Meet Lesley - she is a graphic designer and runs her own company North South Design. I was especially pleased when she asked me to do her branding shoot as she is always telling her clients that it is really worth investing in professional images for their website.

"Are you looking for Graphic Design in Essex? I am a highly imaginative senior graphic designer with over 20 year’s experience in the advertising and marketing industry. I have worked for such brands and companies as Anheuser Busch, Bacardi, Birds Eye, Coca-Cola, Esso, Ford Motor Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Jameson’s Whiskey, Motorola and Vodafone."

Please do check out her work here on her website 

As such a visual person Lesley had some clear ideas about what she wanted to achieve and we spent time before the shoot looking at pictures between us so I could get a real feel for the types of images I was going to capture. Her Logo colours were important to reflect and her office space has been accented with these so worked really well.   Here is her feedback, 

• How and where have you used your photos? 

On social media and in a presentation to a networking group. I do plan to use them on my revamped website…when i get time to do my own web design ;-) .

•  Have there been any moments in particular you were glad you had them created?

Its just nice to have some professional shots done for business profiles. A couple of years ago I was asked to provide a quote for a book for designers. Not having a professional profile photo to go with the quote was an issue for me. I also think its nice for people to see the 'face behind the business’. My design company is all about being creative and personal. Clients get bespoke creative work and talk directly to me the designer - so it makes sense that they see me! 

•  Has there been anything unexpected about how you enjoy/use your photos day to day  

No. But then my main reason for having them was for my website. (I had to postpone working on my own website after winning a large contract for a company for 6 months. This is now coming to an end so I have pencilled this in for easter time if not before) Looking forward to using them on the new site as they show me at work which is important for me as well as some of the close up shots showing Pantone colours. They will have good impact for hero shots on the site. 

•  Looking back on your session, does anything you were worried about beforehand seem to matter as much now?

I was worried about the light in the room as its not particularly well lit and also I needed the photos to look as natural as possible. I am not someone who likes ‘posed images’ but prefers a natural look with business imagery. Tracy took this into account. Having art directed photography shoots before, I showed Tracy the type of imagery I liked. She welcomed my input, listened to what I wanted and did a great job! She was very good at getting me to relax, so the photos looked more natural.