Use the power of pictures to tell your story

I love photographing people who come to me and ask for "more than just a headshot." They have realised the power of images to promote themselves, their brand and their story.

Sarah Pickles wanted to go one big step further and write her story about fighting stage three breast cancer  and as part of that process she wanted images that would show her personality and most importantly, inspire others to fight too.

Sarah's sense of style - fashion and beauty - are also key to her brand and how she promotes her beauty school and it was essential that the photographs captured that too.

The beautiful vintage decor at Violet's Vintage Teas

It was obvious from the start that we needed a unique venue for the shoot, somewhere with a strong authentic vintage look and we were very lucky to be able to use a beautiful private home that is the secret location for Violet's Vintage Teas. Aside from providing the perfect location for the shoot, it gave us our theme of a vintage afternoon tea (and of course cream cake and cups of tea to keep us going!)

Cake home made by Violet's Vintage Teas

It can be quite hard to be in front of the lens but Sarah was a natural and we also found that it helped to role play! I think we probably got a bit carried away with pretending that Sarah was a high society lady telling me all the gossip (made up of course!). Here are some of my favourite shots from the shoot.

This lovely photograph (below) is Sarah's official headshot and has been used on the front of Vita magazine - the national magazine for breast cancer care and is also on the back of Sarah's book.

CREDITS: Sarah's book "The Shock Factor - Sarah's Story: beating breast cancer one day at a time" is out now and available from Amazon. I love that a very good mutual friend of ours was editor, proof reader  and mentor to Sarah on this book: Sian-Elin Flint-Freel. Huge thanks also to Violet's Vintage Teas for opening up their beautiful home to us.