Crafting Brand Authenticity: A Deep Dive into the Influence of Commercial Lifestyle Photography

The landscape of marketing and brand representation is constantly evolving, and visual content stands as a powerful tool for creating a lasting impact. Your brand’s digital visuals are the front door into your brand experience, and give your future customers and clients and sneak peek into their experience with you. It’s something I think about with my clients on a daily basis, and I’m feeling chatty today, so let’s chat commercial lifestyle photography and how it has the potential to elevate your brand aesthetics to unprecedented heights.

A Fresh Approach

We are inundated with images, standing out requires a fresh perspective. In order to participate fully in today’s digital consumer culture, you need marketing that spans high end photography and video and candid, user generated (UGC) content. As a commercial lifestyle photographer, I’m thinking about all of the media channels you use (or will use in the near future) when I’m working. It's more than just capturing perfectly crafted moments; it's about infusing your brand with a distinctive and human vibe that sets it apart in the market.

The Captivating Power of Visual Content

Human beings are inherently visual creatures, and the impact of striking visuals on brand perception cannot be overstated. My approach goes beyond the baseline – I aim to create an emotional connection between your brand and your audience. Through carefully curated imagery, we strive to evoke feelings, tell stories, and leave an impression with your customers.

Making a Lasting Impression

In the fast-paced digital age, attention spans are fleeting. To truly make an impact, your brand needs visuals that resonate instantly. In my decade of experience, I’ve learned what images are worth making and how to compose a shot that endures, shaping perceptions and fostering brand loyalty.

Tailoring Aesthetics to Your Brand Essence

One size does not fit all in the world of branding. Our team understands the nuances of your business, and our photography and content is a reflection of that understanding. Whether you're aiming for sleek and modern or warm and inviting, your brand is welcome. My skills and experience build to a place of getting to know your brand, and interpreting it visually.

Beyond the Ordinary: Creating Shareable Content

In the age of social media dominance, shareability is key. Our commercial lifestyle photography doesn't just stop at creating visually appealing content; it's about crafting shareable moments that resonate across platforms. I keep things in mind like taking shots in multiple orientations for optimized usage across all platforms, from Instagram to email. Elevate your social media presence with images that tell a story, engage your audience, and spark conversations. Your photos are delivered in a user-friendly digital gallery with no watermarks. No confusing back and forth.

Ready to Transform?

Talking brand imagery is my favorite, and even more, meeting my clients and building lasting relationships aligns with my highest values. I would love to connect with you about your business. The clients that I work with range from interiors and architecture to small business to Airbnb hosts, to travel and hospitality, to massage therapists and artists and beyond. Reach out by email at emily@emilykeeney.com anytime.

Sézane Seattle Pop-up

September is an exciting month for me, with the whisperings of a new season and seemingly a fresh start (will I ever evade the circularity of the schoolyear?). I tend to stock up on things like socks and notebooks to take me through the next chapter, and seeing the colors change in the trees sends a little charge through me. This season is exceptionally exhilarating, though, with the much-anticipated arrival of the Sézane boutique in Seattle’s University Village. I’ve been a fan of this brand for many years, with their feminine-but-not-too-flouncy tops and dreamy knitwear. Their shoes and bags are effortlessly Parisian with classic silhouettes with just enough of an edge. When I wear Sézane, I feel creative, competent, and beautiful.

Needless to say, when I received an invitation to their grand opening event I immediately opened my calendar app and logged it in. My friend Shay and I headed together the morning of the event greeted by bluebird skies and a sea of flowers outside their front doors: fodder for a bouquet-making station in the new shop.

The store is every bit as cool as you’d expect, furnished with restored vintage pieces and fixtures that make the clothing feel as part of the decor as shoppable real estate. After chatting with the Sézane team about the excitement of their arrival, I selected pieces I’d previously only ever seen on a screen, gathering them into a fitting room for a styling session. I emerged with an Emile Sweater and a long list of wishlist additions.

Take a peek at my visit here:

Letting That Sh*t Go: A Retrospective

Summer has gone on and on here in Seattle (and the SMOKE) but it’s slowly getting better. A few crisp mornings have felt really good and helped ease me into a different mindset. Unpacking a lot of feelings (as one does) about my habits toward work, and also feeling gratitude for the path I’ve taken and the ways in which I’ve evolved over the years. I had a camera roll moment the other day — you know, when you fall backwards in time and it all replays to you in a new and different sense?

I lost my favorite beanie two Christmases ago. We were staying with family in a big cabin near Chelan and I arrived with it and departed without it. I’ve toiled about it for two years, maybe ridiculously so. I got that beanie when Mike and I first arrived in Seattle years ago. We were getting ready to meet my aunt, uncle and cousins at Kalaloch for our first camping trip (together, ever, and first in WA). It was mid-summer, and we Chicagoans figured we’d be fine in whatever tee and shorts we packed. We were WRONG. As we made our way around the peninsula we were frigid. And wet. And a little panicked. We pulled off in a very very remote Goodwill parking lot and ventured forth to get some warmer gear that we’d probably never use again. I pulled the hat off the rack, gave it a sniff (like one does at Goodwill), and bought it for two or three dollars. It didn’t leave my head (sleeping in a beanie will always feel like camping to me) for four days. After that we were bonded.

The earliest photo of my beloved hat.

Flash forward to the two Christmases ago, I was bulging pregnant with my second and devastated at my loss. Every now and then I go back to the many many many photos I have of myself wearing that hat and study its details trying to compare it to the zillions of other gray wool beanies I’ve seen online. Nothing has been just right, even though I’ve made several 85% right purchases.

I fell into one such hole the other night and came across some photos from 2016. I was miserable. I mean, my face was smiling but my eyes told a different story. I felt so lost during that stage of my life. I was working a job that demanded an incredible amount of my energy, and had some very toxic leadership situations. I was also in a life stage where I was expecting my job to save me. I thought my career would make me happy, or that it should. I felt like I was truly failing because I wasn’t thriving and didn’t see a way out. I googled “how to leave retail” in desperate fits feeling utterly deflated that I hadn’t figured it out.

I could go on about the transformation that happened over the next few years, and about how I left that job and started my own business, but that’s another story for another day. It’s relevant to now because I’ve been making shifts and changes in my own business ever since it started. However, sometimes I get stuck in ruts where I believe that the sum of my suffering is the sum of my tenacity, and that seeing through difficult situations is virtuous, even when those difficult situations are probably toxic and detrimental to my wellbeing. I’m telling myself as much as I’m telling you: the suffering doesn’t do shit. No one is rewarding any suffering on my part. As a matter of fact, that kind of suffering out of dedication’s sake is the biggest drain on my productivity and inner creative genius that is desperate to make bold choices and create from passion.

In a rare moment of total clarity the other night as the lead-heavy blanket of anxiety and doubt was starting to settle in for a long winter’s nap I suddenly zoomed 10,000 feet above myself and realized that the suffering I was enduring was optional. And I decided to end the source of it and stop working on that project. Along with any freedom from a decision to stop something professionally as a freelancer comes the equal and opposite panic of the well of income drying up. But then I remember something my grandpa told me years ago as I was starting out. He had his own business for many years and he said, “Once I started I always had work.” And it’s the truth. The work comes, and it always has. Whatever superstition you might be telling yourself about your income situation (and I’m saying this to myself as much as to you"): freaking cut it out. Look at how far you’ve come, the beautiful things you’ve created, the wonderful people you’ve met. If you think the well is running dry look around at all the beautiful proof that you’re being an utter fool and get on with the good work.

One thing I will not let go of: replacing my hat.

I created these photos for Laude the Label on a beautiful October afternoon as I was basking in all of these thoughts. Laude creates beautifully made pieces that transcend trend and give back to the earth and the people who make the garments. Really good for existential pondering, too. :)

Your Fall Everlane Capsule

Something happened yesterday, and all of a sudden I felt like a little fish that was scooped up from one tank and dropped into another. I checked my horoscope to make sure Mercury wasn’t in retrograde (which LOL it begins today), so there’s that. But isn’t it always in retrograde? Aren’t we all always struggling a little in one way or another, even amidst thriving? Fall presents an opportunity to dig into our goals and passions a bit and to redirect the energy we’re spending if needed. A fresh few core wardrobe pieces always helps act as a physical reminder that we are evolving beings and that we can layer on or off elements of ourselves as they’re serving us (or not).

So take a look at this roundup of fall capsule pieces that I think you’ll love, and that I will be styling in a million ways nonstop this fall. Tell me which is your favorite in the comments!

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Clicking the photos will take you directly to the Everlane product page for each item. Thanks to Everlane for our ongoing sponsorship.