About Blair Phillips Photography

Growing up there was no opportunity in my household for future advancement; no further education after high school, no parenting, and dreams that seemed out of reach. I was taken away from my mother in the fifth grade and was placed with my grandparents three hours away from “home”. When I was a junior in high school, both of my grandparents who were raising me passed away, leaving me to finish educating myself through high school, working 40 hours a week at a local grocery store. Finances were so bad that senior pictures were not an option due to money and most of my time off was spent juggling work and school. I wasn’t able to have much of a social life as a normal teenager.

The reason for the short story above is to give you an idea of where the motivation and creativity comes from in my images. We began our business in 2003 part time and 2006 full time and have turned our name, Blair Phillips Photography into a household name that people in our community, and from several states away, have come to know and adore. In these short, incredible years, we photograph between 40-60 weddings and 500+ studio sessions per year with myself as the only photographer, my wife Suzanne and three additional employees. In our small, economically deprived mill town of 3,100 people, being called “successful” before the age of 30 is an understatement!

Lot’s of ways to Connect with Blair Phillips Photography:

Website : Blog : Studio’s Facebook : Workshop’s Facebook : Twitter : YouTube : Vimeo

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Finding Your Brand as a Photographer

When you drive down the road and see golden arches, you know exactly what’s below that sign, right?  McDonald’s has branded itself so well that the business name doesn’t even need to be present for you to know instantly what it is.  What would your business be like if it had that much branding power?

Now, McDonald’s has been around since the early 1940’s and has had some time to invest in a great brand but that doesn’t mean that you can’t achieve a similar effect in your area.  All it takes to build a brand is a little persistence, determination and creative problem solving.

As a photographer, the first thing you really need to establish, even before an awesome logo or business card, is the style of images you create.  Well, how do you do that?  The answer is so simple: Shoot what you like!  Once you find what you truly love to shoot, you’ll find your brand, or really, your brand will find you.  Put blinders on to other photographers and find what makes you tick.  Shoot what gets you excited about photography.  For me, I loved shooting elegant people in places that were a little odd, like a busted up old junkyard or plumbing shop.  These people really didn’t fit in these places but even so, it created these dynamic images that had so much depth to them.

With all the actions and post processing techniques available today, you can make your images look like anything but you don’t want them to look like just anything.  You want your images to fit your new-found brand.  For us, we use lots of textures and actions to emphasize depth to our images.  We don’t use very many “clean” looks because we’re more “grungy” so to speak.  So, do you know the “feeling” you get from your images?  Ask a friend to describe a body of your work in one word.  If you get several of the same answers from several people, you’ve found something to run with.

Now, all that photo stuff doesn’t belittle your identity.  Your identity encompasses your logo as well as tons of other stuff.  When it comes to your logo, don’t be afraid to hire a graphic designer or brand consultant to create your logo.  This is something that people will be seeing day in and day out.  Graphic designers who specialize in brand identity can take your idea and break it into the simplest form possible while still getting across the theme and idea of your brand.  For us, Suzanne knew she wanted something with angel wings, a “B” and a crown.  We gave several sketches to a designer and they simplified our idea to the logo it is today.  Now, after plastering the logo all over the place, all the people in our area need to see is our initial “wing logo” and know it’s us.  That’s what you want to shoot for.

When you start designing your promotional materials, don’t sacrifice your brand because of a cool design.  You won’t be seeing much baby blues or pink in our ads or flyers because it simply doesn’t fit.  As cool as it may look, do not put your brand to the side.  If the McDonald’s down the street painted their building green with a really sweet looking blue stripe down the side, made their golden arches black and turned Ronald into a magician instead of a clown, do you really think they would get the same amount of business?  Of course not.  While you might now serve millions a year, your business is just as important so keep your marketing pieces consistent with your overall brand.

Your business rely’s on it’s ability to stand out and to be remembered by people.  By implementing just some of these branding techniques, you’ll be able to stand out from the photographer down the street.  In your spare time, take a look at some successful business and see how they continually exhibit their brand.  Before you know it, you’ll be a branding mastermind.

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