Your Phone Photos Are Costing You Money (And Other Things Creatives Don’t Want to Hear)
Look, I get it. You’re a creative. You already know how important visuals are. You spent three hours yesterday perfecting the kerning on a client presentation. You color-coded your entire workspace. Your Instagram aesthetic is chef’s kiss.
So why are you still using that blurry selfie from 2019 on your website?
The Uncomfortable Truth About Being Creative
Here’s the thing about being in a creative field: everyone assumes you already have your visual brand sorted out. Designers are supposed to have killer portfolios. Stylists should look effortlessly put together. Artists need to radiate that mysterious creative genius energy.
But here’s what actually happens: You’re so busy creating amazing work for everyone else that you forget to create anything for yourself. Your portfolio is a random collection of projects. Your headshot is whatever your friend took at that one networking event. And your “brand photography”? Ha. That’s the screenshot of you presenting at a conference, slightly blurred because Zoom quality, circa 2021.
Meanwhile, your competitors (you know, the ones with half your talent) are out here looking like they stepped out of a magazine spread.
“75% of potential clients rely on your photos to make decisions.
Your bathroom mirror selfie isn’t exactly working overtime for you.”
The Math Nobody Talks About
A Shopify study found that professional photos increase conversion rates by 33%. Let me translate that into creative language: if ten people land on your website right now, only three of them stick around long enough to actually consider working with you. Get professional brand photography, and suddenly five of them are interested.
That’s not magic. That’s just humans being visual creatures who make snap judgments. We’re all guilty of it. You’ve definitely closed a tab the second you saw Comic Sans, right? Same energy.
The photography services market hit $60.6 billion in 2025 for a reason. Not because people are vain (okay, maybe a little), but because visuals do the heavy lifting before you say a single word. When 75% of potential clients rely on your photos to make purchasing decisions, that bathroom mirror selfie isn’t exactly working overtime for you.
What Brand Photography Actually Means (It’s Not What You Think)
Forget everything you know about stiff corporate headshots. Brand photography for creatives is about showing people what it’s like inside your brain. The chaos. The inspiration. The weird collections of vintage cameras or paint brushes or fabric swatches that somehow all makes sense together.
It’s you sketching in a notebook at a coffee shop. It’s your hands arranging a mood board. It’s the way you squint at a color palette trying to decide between “barely beige” and “whisper taupe” (they’re the same, don’t @ me). It’s you in your element, doing the thing you’re actually good at.
Not you awkwardly holding a coffee mug and pretending to laugh at your laptop.
The Austin Brand Photography Shot List Nobody’s Using Yet
Forget Lady Bird Lake. Everyone and their literal grandmother has photos there. Austin has way better spots that actually show personality.
The Central Library (yes, inside) Specifically the rooftop reading porch. Natural light, architectural lines, unexpected. Shoot you reading design books, sketching against the glass walls, or just existing in that space like you own it. Libraries scream “thoughtful creative who actually does research.”
The Contemporary Austin at Laguna Gloria The sculpture garden is art director heaven. Bronze sculptures, winding paths, that weird tension between nature and intentional design. Get shots of you studying the installations like you’re solving a creative problem (because you are).
East 6th Street Murals (but not the ones everyone uses) Skip the “I love you so much” wall. Hit the alley behind Cosmic Coffee. The mural game changes monthly, and right now there’s this incredible abstract piece that looks like someone spilled a design degree. Stand against it. Let it clash with your outfit. Make it weird.
The Carpenter Hotel Lobby Mid-century modern meets Texas weird. Velvet chairs, terrazzo floors, that inexplicable taxidermy. Book a coffee meeting (or pretend to) and shoot you in the creative chaos of a working session. Laptop out, sketchbook open, looking like you accidentally wandered into a Wes Anderson film.
Fareground at One Eleven (off-hours) The food hall design is low key stunning. All that steel and concrete and Edison bulbs. Go at 2pm when it’s quiet. Shoot at the communal tables, against the garage doors, near the neon signage. Urban, industrial, the kind of space where ideas happen.
Your actual workspace (but styled) Plot twist: your messy desk is content gold. The half-finished projects, the inspiration wall covered in tear sheets and Pantone swatches, the organized chaos that only makes sense to you. This is the shot that makes people say “oh, they’re the real deal.”
The Shot List That Actually Works
Wide shots: You in your workspace doing real work (no fake typing, please) You presenting to a client or collaborator You surrounded by your tools/materials/equipment
Medium shots: You sketching, designing, arranging, creating You reviewing work with that focused face you make You in conversation (ideally with an actual collaborator, not pretending)
Detail shots: Your hands working (this is crucial) Your tools laid out like a surgical tray Your inspiration boards, mood boards, material samples The coffee cup that’s permanently attached to your hand
Environmental portraits: You in unexpected Austin locations that match your energy You in motion (walking through your favorite supply store, browsing a bookshop, doing the things you actually do) You interacting with architecture or art (leaning against a wall counts)
The “proof you’re human” shot: You laughing at something genuinely funny (not the fake “ha ha business person” laugh) You concentrating so hard you forgot the camera exists You doing that thing you do when you’re solving a creative problem
Why This Actually Matters
The global photography market is projected to hit $161.8 billion by 2030. That growth isn’t happening because we’re all getting more narcissistic (jury’s still out on that one). It’s because the businesses that look like they have their act together are the ones getting hired.
You could be the most talented designer/stylist/creative director in Austin, but if your visual presence screams “I threw this together in ten minutes,” potential clients assume that’s how you approach all your work.
Fair? Absolutely not. True? Unfortunately, yes.
The Part Where I Tell You What To Do
Stop pretending you’ll “get around to it eventually.” Your business deserves better than iPhone photos and good intentions. Block off three hours on your calendar. Find a photographer who gets that you’re not a boring corporate client. Make a shot list that actually shows what you do.
And for the love of design, please stop using that photo from 2019.
Your future clients are googling you right now. What are they seeing?
Ready to Build Your Brand Photography Content Library?
Start with a free 20-minute Brand Clarity Call. I’ll review your current visuals, ask about your business goals, and show you exactly what a strategic brand session would look like for you. No pitch. No pressure. Just honest, expert guidance.