Elle Narbrook - Personal Branding Photographer
This Freelance Insights interview features personal branding photographer Elle Narbrook.
I had such a warm, fuzzy feeling after chatting with Elle (L-E) for this interview. She’s a genuinely lovely person who cares about using her business to contribute to causes that matter to her and treating both herself and everyone else with kindness. Even if you hate having your photo taken, I can imagine that a branding photoshoot with Elle would be a positive, enjoyable experience.
But aside from being a personal branding photographer, Elle has an online course that teaches you how to take better photos of yourself for your business. The course provides the technical knowledge to help you to take good portraits of yourself, including the equipment you’ll need, composition rules and working with different types of light. You’ll also learn how to edit your images in a cohesive and consistent way to build your brand visuals. You can read more on Elle’s website.
Elle has a free video tutorial for turning yourself into a GIF for Instagram Stories. I think this has to be the most fun freebie I’ve been able to feature in this series! Get the guide by clicking the button further down this page.
How do you describe what you do for work?
I have two different businesses, so I'm both a personal branding photographer at @ellelorean.co and a family photographer at @ellenarbrook.
The brand work has been my focus over the last year, and within that I help womxn and creativepreneurs show up online, whether that's me taking their pictures or empowering them with the tools and knowledge to do it themselves. More recently I've picked up web design again too.
What's your favourite thing about working freelance?
I enjoy the flexibility. I enjoy the ability to organize my days how I need or want them to be. If I'm having off days or good days, I can work within how I'm feeling. And at the beginning of this year I decided to use my business to support other causes that I care about, so when I launched my online course about DIY personal branding photography I committed to donating a portion of the sales to an animal rescue charity. Being able to do things like that is important for me.
Where do you usually work from?
Lately it's been strictly at my desk at home! Before lockdown, it was very dependent on whether it was a photoshoot day or not. I travel quite a bit to London and Oxford for photoshoots, and my work is starting to take me further afield too.
What does a normal working day look like for you?
If I'm feeling good, I'll usually be up by 7am - mostly because I have dogs jumping on me! I let them out and then dive straight into work on admin, planning, writing, that sort of stuff. If it's a low day then a typical working day doesn't exist. I usually just go out in the garden and read books, or something like that! I have specific days for shooting, specific days for editing, and specific days for admin. A normal working day on a photoshoot day would start the night before, preparing all the equipment. Then on the day I would travel to the shoot location, take the pictures, then come home and back everything up straight away before taking the rest of the day off.
What one tip would you give other freelancers about running a freelance business?
Be kind. You don't know what somebody is going through, so be kind to everybody. And I've already mentioned working based on how you're feeling, and taking the low days as they come by doing whatever feels right for you. If you have the ability to take the day off and not work, be kind to yourself by taking a day off and not working! If that's not an option, find ways to bring in activities or rituals for self-care or self-preservation to keep that energy.
Free resource
Elle has a free video tutorial for turning yourself into a GIF for Instagram Stories! See an example she created of herself and watch the tutorial by clicking the button below.
