This shoot was dear to my heart. My fiancee, Carla, was launching a new blog street style photo blog, Blooming Queens, that focuses on the personal growth process of women with natural hair through storytelling. As soon as she told me the name, we sat down and created concepts based on her vision. Her blog Blooming Queens gave us a lot of visuals to work with including crowns and florals.

Another thing about Carla was that her branding has been strong but somewhat scattered so I wanted to create strong images that encompassed the different faces of her brand (The Human Resources Manager, the model, the natural hair street journalist, the women’s empowerment advocate and so on). The glue to connect everything was that she needed to appear fun, approachable, and smart. She essentially needed photos for her blog, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and FB.

Follow her on Instagram to see more of her work.

Carla's Instagram @bloomingqueensblog

I met Shirley almost a year ago through an amazing makeup artist named Deshawn Hatcher. The timing was perfect. I was refresh off of rebranding my business from beauty and fashion to fashion inspired portraits for everyday women. I also knew that I wanted to do personal branding shoots for creative entrepreneurs. When I first met her and saw her work, I knew that she was someone who saw my vision and could implement it. 

As you see, she is gorgeous so I asked her if she would allow me to photograph her for my new portfolio and she agreed. She did her own makeup, created custom wigs, and styled herself. She is a triple threat. 

Shirley

Follow her on Instagram to see more of her work.

https://www.instagram.com/muashirleynreed/