Indoor and Outdoor Photoshoot Locations
Are you having difficulties selecting one location for your brand? Trying to fit all the stories of you within that one location, but it isn’t working? Some content story pillars like nature and community can’t be fit into an indoor location and they need to be taken outside of that one perfect indoor location.
If you’re struggling to envision your session in only one spot and you keep thinking of other ideas or pinning other ideas that you love and are your brand. The one original location might not be enough to flush out and fully capture the big picture of your brand.
In the case of Elaine Oyang Yoga Therapy, we needed two different locations to really capture her brand as a whole. While most of her yoga video courses are taken inside her office space, there is more to her brand than just being in the office space. Her brand is about holistic and spiritual total body wellness that can’t just be left indoors.
For the first story we started in her office space in her home. In her indoor stories we showcased her doing:
Her meditative gentle yoga relaxing poses
Using smoke (my favorite thing to photograph with clients) and sound bowls
Journaling and reading
Working on the computer and doing her online courses
Indoor headshots
And we even added her dog for a few shots as well
With the indoor location I shot into the corner with the bookshelf and plants even though she usually uses the other corner for her videos. I wanted to add those story pieces of nature and a desire to learn within her indoor lifestyle branding photos.
Now let’s talk about Elaine’s outdoor session, for both of us this was our favorite part of the whole day! The weekend prior Elaine went to two parks and trail locations, I can’t remember the other location but this location was O.O. Denny Park in Kirkland. I specifically wanted her to feel which location was going to be right, which one she could envision herself taking photos at. O.O. Denny was the one, the one that made the cut! We had the beach just across the street from the trails, so it was the perfect outdoor photoshoot location for her personal branding photos.
We started walking in the trails first, she had scouted out a few spots that caught her eye. The first one being where she was on the log. That area was a little muddy and I was having fun weaving my way through the woods just like when I was a kid. It was this perfect challenge for me physically and technically with my photography skills.
The photo of her in a low lunge or Anjaneyasana pose on the log was my favorite. I was in awe of her ability to hold the pose so steady and strong and with the dapple lighting right behind her, just total love for that set of photos.
We then continued on to the big huge tree that is over 700 years old, just beautiful. She wanted an epic picture of her with the tree and really showing the size of nature. Also notice her shoes are off for all her nature photos, she wanted to connect and ground with nature. While we were walking the trail through the woods she would take off her shoes for the photo sets and put them back on. I highly recommend grabbing a little towel to wipe off your feet in between walking and photos.
Next area we went to was a small little stream area. It was rocky where she did a few other poses (the banner image) and then sitting with the sound bowls and meditating.
Last on this trail we went to the bridge with an open side. That was so cool to see, I’ve never seen a bridge like that before and it was so fun. Lighting was very tricky on that bridge, while dapple lighting is really awesome in the background on the subject it isn’t as great. Trying to find a big enough patch of solid light on the face needed some movement around.
As we were walking, vision struck me and I had Elaine get out on the rock. This is part of the love that I have for these outdoor sessions. A lot of times it is just walking around nature and letting inspiration strike, letting things happen organically, unscripted and unplanned.
I create my shoot plans to have an idea and game plan for sessions, but many times I go off script and let what I see in the environment create its own image in my mind. Inspiration at its finest.
We finished her outdoor session on the beach and got in the shade of the cool tree hanging over the water. With the overhead bright sun we had to make photos work within the light constraints of the camera and her look as well. I tried playing around with flash, but for her vibe outdoor flash wasn’t consistent with her brand look so those photos were ditched.
Instead we focused on the playful beach vibe she requested for that area. I used lots of movement as part of that and directing for laughing while walking, bending and water play.
COME TAKE A PHOTO WALK WITH ME!
After this session I felt so energized, being in nature, it is also my happy place as well. This session was inspiring me to create my own mini branding sessions with a small group of 5 people. I have this dream of what it will be: adventure, inspirational, organic, grounding, affirming, high vibe, fun, surrounded with nature enthusiasts, like minded and small group support. I’ve got big visions for more of these nature photoshoots!
