Katherine Bignon and I met in 2015, and with her being one of my best friends, she’s been in front of my camera quite a few times. But this time? This was my favorite!! Katherine is a talented stylist and designer- when we first met, she was designing a line of bridal gowns, but since then her business has transitioned to strategic styling for female small business owners. Nine times out of 10, if I’m wearing something especially cute, it’s because Katherine picked it out for me… AND it’s something that’ll stay in my closet for years. Because she SO gets my style.

She offers both pre-shoot wardrobe planning AND on-set styling, which means that I’ve had the chance to work with Katherine in-person on several shoots over the years (like for Julie Paisley and Mary Marantz!). And we’ve been *talking* about shooting a brand session of her own for a year now! As soon as I had the idea of livestreaming a brand session for our Lighting The Brand Session students, she was the FIRST person I called.

That’s a good friend, one who’ll let me record + broadcast her entire shoot :).

I chose the location and intentionally picked out a few poorly-lit corners so that I could break out the off-camera flash and demonstrate for our students in real-time. And dang, was it GOOD- all the photos in the closet? And the ones with the clothes on the bed? Those are lit with flash and flash only, in pitch-black rooms. 

This was such a fun experiment (our students LOVED being able to watch + ask questions in real time), AND we ended the day with a gorgeous collection of photographs for Katherine to use to market her business moving forward!

K, thanks for being up for my harebrained ideas, and for bringing so many ideas of your own to the table. More than anything, thanks for being you. You’re a treasure, and I’m so grateful we sat across from each other at dinner that one night in January 2015. I’m lucky to know you!

Want to see more of my work? Check out the brand photography archives!