by Yasmin Bruce | May 13, 2025 | Featured, Headshots, Personal Branding
When it comes to professional photography for your business, it’s easy to assume that a headshot will check all the boxes. While professional headshots are the essential first step in photography for entrepreneurs and small-business owners building a brand, they can only capture a fraction of what makes you and your business unique. They are not always enough to tell the full story of your brand and that’s where branding photography comes in.
Professional Headshots are perfect when simple is what you’re looking for, but Branding Photography is there for when your brand needs a little more.
What are Professional Headshots?
A professional headshot is a polished portrait that generally captures you from the shoulders or waist up. Its primary goal is to present you as confident, professional, and approachable. Headshots are commonly used for LinkedIn profiles, business cards, company websites, and speaking engagements. If you don’t have a set of headshots, you’ll likely run into a stumbling block when the time comes that you need them.
Professional Headshots are ideal for anyone who:
- Is a small-business owner who doesn’t have a set of headshots yet, or has outdated headshots.
- Uses LinkedIn and needs to update their profile picture
- Needs a professional portrait for their resume
- Has to provide a headshot to their employer
- Needs a portrait for a speaker biography or a one-pager
Key Features:
- Usually close-up or waist-up framing
- Neutral backgrounds at one location, with three outfits for versatility
- They have a professional feel and are versatile for business needs
Professional headshots are perfect when you need a clean, consistent image that communicates your credibility. They’re a budget-friendly option when your visual presence is limited or when you’re part of a larger organization where consistency across team portraits is important.
What is Branding Photography?
Branding photography builds on the foundation of a headshot, but adds depth, personality, and context. It includes a variety of branding images that help your audience connect with your work, values, and visual style. These sessions are ideal for entrepreneurs, coaches, realtors, creatives, and small-business owners who want to show up consistently across their website, marketing materials, and social media.
Branding Photography is ideal for anyone who:
- Is an entrepreneur, small-business owner, coach, creative, realtor, or anyone who wants to bring their brand to life
- Needs a collection of images to use across their marketing (think website banners, blog posts and email newsletters etc.)
- Is looking for branded images that they can use for an extended time (our Branding Experience session will give you enough content for a whole year!)
Key Features:
- A variety of settings and wardrobe changes
- Locations that help bring out the personality of your brand
- Lifestyle portraits that show your process and work environment
- Branding images that reflect your values, personality, and client experience
- Social media-ready content designed to help you show up consistently online
With branding photography, your portraits show you in your best light while also highlighting how you work, how clients experience your services, where you work, and what sets your business apart. These portraits give you a collection of marketing images you can use across every part of your online presence.
Whether your style is more corporate or colorful, our professional headshots and branding photography will help you show it.
When to choose a Branding Session over Professional Headshots
Professional headshots serve a purpose, but for small-business owners, headshots are not always enough for what you need. Your audience wants to get a sense of who you are, how you work, and what they can expect from you. If you don’t have images that portray that as yet, or you find yourself using the same couple of images every time, it’s time to book a branding session. Remember: a well-rounded collection of branding images helps you connect, build trust, and attract the right clients.
Our branding sessions go beyond just taking beautiful images (though we’ll do that, too!). We help you select outfits, locations, and props that feel natural and on-brand. From the planning stage to your portrait session through to editing and final image delivery, our process is built to help you show up confidently online. Whether your brand is colorful and fun, or more refined and professional, we’ll create images that feel true to you.
Branding sessions give you the content you need to:
- Keep your website and marketing fresh
- Maintain consistency across all your platforms
- Support launches, promotions, or events
- Create evergreen content for blogs and social posts
- Showcase the personality behind your brand
- Stand out against competitors in your industry
A headshot may introduce you to your audience. Personal branding photography helps them remember you. People connect with people, and when they can see your values, your energy, and your professionalism in a portrait, they are more likely to engage.
Which One Do You Need?
If your only goal is a few professional portraits for your resume or company website, a headshot session is a smart choice. But if you’re launching a business, updating your site, or working to grow your personal brand, investing in branding photography gives you the variety and flexibility to keep your content engaging and relevant.
Be You, With Us
At Teresa Porter Photography, we offer both professional headshots and branding photography sessions, and we’ll help you choose which is right for you. Whether you’re starting a new job, refreshing your LinkedIn profile or building a stunning collection of website branding images and content for social media, we’ll tailor your session to your goals and help you achieve them.
by Yasmin Bruce | May 6, 2025 | Featured, Headshots, Personal Branding
Meet our friend, Dr. Amy Earwood. When Earwood Dentistry realized that they needed to update their team headshots and corporate branding photography, Amy reached out to us. Amy wanted a refined-yet-approachable feel to their office’s corporate team photography and employee headshots that reflected the heart of their practice in Raleigh, NC: friendly, down-to-earth, and patient-focused.
We know that when you run a business, first impressions matter. But this is even more true when your clients are patients, who are looking for a medical provider that they feel comfortable with. Patients want to feel welcomed, at ease, and cared for – so communicating that feeling effectively in team headshots and branding photography is an essential part of the process. Uniquely, team branding portraits can make the difference of a patient feeling like they speaking to a stranger, and a patient speaking to someone they have already seen online, on your website, for example. In this way, team photography helps to build connection and trust long before your patient, or client, meets you in real life.
From team headshots to branding for Dr. Earwood and Dr. Garcia and environmental images of their practice, we captured it all at their office in Raleigh, NC.
A Personalized Approach for a Busy Practice
Tasked with team headshots for 14 people, we knew that flexibility was key. Our role included making every image reflect each employee, as well as their team and business as a whole. We worked closely with Earwood Dentistry to ensure the smoothest experience, and as we would be taking images of their facility in Raleigh, we worked around their patient schedule, finding a time that didn’t disrupt their day-to-day operations so that we could bring our studio to their office. Our careful planning allowed us to capture the entire team in a way that didn’t compromise their commitment to patient care or impact their busy schedules, but still resulted in authentic, beautiful team photography.
Team Headshots and Branding Portraits
Our goal for this session was to create a collection of team headshots that represented the family atmosphere at Earwood Dentistry. We began with individual employee headshots, focusing on expressions that felt natural, warm, approachable, and true to their personalities, while also creating brand uniformity. These weren’t stiff, corporate portraits but authentic, polished images designed to make patients feel at ease when they visited the website or walked through the door.
For Amy and her colleague, Dr. Garcia, the two dentists at the practice, we focused on personal branding portraits that captured them in action with patients (where consent had been given ahead of time) so that future patients could know what to expect from their appointment. We created a collection of branding images that balanced their expertise with relatability, and that demystified the experience from the patient perspective. Their corporate branding photography now gives them a consistent and completely branded presence across their website and social media, which showcases how they help and care for their patients.
To round out the session, we documented the team in action, capturing candid moments that highlight the collaborative, friendly energy that defines Earwood Dentistry. From welcoming patients at the front desk to working together behind the scenes, these images offer a true-to-life glimpse into what it’s like to be cared for by the Earwood Dentistry team. We also took environmental portraits featuring the bright and inviting office atmosphere, so that patients can get a feel for the space before they even arrive.
With classic headshots that gave a consistent brand look, to branding images of the staff in action, Earwood Dentristy now has a variety of branding images that they can use on their website, social media and across their marketing.
A Lasting First Impression
We collaborated with Earwood Dentistry to create team headshots and overall branding portraits that leave them with everything they need to elevate their online presence. Whether they need images to go alongside team biographies on their website to photography for social media and printed materials, they now have a versatile collection of portraits that can be used wherever the need is and that reflect the compassionate, family-friendly care they’re known for in the Raleigh area.
Be You, With Us
At Teresa Porter Photography, we get to the heart of what your business is about. We take the time to consult with you about what it is that you want to represent and then create it in beautiful branding portraits and team headshots. We especially know how important it is for medical, dental and therapeutic practices to feel approachable and trustworthy from the very first glance and that’s why we offer team headshots and corporate team photography designed to represent your brand ethos, while fitting in with your schedule.
Ready to refresh your organization’s online presence? Get it in touch today.
by Yasmin Bruce | Apr 29, 2025 | Featured, Headshots
When was the last time you updated your executive headshots? If the current version of yourself that you’re putting out into the world is more than a year or two old, there’s a good chance it no longer truly represents who you are today. Your professional headshots often form the very first impression you make; on LinkedIn, your website, or professional platforms, and it should be updated frequently to represent you as you grow, both personally and professionally.
If your professional headshots no longer looks like you, it’s time for a refresh.
Why It Matters to Stay Current
Executive headshots are an essential for every professional and small business owner, because they are a tool for the message you are communicating, not just putting a face to your name or your brand. Instead, they visually convey your professionalism and approachability. Let’s face it, most of the time, clients will want to understand who you are, what you do and get to know more about you before reaching out, so that they get a sense of trustworthiness, and an outdated headshot does the very opposite of that. If your headshot is outdated, it might unintentionally signal that you’re not keeping up with your industry or personal brand, or that you don’t value it. From business owners to realtors, coaches to consultants, and every professional employee, an up-to-date headshot builds trust and ensures that your online presence aligns with your current professional identity.
Think about it this way – if someone meets you in person after seeing an old headshot, would they recognize you? Updating your executive headshots ensures consistency across platforms and real-life interactions, making networking and client interactions smoother and infinitely more authentic.
Signs It’s Time for a Refresh
- You Look Different: Whether you have changed your hairstyle or color, switched to contact lenses or eyeglasses, or modified your style, your professional headshot should reflect how you currently present yourself.
- Career Changes: If you’ve transitioned to a new role, industry, or recently launched a business, your headshots should match your updated brand.
- Outdated Style: Photography trends evolve. An old headshot might have lighting, backgrounds, or poses that no longer feel modern or professional, and most importantly, not like ‘you’.
Be You, With Us
From our design consultations where we help you choose what to wear for your executive headshot session, to expertly coaching you on the perfect poses and capturing images that feel like ‘you’, at Teresa Porter Photography, we make the process stress-free and enjoyable. Whether you’re a small-business owner, or an employee that wants to polish their look, we’ll create executive headshots that make you feel confident and ready to seize your next opportunity.
by Yasmin Bruce | Apr 22, 2025 | Featured, Headshots
Meet our friend, Dr. Carrie Wells. For many of us, just the thought of getting professional headshots done can feel daunting, let alone actually reaching out to book them in. It’s not just about looking the part on the day, but the apprehension of feeling comfortable in front of the camera. Surely we all have felt anxious about being photographed at some point, right? It was an honor to photograph Carrie, a Raleigh-based physician, and to see her relax into her executive headshots session. Carrie describes how she felt about her headshots and the whole process with Teresa Porter Photography:
“I had put off headshots for about five years past when I needed them,” Carrie shared. Despite knowing she wanted updated portraits for her professional platforms, the idea of being photographed felt overwhelming. In fact, the morning of her scheduled session, she came close to canceling altogether.
We loved capturing Carrie’s genuine smile and personality as she relaxed into her professional headshots session.
From Anxiety into Confidence
At Teresa Porter Photography, we know how nerve-wracking it can be to step in front of the camera. That’s why focus not just on the final collection of portraits, but on making the entire experience feel easy, approachable, and—dare we say it—enjoyable.
From the moment Carrie arrived, our priority was to put her at ease and take the formality out of the session. We wanted Carrie to feel relaxed and at home. We guided her through every step, from posing to expression coaching, ensuring that she never felt unsure of what to do next or awkward. From our smooth processes to Teresa’s daily dose of humor, we create an environment where you can feel like your best self and ultimately, professional headshots that you will be proud of.
More Than Just a Headshot
Carrie’s goal was simple: find one image she could tolerate for a LinkedIn headshot and her professional platforms. What she didn’t expect was to walk away with something entirely different.
“It never occurred to me I’d actually LIKE any,” she admitted. “But I tell you what, that Teresa is a magician. Because when it was all said and done, I bought five pictures. FIVE. Of myself. With none of my kids in them. If you had told me beforehand that that would’ve happened, I would’ve laughed and called you a liar.”
From our bright office set-up to darker backdrops and classic settings with a cozy touch, Carrie glowed in her professional headshots at our studio in Downtown Cary.
Seeing the Beauty in Yourself
Carrie’s final collection of portraits didn’t just meet her expectations, we are honored to say that they transformed how she saw herself. Carrie was left with headshots that told her story, reflected her warmth, professionalism, and confidence, while feeling classic and fitting for professional headshots.
For us, that’s what it’s all about. Whether you love being in front of the camera or, like Carrie, might totally avoid it, our job is to make sure you leave with gorgeous portraits, and an experience that you deserve. Your headshot session should feel positive, empowering and help you see your beauty.
Be You, With Us
At Teresa Porter Photography, we specialize in executive headshots designed for real people who deserve portraits they can feel proud of. Whether you’re a seasoned pro when it comes to professional headshots or you haven’t ever had your portraits done, we’re here to make it easy and we’ll hold your hand every step of the way.
Ready to update your headshots without the stress? Get it in touch today.
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