I have recently been blessed to share space with the incredible Shaune Clarke, creator of Big Brand Speaking, a charismatic rockstar of speaker training AND I have to say guru of marketing & personal development. I had not even heard of this guy 3 months ago… But meeting him has changed my life 🙂

It is going to take a few posts to share this EPIC shoot – so let’s get started 🙂

After our first consult I was excited, nervous and fully revved to make this one of the best personal branding shoots I have ever photographed.

Shaune’s brief…

EDGY

SOPHISTICATED

INTELLIGENT

And as a special bonus feature, Shaune laid down the challenge, that he would really like if there was an element of COMPLICATION for me in pulling off his shoot. In his words he is so comfortable living on the edge – so that is what we set off to capture 🙂

During the consultation & planning phase we had planned a few shots, I researched some great locations and we set off for a day of shooting – however you can never fully plan – the weather and conditions always play a part – and you just have to be quite fluid and go with the flow….

 

This image has seen me labelled as the “Dare-Devil photographer”. Shaune pointed to this spot and told me, I want a photo there. But before I jumped out onto that rock swelling at the edge of the ocean I needed to make sure that there was a good reason – a PURPOSE, I needed to know there was a context, for doing so.

I won’t take a shot just for the sake of “taking it”. And I definitely would not have gotten out onto that slippery rock unless I knew I could infuse relevance & meaning into the images we would create.

Motivated by Shaune’s capacity to live life on the edge I knew that if we could get the timing right, the shot would be EPIC.

Side note… It is incredibly difficult to communicate with water gushing around you, the sound of the crashing tends to drown everything else – I have overcome this by developing a form of sign and body language – which if any one actually ever caught on video would be totally embarrassing.

Back to my story…

So with two cameras slung across my body, I am miming the physicality of what I wanted Shaune to do, as for this shot to be incredible his body had to match – even over power – the energy of his surroundings.

I watched as the waves hit the rocks as a set of waves came in – I observed the way the bounced from rock to rock, noticing the patterns of splashing and how the water dropped across the space between Shaune and my lens.

After enduring a wave (and getting drenched myself), I could see the pattern – I could see a clear path to his face & still capture the frenetic energy of the waves – and of course avoid the waves that were hitting my perch and soaking me in between.

For me it was critical to coordinate all of these elements -and knowing the wave patterns I was able to cue Shaune so his energy peaked at just the right time to – CLICK – get the shot  – right in the EXACT MOMENT it needed to be

I think you will agree the wait was worth it! I know my client was happy which is ultimately the best result 🙂

As much as getting a “cool shot” is great, when creating images for someone’s personal brand – there really does need to be context so they can actually use the image to attract, advertise, teach, explain or share with their audience – otherwise it is just a waste of time and effort really.

It is so important to me to uncover the personality behind the brand – so when on the shoot and under pressure I can effectively filter between what will produce an average versus an EPIC final image for my client.

Time on a shoot – particularly on location – is precious – so every decision made is crucial to making the most of the opportunity with a photographer.

As far as Shaune’s initial brief – EDGY – check 🙂 

And just a few more from that morning…