Curiously Stitched
27 February 2022
When Mel Horton began playing around with embroidery a few years ago, she had no idea her new hobby would lead to a new business creating sell-outs for fans around the world. Curiously Stitched was born.
Brett Robin Wood is a singer/songwriter, coach and facilitator, and founder of Creative Wisdom. Based on the NSW Central Coast, Brett creates acoustic music to gently reflect our humanity back to us and replenish the soul. I’ve followed Brett’s music for a long time, so I was thrilled when he asked me to collaborate on a branding shoot together for his new music and website refresh.
Brett’s a soulful guy, and has a way of seeing everyday moments with fresh eyes and gratitude. He’s also got a great skill of making the profound light and irreverent, and to hold seeming opposites with humour and curiosity. I wanted to bring all of these nuances and qualities into our session.
One of the first, and most important steps in our branding photography session is our pre-shoot consultation. It’s vital for me to understand not only what you offer, but why and how you offer it. While your audience might fall in love with your products and service (what you put out into the world), documenting your inner world (the creative process) brings so much more emotional connection to your offerings.
Where do you find inspiration? What do your creative practices look like? Why do you do the work you do? How do you refine your work? How do you want your clients to feel when they work with or buy from you? What is your environment like? What do you do to fill your cup? All of these details enrich the story we tell in our shoot. Your audience loves to see the soul behind your creations, and to connect with the personal touches in your images.
Once I understand more about your world, we can discuss locations, wardrobe and practical things like the kinds of shots you need. Do you need social content? Are you updating your website? New headshots? From here, the ideas and inspiration for our session begin to take form.
For Brett’s shoot, we split our time between a beautiful music studio and a favourite beach at golden hour, both on the Central Coast. This allowed us to weave together Brett’s places of inspiration (he often receives the beginnings of song walking along the beach) and his process of crafting a piece of music.
The recording studio held so many creative nooks, with soft, warm and moody furnishings contrasting with the sun-bleached exteriors and surrounding land. We were then blessed with crystal clear late-summer skies, perfect temperature and minimal wind as we headed to the beach for golden hour – a photographer’s dream! It allowed us to play with light and shade, moments of mindfulness and moments of expansion.
Brett shared these kind words about his experience working together:
“Emma … has a stunning blend of technical expertise and warm heart, which made for a very effective and enjoyable photo shoot. Not only that, the end to end process, from first conversations, to shoot, to selection process, was so impressively managed. Most importantly, the photos were everything I’d aimed for. Highly recommended.”
Enjoy this peek into the world of Brett Robin Wood
When Mel Horton began playing around with embroidery a few years ago, she had no idea her new hobby would lead to a new business creating sell-outs for fans around the world. Curiously Stitched was born.
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