through my lens: august

Back-to-school is officially here, which somehow means fall photo season is basically five minutes away. Here’s what’s been in front of my camera lately, what I’m booking, and one thing worth knowing before you plan photos this fall.

recently

What I’ve been shooting: medical and beauty brands. I photographed SkinSpirit in Austin recently, and we built the whole library in one shoot - team headshots, treatment photos, interiors, and enough social content to carry them for months. That’s the part most businesses miss: a single well-planned afternoon can cover a website refresh and a season of Instagram at the same time.

I also shot The PostOp Collective in Dallas, a concierge post-op nursing practice founded by two nurses who needed real photos of themselves instead of stock. When a business is built on trust, stock photography actively works against you. People can tell.

And on the real estate side, a group portrait plus matching individual headshots for the women agents of Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s, shot for a Women in Real Estate feature. Eleven agents, one window of time, and every headshot had to look like it belonged to the same set.

If your website or Instagram hasn’t been updated in the last year, consider this your sign.

you might need photos if…

Your headshot is three or more years old. Your website is still using stock images. You’ve hired new employees and their photos don’t match anyone else’s. You’re launching a new business or rebranding an existing one. You’re a realtor using a cropped wedding photo as your profile picture. Your kids have somehow grown six inches since your last family photos. Your senior hasn’t booked pictures yet and it’s already August.

Any of those land? Get in touch and we’ll find a date.

on my calendar

Now booking for fall: fall family sessions, Class of 2027 seniors, realtor branding and headshots, medical and med spa branding, corporate teams, holiday campaigns, and travel sessions.

Two things worth timing correctly. Fall weekends fill first, so if you want November light for Christmas cards, September is when to book it. And Q4 campaign work needs to shoot in September or October to actually be useful by the holidays.

quick tip: one headshot is not a photo library

If you own a business, the most common mistake I see is treating photos as a single deliverable - one headshot, done, back to work for three years.

What you actually need is a set that covers where your images have to live: horizontal images for your website hero and email signature, vertical images for Instagram and Stories, tight headshots for your brokerage profile and Google Business listing, detail and working shots that show what you actually do, and full-length images for listing presentations and print.

One shoot can produce all of it, but only if the shot list is planned that way before we start. If you’re deciding where the money is worth spending, that’s the order I’d spend it in: website hero image, About page, team headshots, Google profile, then social.