Hello! I am so happy to be guest-posting on Charlotte’s blog today—thank you for having me sweet Charlotte! My name’s Monica, and I am a long-term photography client of Charlotte’s. In my work life I wear a few different hats: I am the founder of The Elgin Avenue lifestyle blog, co-host of Let’s Discuss Podcast, and I also help brands to develop their social media presence via styling, platform management and consultancy.
Charlotte and I have worked together since 2018.
In today’s blog post I am sharing why I value working with Charlotte on my blog imagery so much + 5 reasons to hire a blog photographer.
If you are a blogger too, and are considering professional photography, I hope that this blog post is helpful!
A little bit of backstory . . .
Charlotte and I were introduced via the magical powers of the world-wide-web. As fate would have it, Charlotte found my blog through a post I had written about leaving London.
At the time, Charlotte was thinking about leaving the city herself, and so dropped me an email to chat. Spoiler: I knew from that first message that we’d be friends!
Charlotte has the sweetest email manner, and we got talking back and forth about house moves, business and life.
After a few email exchanges I discovered that Charlotte was living in the same small market town I had just recently moved to myself.
The town is tiny and neither of us had any idea that the other lived there!
Fate, anyone?!
A coffee date was arranged, and shortly after Charlotte and I enjoyed one of those ‘first friend dates’ where we talked for hours.
It was so buoying for me to connect with a fellow female business-owner, who loved Gossip Girl as much as I did, haha!
Prior to our coffee, I had a peek at Charlotte’s website and fell in love with her elegant, crisp and romantic photography style.
At the time I was looking for a new photographer to work with on my blog content, and having connected on a personal level too, I posed the question: “could we work together?!”
Charlotte suggested a trial shoot, and we’ve worked together ever since.
Our first shoot together
My first shoot with Charlotte was for a homeware collaboration I had coming up in honour of Chinese New Year.
For this project we were shooting in an old rental flat of mine.
Though it was cosy, the flat wasn’t the easiest of spaces to shoot in. Think: mint green walls and almost no natural light. This proved to be no problem for Charlotte, who got stuck in to shooting and made the whole process feel easy and natural.
When I received the edited images back, I couldn’t believe my eyes!
Charlotte had worked around the—many—quirks of my flat, and created images I was proud to have on my blog and social media. Plus I knew that my client would be thrilled too! I found myself looking through the photos again and again thinking “is this really my flat?!”.
From that point onwards, I knew that I wanted to make Charlotte a part of my extended team.
If you are thinking about hiring your own blog photographer, here are 5 reasons I value working with Charlotte so much . . .
5 Reasons to Hire a Blog Photographer (+ Why I Value Charlotte So Much)
Charlotte always manages to capture my best angle + alllll the details!
Since Charlotte’s background is in wedding photography, her eye for details and capturing people’s ‘best side’ is first-class.
If you have a pretty flower arrangement on your table, Charlotte will spot it.
Like yourself from this angle—not that one!—Charlotte will get it!
If you want to up-level your blog content, working with a photographer who ‘gets you’ and understands the style of imagery you need, is invaluable.
Working with Charlotte creates consistency with my imagery
Working with Charlotte consistently has given me the opportunity to create a cohesive look across my whole brand. This is an essential for me, since I want everything to look harmonious—no matter which platform you are connecting with me on.
Charlotte totally gets this, and so edits my images in a way which allows me to create that cohesiveness.
Whether you are a blogger, or a business-owner, having that visual harmony across your brand helps to foster trust with your audience. When you show care for your brand, it communicates to your audience/customer that you care about them too.
Online galleries are A-mazing!
Prior to working with Charlotte I had worked with a handful of other photographers who shared images via Dropbox or WeTransfer. While this works, I don’t personally find it that user-friendly, especially when you are viewing large batches of images.
Instead, Charlotte delivers all of her photographs in an online gallery format, which is super easy to scroll through. The online gallery keeps my photos organised and easily-accessible, meaning I can re-purpose them for social, my newsletter or blog posts, whenever I want to.
If you are considering a professional photographer, inquire as to how they deliver their photos. Having an organised system can seriously help your work flow. Plus, if you shoot seasonally, you can create content which you can re-purpose year in year out.
Charlotte puts you at ease when having your photo taken
Having your photo taken can be awkward! However, Charlotte makes capturing amazing blog photography feel like a breeze.
Charlotte will happily chat through your goals for the shoot ahead of time, and always does her best to translate your vision into the images she delivers. NB: mood boards are super helpful!
Having a great working relationship with your photographer is a must if you are looking to create regular blog content together. You need to feel comfortable in front of the camera, and with the end result.
Above and beyond
While this blog post is probably turning into a Charlotte Bryer-Ash fan-letter, (no shame on my part!) what I really want to communicate is that Charlotte goes above and beyond with everything she does.
When you are looking to hire a blog photographer, finding someone who will go the extra mile is the Holy Grail.
After all, you want to work with someone who is as passionate about their line of work, as you are about yours.
The takeaway?
If photographs make up a large part of your blog content, investing in great photography is—in my opinion—a no-brainer. Photography can up-level your brand, and make you a more attractive prospect to sponsors, and to readers alike.
Moreover, great imagery travels further. It is shared more often on social media, pinned more often to Pinterest and re-purposed on other websites.
When I decided to invest in professional photography for my blog, not only did it free up so much of my time (since I had previously been shooting and editing all of my photos myself), it also up-levelled the quality of my content.
I can say with total confidence that investing in photography propelled my business forwards, both in terms of readership, and brand collaborations.
If you want to have a peruse of some of the shoots Charlotte and I have worked on together, I have rounded up some of my favourites below:
My Clean(er) Beauty and Skincare Journey: What I Know So Far
Bridal Beauty Prep – 4 Months in Advance
A Month of Positive Action
5 Home Updates for the Cosy Seasons
Winchester Travel Guide
You can see Charlotte’s photography woven throughout my Instagram feed too over on @MonicaBeatrice.
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Ahhh the biggest thank you to Monica for her beautiful blog post sharing how she has found us working together over the last 3 years now, and I am so lucky how not only we have an amazing working relationship, and how we have worked on some AMAZING campaigns together, but also how we have become great friends over the years!
Are you a blogger looking to up-level your content? I would love to hear from you! Get in touch here
