare all. This is officially how it all pours out onto a page for me from the very beginning.
Feathers and Pinterest
Ceryn and I then began to build a Pinterest board together over a couple of months. If we saw or felt something the mutual understanding was we’d add it to the mood board and then review it together later. During this time, I cannot tell you how weird things got.
I WAS BOMBARDED WITH FEATHERS!!!
Ceryn’s Personal Branding Photography Wish List
From the chat-based consultancy that I did with Ceryn, a clear wish list was developed that included some very key factors. I knew that it was crucial to involve and include the following in the shoot:
- The notion of “the beginning” and the “dawn of a new day” was clear to me and Ceryn over our time of talking together.
- Capturing the essence of this light and the power it has would fit beautifully with this time in Ceryn’s business and her brand overall.
- The mighty Kali. Ceryn’s dog Kali is key. She had to be there if only for a small part of the day. Thus, transportation and handling of Kali were also to be considered.
- Authenticity and Truth. Ceryn felt so strongly about this. She is so proud to be from and based in Northumberland, she is down to earth in all of her services and being open and real about this was crucial.
For Ceryn, she was clear on being understood in as honest a way as possible. This would be made clear at all stages from planning, supplier work poses, and especially in retouching.
Intuitive Personal Branding Mood Board
Most of my clients opt to keep their mood board switched to the secret setting on Pinterest. Ceryn left hers open to the public. I have been astounded by how many people from all over the world have been following us planning her shoot. The board is still growing at a rapid rate post-shoot.
A Sunrise Personal Branding Photography Shoot Day
Shoot day was INTENSE. I was initially conscious and quite nervous about the weather being “just right” for the all-important sunrise. Once I felt a little bit at ease with the weather conditions, I was then anxious about timing around the sunrise factor. Photographer production to coordinate everything in time and in advance of sunrise weighed heavy on my mind.
Sunrise
We ended up arriving exactly in situ at the strike of sunrise. However, due to a multitude of technical photography and geographical reasons, I’ll not detail now, we had precise sunrise within the spot of woods we were shooting at about 20mins later. I love it when a logistical plan comes together like this so you can be there to create before, during and just after the moment you want to capture. It makes time and space for the extra “happy accidents”.
The Lady – Northumberlandia
With the sunrise officially captured to my satisfaction (or thereabouts), we switched up Ceryn’s look and headed further into the site to the lady herself. The sun was still beautifully low and the freezing cold temperature added a certain special crispness to everything.
Ceryn comes to Northumberlandia first thing every New Year. She sets her intentions for the year ahead and looks out for her totem animal. This year she was greeted by a raven.
Wind Swept Marie scaled down the side of Northumberlandia to recover my just-broken reflector.
Kali & Sparkles
We arranged for Kali to join us for a section of the shoot so that she wouldn’t have to wait around and that she could also go for a fun walk and explore the woods after we’d caught some pictures together. Working in a repetition cycle of shooting I am so happy with these special connection captures we got.
Mother Nature
Exploring the woods in the shadows and bright low sunlight.
Full-Scale Nature Witch Finale
We included some full-scale witchiness for the grand finale of Ceryn’s shoot. To set things off this ended in some fun playing around with glitter and star sparkles.
Editing
Ceryn and I met up at Blakes to narrow down her images into a final workable collection.
Narrowing down images to a final selection that met the original wish list we quickly found images that would be perfect for the site, perfect for social posts and copy overlays and then we had some extra special ones for future projects coming up too.
And Retouching
Remember my comment before on authenticity and retouching? I stuck to this, and on our final stars sparkle, one went in and added some digital enhancements on the sparkly stars. I only do this type of retouching when it’s the right time and place. We both agreed that given the nature of this shot, it was most definitely the right occasion.
With Extra Special Thanks to my Creative Crew
Styling
Nichola English – AKA The Wardrobe Provocateur joined the team for Ceryn’s personal branding photography shoot this time around. Nichola added a serious slice of Boho to the mood board that gave a great rounded feel to the session. See if you can see these influences in the outfits.
Hair and MakeUp
Marie from ND Make-Up joined the team for Ceryn’s shoot. Marie is no stranger to me challenging her on-the-fly skills as an artist. If you can create the perfect hair and makeup in the middle of blustery freezing woods then let’s face it… you are a PRO!
Venues
Northumberlandia
Ceryn had her mind firmly set on her venue from the very early stage of our planning of the shoot. It had to be Northumberlandia. There was no way it was NOT going to be Northumberlandia.
Huge thanks and love going out to the UK Woodland Trust team for their help in my location scouting work on this shoot. Further, thanks going out to Matthew at the site itself.
Snowy Owl
To warm up after our Personal Branding Photography Shoot together we all headed to nearby Snowy Owl pub to get by an open fire and warm up with some delicious soup. The folks at Snowy Owl were kind enough to allow us to film there.
Reflecting On Ceryn’s Intuitive Personal Branding Photography Case Study
Ceryn was able to turn her vision for how she wanted to portray her Personal Brand into a reality.
Bringing out what makes her unique and different with the support of this new collection of Personal Branding Photography has helped Ceryn ensure she is memorable and stands out to her clients and followers worldwide.
