Less than a year ago, I received a request for private French classes from a lady who didn’t live very far from my place, two train stations away only – a miracle in Paris. We met for an introduction meeting and she explained to me her professional project. She was developing a photography service for women. Her project took all my attention. With her best French, she told me why she wants to shoot women, not models, but real women with their beauty, complexity, diversity and authenticity. She offers a unique occasion to women to see their beauty as they are. She proves to them they are all beautiful the way they are.
Rachel took a few classes with me and I was really interested in her project and its evolution. At that time, I already had nice personal branding pictures. I was using them on my social medias and in the signature of my emails. As a business owner, I try to pay attention to the dos and donts in terms of visibility. In addition to visibility, and showing your customers who they are talking to, some advice I read often about social media is to keep your profile picture recent, especially if you are active and interact a lot with people.
During the summer, I was tired of my profile picture and I wanted to give it a new trend and also a new style. A style that was closer to my personal tastes and easily identified. In the same time, I was closely following Rachel’s work on Instagram. Her Instagram account made me dream. I love the style of her photos. At the beginning, I wrongly thought, her sessions were maybe too artistic and suddenly, one day, I saw that she was also offering personal branding pictures for professionals. They were gorgeous and authentic. It took me 2 sec to grab my phone and contact her to plan a photo shoot for my own personal branding. She is so professional that it didn’t take her long to set up everything. The only thing I had to do is to bring my clothes. Rachel knows me quite well now and she reminded me to take a leather jacket, I have a collection of leather jackets and I never go out without mon CUIR.
During half a day, I followed her through Paris. She knew exactly what she wanted to do and where. She guided me through the city. Rachel knows exactly how to encourage natural and relaxed expression as she knows what to say to make you feel comfortable. I was impressed by her facility to identify the moment and capture it. We started near the emblematic Eiffel Tour and we finished the shoot in Montmartre, in a behind the scene spot where only a few people go.
After a few weeks, I was very impatient to see the results. I was hopping up and down and finally, we met for a “reveal session”. Oh my god, I was so happy. The color, the light, the style, everything was perfect. Her pictures reflect my personality and how I am. I look very comfortable on the pictures and it is a miracle because I don’t like to be in front of a camera at all.
I will definitely keep a close eye on Rachel’s work and I will for sure redo a session as soon as I get tired of these pictures, which will take probably a very long time as she gave me enough pictures to be able to create a nice rotation for a couple of months.
Thank you Yasmine, it was fun, and interesting!, to read the experience of a photoshoot with me, from a client’s perspective. I am so glad you enjoyed our photo session and the results.
Want to see photos from my shoot with Yasmine? Well, I’ve already blogged them! You can read about the shoot from the photographer’s perspective and view the results Over Here >