Branding Session with Rebecca Hay Designs

we love lifestyle photos and we love repeat clients!

Learning about a brand / company for 1 shoot is an easy task but learning about a brand, the people behind it, and their ethos after multiple shoots is a different task, and one we really love. The more we get to know Rebecca and her team the better idea we get about who she is as a mompreneur, what her company is all about, and the types of imagery that best speak to both her, her brand, and her audience. Every time we shoot it feels like things get easier and our photos get better, and this session (like our others) is no exception!

We met up at one of her recent projects in Oakville where we focused more on ‘working’ photos than usual. For Rebecca this means planning in her notebook, keeping up on social media, staging the house, and having her own time at home reading, going for a run, and doing mom things like cleaning up. All the things, and photos, that really speak to her and her company.

Click the photos to enlarge and browse through

In Office Session with Rebecca Hay Designs

FOR THIS SESSION WITH REBECCA HAY WE DECIDED TO TAKE OVER THEIR OFFICE FOR THE AFTERNOON!

In previous shoots (here and here) we’ve met Rebecca and her team on location and have shot her at the properties she’s worked on, but this time we switched things up did an in-office/at work session! Rebecca wanted these photos to reflect their day-to-day activities (team meeting, running through drafts, answering emails, etc.) and overall their office culture.

Their studio is quite bright but when we were in the boardroom (first group of photos) we weren’t getting enough light as we’d like so we added in a soft flash on the other side of the window. We mixed these clean, crisp, shots with naturally lit photos (pushed in post of course) with a low depth of field so they have the option of both styles to use!

Rebecca is so naturally radiant in front of the camera it always feels so easy that our biggest hurdle with these sessions is trying to pack in as many outfit changes as we can so that they can use the photos for as many posts, programs, blogging, etc. as possible.


Lifestyle Session with Rebecca Hay Designs

ONE OF OUR FAVOURITE THINGS IS TO WORK WITH REPEATING CLIENTS TO CONTINUE BUILDING OUR RELATIONSHIP TOGETHER

The last time we shot with Rebecca and her team things were different. There were contractors finishing up, plastic wrap everywhere, and it was chaotic. When we started planning this new shoot we said, let’s slow things down. Rebecca Hay Designs were working on putting together a showroom for a new development in Aurora and before going in to shoot we made a game plan that included a moodboard, outfit changes, and even a make up artist!

Our last session together was very documentary focused, shooting as things were happening and being a fly on the wall but for this session we took a more intentional and lifestyle approach to shooting.

Rebecca put herself into her showroom demonstrating how this model home can be used everyday by the on-the-go, always working, woman and even the “where do these toys even come from?!” real life mom.

For most of this shoot we rotated between individually shooting setups, reflecting, giving direction, and even a little bit of prop styling (a la effortless throwing toys everywhere).

See more photos down below…

Waterfront Condo Project with Rebecca Hay Designs

WE WERE QUITE EXCITED WHEN REBECCA REACHED OUT TO US ABOUT SHOOTING HER NEW PROJECT…

And even more excited to hear that it didn’t involve professionally shooting the interior (that’s not our schtick), but rather shooting the real life work that goes into bringing a new space to life. She wanted photos that captured her and her teams efforts by documenting their hard work, and the overall meticulousness of putting all of the final touches- unwrapping furniture, cleaning countertops, putting out flowers and filling jars with fresh coffee beans- on how to truly make a house a home.

This project was a condo right in the heart of downtown Toronto all the way up on the 60-something floor! The team had a lot to do, contractors were still cleaning up all of their tools and things when we arrived, and to be honest it was a little difficult to imagine how everything was going to be ready for later that day.

It was fun being a fly on the wall for a couple of hours and seeing how other people work and become so focused and enveloped in what their doing (I wonder if we look like that too as we shoot?). The condo was a corner unit so it was flooded with a ton of natural light coming in from the floor to ceiling windows and doors, despite it being cloudy outside.

Ethan shot wide throughout the day which was great for overall room shots, and because there were so many people in tighter spaces, and I shot with a fixed 50mm lens, focusing on tighter crops with a shallower depth of field.

See more photos throughout the day down below, and see the final condo here!