I’m now a couple sessions in to my relationship with photo consultant Selina Maitreya, and the game is afoot! We’ve begun talking about retooling both my wedding and commercial branding, which basically meant that Selina took some time to look deeply at my sites and print portfolio to get more than just a feel for my style; she spent enough time with each image to understand what can stay and what has to go. Then we got on the phone and talked about where I am business-wise and where I want to go. She told me what is working, what’s not, and what needs to happen to step up to the next level (in terms of raising my price point and bookings in the case of the wedding work, and in terms of being considered for jobs by national magazines and agencies in the case of the commercial work).

Since those initial conversations, my job has been to throw ANY image up for consideration from my archive in to a big pile for Selina to weed through and include in new edits of my print and web portfolios for each business. Once we’ve got that new core, then come the next steps. For the commercial work that will mean more self-generated shooting assignments that fill specific holes in the current work. For the wedding work the next step is finding a designer to help me with identity creation, as well as business cards, postcards, and other collateral.

Since the wedding work is generating a big chunk of my income at this point, and since the new wedding identity won’t be a matter of producing any more images, that gets rebranding attention first. I’ve talked to a couple designers whose work I admire about working together, and the cost estimates should roll in by early next week.

As was the case with my conversations with the photo consultants I considered hiring, it’s been good to talk to the designers; when you hear yourself talk about what you do, it clarifies what’s important to you, and what’s at the heart of your business. Those insights are what branding is all about, and I’m really excited to mind meld with the designer I end up going with and see how they take their understanding of me and my business and translate that in to a visual identity.

Overall, things feel real good right now. There are many many moving pieces that will need to find their places for me to be where I want to be, but Selina has emphasized the importance of just concentrating on the very next thing in front of me and not looking too far ahead. So far, so good.