#326 – How To Plan The Ultimate Yoga Photoshoot

Yoga teachers, this one’s for you!!
Investing in a professional yoga photoshoot is worth it for yoga teachers looking to grow their business. It uplevels your energetic game and shows your commitment to your brand. Having beautiful photographs and a standout brand helps you grow faster and attract your ideal clients. I wish I had done more professional photoshoots at the beginning of my business. Now I do them regularly to keep my branding up to date and have the most variety I can to choose from. In this episode, I’ll give you my best tips on planning the ultimate yoga photoshoot.

I’ll go over why you should:
🔹Create a detailed schedule for the day to maximize your time and efficiency.
🔹Be prepared for things to go wrong and have backup options.
🔹Have someone take behind-the-scenes photos and bring snacks for energy.

And so much more!

📘 Get your free yoga business plan and checklist https://www.brettlarkin.com/businessplan

FREE Practice: How to Awaken your Feminine Energy | EASY KUNDALINI YOGA FOR WOMEN

Relevant Blog: How To Make $5k Per Month As A Yoga Teacher

Relevant to Today’s Episode:
✅ 200-hour Online Yoga Teacher Training
🔮 300-hour Online Yoga Teacher Training

🎧 Also Listen to:
#313 – Social Media as a Vehicle for Your Awakening with Amanda Bucci
#290 – Sequence Better Yoga Classes with Kassandra Reinhardt
#299 – Strategies to Slay Imposter Syndrome and Share Your Gifts

Transcript:

Brett:
Hello, my friends. Today we are here to talk about all things yoga photoshoot. Now the first question is, should you do a yoga photoshoot if you are a yoga teacher? And the answer is absolutely yes. I think so many people fall into the trap of thinking, okay, well, when my yoga business really takes off, then I’ll invest in professional photography or really put some budget towards making everything look amazing on my socials and my website.

And it’s sort of a chicken and an egg problem, right? If you don’t invest that money upfront, you’re going to grow so much more slowly. And there’s so many components to this, you know, making the decision to invest in yourself through a big photo shoot kind of up levels your energetic game and your investment in your yoga business, just you yourself. It’s like when we put money on the line or time or effort or serious, like eggs in the basket of our dreams.

It forces us to play at a newer and higher level. So if investing in a professional photo shoot feels a little bit scary or a little bit like a financial stretch, I would still encourage you to do it because it’s going to force you to think about, okay, well, I’ve invested this now, I’m now playing at a new level, how am I going to get clients? How am I going to create profitability in my business? All things that we can also talk about here.

But I know that my biggest regret, well, I have a couple, but one is not starting my yoga business sooner. And the other would be not taking it seriously sooner. Again, I think I was waiting for the universe to sort of be like, okay, you should definitely do this. It’s all going well. I was looking for those external signs that like, yeah, it’s safe to invest and like really go for it. And I wish I had just gone for it sooner and believed in myself because believe it or not, appearances matter and having things like, beautiful photographs and a brand that really stands out in the marketplace and represents you is going to help you grow so much faster than kind of not taking your business seriously, kind of just having a friend take the photos or, you know, kind of.

Shying away from the spotlight. Again, anything you can do to get started is great, but our topic today is like, if you want to indulge and just go for it and up level your brand with a professional photo shoot, how to get the most out of that process. So I think we’ve covered that this is worth doing. Yes, it’ll feel scary, but most things that help us grow do. So you’re going to do it anyway. And then you’re going to make the most for the dollars you’re spending by following all the tips that I’m about to give you.

So the investment is going to be well worth it because you’re going to get so many photos and you’re going to really maximize your time with the photographer by doing everything that we’re going to talk about next. So yay. So the next step, once you’ve decided, okay, I’m going to do this, I’m going to be a little bit more visible. I’m going to invest and start taking myself as a brand seriously. Your next step is to choose a photographer, which is probably one of the most important steps. And once you find someone you like, you can continue to work with them. You can continue.

can continue to develop a relationship. You’ll feel more and more comfortable at each and every shoot because you know them and they know you. But at the beginning, it can feel overwhelming. And what I have always done is looked for people who do weddings. And I know that sounds weird, but weddings are high stakes events. Usually if someone can do photography for a wedding, they can handle pretty much anything.

The other thing you could look at is a commercial photographer. So someone who is doing spreads for magazines or for example, the person I use, he does the photography for like Seattle ballet. So I know he’s good at movement and I know he’s worked with dancers and that’s obviously a very big, you know, high profile client. He obviously is more expensive than who I initially started with, but.

Just looking on Yelp in your area for people who’ve done weddings or I usually prefer people who’ve done weddings or commercial shoots compared to just like family portraiture because family portraiture is kind of a different ball game. And I feel like, I don’t know, often the photographers aren’t as fantastic. Like weddings again are very high stakes. So they need to be very good at lighting and to be able to deal with a lot of different factors, but people who do portraits or have a studio that is also great. And that’s another thing you’re going to want to be thinking about at this stage when you start looking at who you want to be your photographer is sort of like, what is the vision for your shoot? Are you shooting outside, inside, on location with a seamless, which is like those colored backgrounds that you might see behind people. And if you just want to get a ton of great photos very quickly, like maybe you want to get YouTube thumbnails, which is what I often want to do.

Or you just want to get some great, really professional headshots. I often like to be inside at a studio and working with the seamless because I know I’m going to Photoshop or have those images kind of cut out and be put on YouTube thumbnails or that I can have a designer change the background to fit and match what I need. That being said, being on location, like if you wanted to take some photos in the woods to represent your kind of earthy brand or you’re near the beach and you’re kind of visualizing your website with a lot of photos of you by the water. So you need to have a creative vision at the onset. So I’m kind of skipping to step number two, but step number two, you know, the creative vision and the photographer who you’re going to choose go really hand in hand because people who are great at portraiture and studio work or commercial work that’s in a very controlled environment, like in a studio is completely different from people who.

And that’s kind of more the wedding crew who can like work outside and make sure that everything looks perfect, even though there might be wind and changing sunlight and a lot of different variables.

And when I say, what’s your vision for the shoot? What I’m really saying is like, where are these photos going to go? What are they going to be used for? So for example, I’ve done a photo shoot where I was just focused on getting photos for a particular sales page, like my 200 hour teacher training, kind of like registration page, which I want to look beautiful because I want people to understand what the uplifted brand stands for, how we have these beautiful manuals, how our community is so nurturing.

So I really looked at actually the text that I had on the page. So I actually, you know, obviously I have had a page for a very long time for that training, but you know, I continually revamp it. And so I was looking at the actual text and seeing, okay, like what images would really illustrate what I’m trying to say here, because images are so much more powerful than words. We all know that. And especially in a society right now where we have, you know, less than half a second really to capture someone’s attention, people are scrolling quickly, they’re not necessarily reading. It is the era of powerful images and video. You need to have powerful images and video, probably even almost more important than copy at this point. Copy meaning written text. I don’t think people read long form copy as much as, you know, even two or three years ago.

So are you planning for a photo shoot where you’re getting very specific photos for your website? Let’s say maybe you’re designing a basic website and you want to have like an about me and a kind of page about your program or a page about where they can book a consult call with you. And what are you, what exact image do you want for each of those pages? And do you want the whole site to kind of be cohesive? Like, do you want them all to be shots at the beach, but with you doing different things? Do you want to go into a studio and have,

The cohesion of a backdrop, like maybe a certain color backdrop behind you, like a gray or a brown or a pink, who knows, I don’t know. And then you want to work with maybe different props, like the book of call with you, maybe you’re holding a fun rotary phone, or for the yoga privates page, you have yourself in a couple different poses. And again, what are those poses? Are they more therapeutic? Are you working with props? 

And… on a chair or you teaching people advanced arm balances and inversions, but really thinking through, you know, photos are little energy capsules. Photos are frequency. So you’re thinking about what do I want to, what like messages do I want to encode in this photo to attract my ideal client, which is leading back to all the avatar and ideal client and brand work that we do in 300 YTT.

But start thinking about all of that as you plan your photo shoot. For example, maybe you’re wearing something that has the chakra symbols on it, or you’re going to put chakra tattoos all over your body or some sacred geometry somewhere. Again, that’s going to transmit something energetically and visually to someone that is going to resonate with a certain type of client. Maybe that’s interested in the energy body or the chakras. If that’s not your ideal client and you’re working with people who are maybe older or going through recovering from an illness or potentially suffering the side effects of cancer treatment or whatever. You’d want to have very different types of images, right? Maybe you’d want to have someone doing yoga who is sitting in a chair with an IV and you gently have their hands on them or something like that, which again leads into props. So I want you to start a Google doc with a…

prop list and not I’m not just talking yoga props here. I’m talking about like any kind of props that you might need as you sort of set the vision like, OK, I think I want a photo with me kind of nurturing someone who looks like they’re potentially sick. So do you need some extras in your photo shoot? Do you need to call a favor with your elderly aunt or your grandmother? Or I have also literally cast people from Craigslist who I want a very specific look.

or a certain type of people, person. So you can just post on Craigslist in the gigs section and say, hey, I’m looking for someone to help me out for a couple of hours with this photo shoot. I always pay the person usually, you know, nothing crazy, like a couple of hundred bucks or a hundred bucks. And I always sign, have them sign a waiver. And that waiver is very simple. There’s a simple talent release form you can Google, but it basically just says that I have permission to use the image and whatever I’m paying them is the total compensation that they’re going to receive.

for being in the photo shoot. And again, if you can get friends and family to do this even better, even when I have like a close friend or a close student friend, I still always have them sign the waiver. Even if they’re saying, hey, you don’t have to pay me, I’m happy to do this. I always have them sign the waiver just because I wanna make sure that I’m able to legally use their image.

So at this point, you might potentially have a Pinterest board. You might potentially have kind of the skeleton of your website or sales page built. You have the text figured out and you’re thinking about what images do I want where? Like for example, I remember there was a place in a particular, I think maybe it was the 200 hour sales page where we were talking about how we give you business training and my yoga teacher trainings. We hope you earn money as a yoga teacher. So I was thinking like, what’s an image?

that could exemplify that, right? Is it a yogi? You know, what would be surprising and exciting to the eye and not what someone’s expecting, right? So is it a yogi holding ash? Is it a yogi holding a lotus flower of abundance? Is it coins dripping from the sky? Again, there’s what’s feasible and then what you can actually do. But if you’re planning way in advance, you can get props.

on Amazon, from party stores, Halloween stores, like all sorts of interesting things. And you want to have a couple different options because you never know what’s going to work on set. So if you have a few ideas, and again, with Amazon, it’s pretty easy to return things, probably with a lot of party stores too. Sometimes I bring so much stuff to a photo shoot and I end up not even needing it or not even using it. And then of course, if you want to, you can return it or you can save it for the next photo shoot. Or what usually happens is my kids get obsessed with everything.

and they end up playing with it. Cause it’s just kind of like these weird props. Like I’ve brought a globe. I’ve brought, there’s one photo shoot. Actually these photos are on the YTT 200 sales page where I just wanted us to play with streamers. Like this idea of freedom and liberation, like having those streamers that, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the, what’s it called? Rhythmic gymnastics, or a lot of times they’re working with like ribbons. And I was like, that’s so cool. What if we were playing with these ribbons and yoga poses?

So pulling inspiration from wherever you can, I love pulling inspiration from everything. I love going to museums. I love looking at art. you know, the, the rhythmic gymnastics was, I think something I saw on TV or I think actually I went to a church service and there was someone, it was really cool. They had brought in someone doing these dance with ribbons during one of the songs or one of the prayers and sort of a meditative way. And I was like, this is so cool. So just starting to get really creative, like weeks before you even go into.

the shoot about where are the photos going? Okay, so let’s review. Where are the photos going? What are all the different props you’re gonna need? So making a huge like Google doc. And what I’d usually do is just like write down everything I could imagine. Like I don’t constrain my imagination. Like I wish we could have, you know, coins flowing from the sky and like Lakshmi on a lotus flower and like a life -size lotus flower, right? Like just let it all be on the page.

And then you’re going to start thinking about location, where would it make sense to shoot all of this? And then the who, who am I going to hire for the photo shoot? And then you can go through your Google Doc and a lot of the ideas you might need to eliminate, a lot of the props you may need to alter. It’s like, okay, we can’t get a life -size lotus flower, but here are some like lotus flowers that I could hold in my hand, right? But don’t be boring. Do not be boring because you just can’t in today’s landscape.

the people’s attention spans are too short. So the more that you can do something visually unexpected, like I know I did a shoot also where I cut up a yoga mat. So I wanted to work with a yoga mat that was torn up to kind of get across a kind of like a badass vibe. So I was working with this torn up yoga mat. Like that’s very striking. I’ve never actually seen a photo other than the ones I’ve done of a yoga teacher with a mat that they’ve like torn to shreds and are moving and.

doing things with. And for me, that was a lot about like self -expression and going against the norm and going against the grain. And I was trying to think of like, what would represent that? So the more striking your images can be, the better, the more that they can speak to and attract your ideal client, the better, which is going to mean you might very drastically be changing what pose and, you know, instead of just doing the poses you’re good at and look pretty, all of a sudden you’re thinking about, well, is that going to be intimidating to who I want to serve? You know, what would actually really have them see the image and be able to trust me and my brand and know that I’m the perfect person to help them.

And then you’re going to be doing research in your area and getting quotes from different photographers. And the quotes will vary widely. And one thing to be aware of is a lot of photographers these days, they just charge you a flat rate and then they give you all the digital images like same day. So that is my preference and always bring your computer and an external hard drive to the shoot. So if they are willing to just let you like get their SD card, like all the images the day of.

That’s amazing. Otherwise you’re dealing with galleries and proofs and back and forth. Some photographers just work that way. So you have no choice. But my preference is to work with someone who’s just going to give me all the digital images the day of, because then I have all the images. I can edit whichever I want. I can share them however I want. I don’t have to choose which ones I want to keep and not keep. But some really good photographers don’t work like that. They’re going to charge you for studio time. Like the commercial photographer I work with now, he charges me for studio time.

and 30 images are included in my studio time. And he, you know, it’s a half day minimum. And then I have to pay for each photo on top of that, which means I have to go through very carefully the shoot and select which photos I want to choose to purchase. And he doesn’t give me the raw images. It’s like the opposite of my ideal scenario, but he’s such a good photographer that I choose to work with him and do it anyway. So you just want to be really clear when you’re sending these email inquiries about what you’re actually getting. Are you getting…

all the images? Are you getting a gallery where you have to choose and you can only choose 30 images? Can you pay for more? If so, how much is each photo? I always ask for bulk discounts, right? I think for him, if I want one extra photo, it’s $35. But if I buy at least 20 more photos, I think it’s he does like a deal for me where it’s like $15 a photo, which is a lot cheaper than $35 an image. So just making sure you have all the information about how they work, what their pricing structure is. Are you being charged per image?

or do you just get all the images upfront, is retouching included? Right, a lot of times if they just give you all the images, they’re not necessarily including retouching. So you just wanna be clear and usually they’ll understand this and give you all this information when you ask for a quote and you’ll probably see a huge range. And then you’re gonna have to see what fits with your budget and when are they available, where can they shoot? Are you doing indoor outdoor? Kind of just what’s your vision?

And how much can you realistically get done? Because once you’ve kind of moved through these stages, you’re gonna wanna set a schedule for the day to maximize your time at the photo shoot. But before we get to that, I also just wanna touch on you and what you’re wearing. You want multiple options, multiple outfit options if you are getting.

a bunch of different pictures for different parts of your website or different YouTube thumbnails, you’re probably going to want to change your outfits and you’re going to want to test drive all the outfits. I know for some outfits, I want to wear a bra with certain tops. Other tops, I don’t need to. I need all of that organized ahead of time because otherwise I could end up on set and be like, I need to wear a bra with this and I don’t have a bra or didn’t bring one to the shoot and that would be a huge problem. So,

Test drive all your outfits. You can order stuff. I mean, often I order stuff and then I end up returning things or I order it in a couple colors. So I’m not sure what’s going to look good. And of course, if you can go to an actual store, that’s even better. But you want your wardrobe really prepped and planned with things you feel great in, things you feel confident in, things that again are going to resonate with your ideal client. If you’re working with people.

in a therapeutic setting, you know, do they want to see you with a six pack in like a little sports bra? They might feel more comfortable, you know, with you wearing like a t -shirt or looking more holistic. So just keep that in mind as well, like who you’re working with and what they’re going to be comfortable with and attracted to.

and you’re ordering all of this stuff ahead of time. So over a period of weeks, arriving to your house should be all the props. I like to put them in a box that’s gonna go in my trunk. All your outfits, test it out. I do not use my outfits before the photo shoot. You know, they’re just set aside just for that. So they can’t get ruined. They can’t get dirty. I keep the tags on usually till the last possible minute. Cause again, sometimes I get on set and I don’t even end up using that outfit. And then if I kept the tags on, I can return it.

So in your wardrobe box, you’re gonna have scissors so you can cut off tags and of course a lint roller so you can get rid of lint. You’re gonna have extra underwear, bras, whatever you know is going to work with what you have chosen.

And then you’re going to create a separate Google Doc with your schedule for the day. So now that you know all the shots you want to get, you’re going to put them in what order it makes sense to photograph them in. For example, if you know you want some headshots, which basically just means more portrait photos that are close up of your face, and you definitely want those because if you’ve done 300 teacher training with me, we talk about how you need to show your face very big on your website, even though it’ll feel uncomfortable and weird.

But those headshots might be something you want to do first, like the very first thing in the day, because your hair will be the way you want it, your makeup will be fresh, right? And then if you’re going to go into doing a bunch of yoga poses, or I know I love working with a fan and my hair getting all crazy, right? If I saved my headshots for last, I would look very disheveled. So if you know you want some headshots, you probably want to do those as the very first thing. Then you probably want to do any seated.

poses. So I always divide my shots into are we framed for seated or are we framed for standing? Meaning can we be have a frame close in on me and I’m doing things on the floor, on the ground, lying down poses, things like Sufi grind or cat cow, or are we doing big full body types of postures like triangle pose or warrior two? That’s a completely different framing of the camera. So I divide the day into sections or pieces.

where we are moving through things in an order where the cameraman doesn’t have to reset the lighting and reset the framing. Because you can just imagine how inefficient it would be if we were like, okay, I’m doing a seated pose. Now I’m standing up and doing a standing pose and he has to read and then I’m going back to seated, right? It’d have to change the lighting and change his framing every single time. And it would just waste so much time. So you want to group all the similar types of poses and shots together.

And that’s going to make you so much more efficient. You will literally get quadruple the number of photos or great photos that you would have otherwise.

And don’t forget about product shots. Sometimes not all photographers are willing to do this, but while you’re changing outfits or changing hair and makeup styles, they’ll be willing to just take some pictures of things that you might need photographs of. Like for me, my manuals, all my programs ship with paper manuals. So getting photos of those manuals is really important. So if they can do that while I’m changing outfits, like just grab a couple photos of manuals or I don’t know, maybe my book.

For you, you might have other things. Maybe you just want for your website, like a photo of a journal or a paper and pen or an altar or a candle or something like that. Think about if there’s just easy little product type shots that are of objects that could help your brand and help your website. And then potentially depending who you choose, they could get those images as well.

while you’re changing outfits or at the end of the day or.

other things. So you want to have a very detailed shot list that’s organized in a very particular order.

If you were having other people participate in your shoot, you’d want to have their arrival time in the schedule. You’d want to send them very detailed instructions about where to go and what to do and who to phone and how to find you because a lot of photography studios are hidden away in weird places and where they should park. So you’ll want to put together an email for anyone who’s joining you with everything they need to know.

And then I would highly suggest considering professional hair and makeup. And again, the wedding industry people know how to make everyone look fabulous. So I would suggest a hair and makeup person from that industry. Same thing with the photographer. You’re going to look on Yelp. You’re going to get different quotes. Again, a lot of people who work in the wedding industry love getting work on weekdays. I do all my shoots on weekdays instead of weekends, which is when they’re free.

and often willing to give me cheaper rates because obviously they need those Friday, Saturday, Sundays for wedding work.

I personally always do my own makeup because I’m pretty good at doing my own makeup, but I’m terrible at doing my hair. So that is something I choose to splurge on. And I find that I never regret it. I never regret investing in professional hair for photo shoots and film shoots because it makes everything look so much higher quality. Really, it’s like you can pay for the same film shoot and same photographer.

And if you, or at least for me, like if I don’t have my hair professionally done, it just is not the same. And when it is professionally done, it takes it to that next level. So you probably want to think about what kind of hairstyle you would want. You can go to a salon and just get a blowout. You can get your hair braided or put up and away in some way, which is what I usually prefer if I’m doing yoga. But sometimes I like to work with the fan and blow my hair all around and try to get some movement and…

dynamic, dynamic, dynamicism, is that a word? In the photos and that’s really fun. But again, this is one of those places where you’re gonna be like, eh, like who am I to deserve this? Who am I to, you know, not just invest in a photo shoot, but also maybe some professional hair and makeup. And I’m telling you, this is an investment in your business. You’re gonna feel so confident and fantastic. And if you don’t take some of these leaps, your business,

will not grow as fast, right? This isn’t something you deserve once you’ve made a certain amount of income. This is something that you must invest in. I’m not saying it has to be the first thing you do, but it has to be something that if you’re serious about growing a yoga business, your brand matters. Brand is everything. It literally is. And it’s an energy frequency, your brand. So you want to look the way that you want to be presented. And if you can feel…

more confident and put together, it’s gonna show in every single photo. So again, if you’re just starting out and depending what kind of photo shoot you need, right? Maybe you don’t need this, but it’s something I would absolutely consider. And what I like to do is I like to usually get my hair done in the morning at like nine or 10 a and schedule half -day photo shoots that start at noon. So that way I don’t have to get up at 5 a and I have time to do everything I need to do.

Let’s talk about the day of. So day of shoot has arrived now. I, just like when I’m packing for a trip and you leave your suitcase out for a week beforehand so you can just keep thinking of things to put in, I usually have big boxes or those huge blue Ikea bags and I just start putting everything from my prop list in the bag throughout the week leading up to the shoot. So I’m like, okay, like extension cord, extra hairdryer, Q -tips, like eye makeup remover.

different color yoga mats, all my yoga props, my chargers, my laptop, my, well, I wouldn’t put my laptop in early, but you know, my hard drives, my external hard drives that I might need to get the photos transferred to me. You know, I just start adding things throughout the week. All the props that you ordered, all the outfits, that lint roller, the different undergarments or things that you might need.

And then for me, I actually get all that stuff in my car, you know, 48 to 72 hours prior to the shoot because shoots are stressful and I don’t want the night before to be like up till midnight packing my car. So I’m just gradually packing and putting everything in my car really early. So I’m not stressed the day of. So the day of it’s like, I’m just doing, you know, maybe one more bag into the car of the last minute things.

And then once you get on set, do some test shots. The biggest mistake you can make is just like put on your first outfit and shoot for an hour and assume everything is going well. I like to check in and look at how the photos are looking every 20 frames or so. That means that I’m either going over to the monitor or going over to the camera and kind of seeing how everything looks.

inside the camera or ideally on a monitor. That’s even better if you’re in a studio. So you can make sure this is what I want. And also a lot of times when you see the photos, you get ideas. You’re like, okay, I want to do this again, but just with my arm a different way. Or I want to do this again, but can you get a little closer up on me? Or this outfit is not working. I want to change clothes immediately. So just make sure that you’re very involved and that you…

don’t end up shooting for a long period of time without checking in on how everything is going. That is the biggest biggest mistake.

A couple of bonuses for shoot day. Can you have someone take behind the scenes photos and Instagram content for you throughout the photo shoot? So that’s having an additional person. And again, this could be husband, sister, friend, family member. You do not need them to sign a waiver. They are just usually using your phone. So they’re using your phone to take tons of behind the scenes footage and extra photos as you go, because they might snap some amazing shots as well or get some cool video clips that you can use.

So I have always resisted this, because it’s like, an extra person and an extra person I potentially have to pay or have be there. And it’s so worth it. It is so, so worth it because that person, you can also use them to check off all the shots that you’re getting. So you can also kind of have them be like your assistant in a sense that they’re going to check off, like if you needed to get warrior two and side angle and triangle, or say you needed a bunch of different poses, they can check off all of those for you. I always print out my lists.

Side note that I mentioned printing, I always print my prop list, I always print my shot list. That way the day of the person can be there running around with me, checking everything off. We can do it on a laptop, but it’s really just nice to have stuff printed out because what if you can’t connect to the wifi wherever you are? What if you’re literally in the jungle or a beach, right? So just having those printouts is going to be invaluable. So having kind of a behind the scenes assistant shot list slash Instagram photo person is worth it.

So just do it from day one.

You’re going to get hungry, you’re going to get tired, so make sure you have something nutritious for yourself throughout the day. And if you have other people with you, maybe bring extra snacks for them.

And assume everything that can go wrong will go wrong. I bring so many things to shoots that I end up not needing, but I love feeling prepared. Like assume that something terrible is gonna happen with your hair and you’re gonna need to completely redo it, right? Like I bring a brush. Assume you’re gonna get hit by a wave and half your makeup will get thrown off your face and you’ll need to redo it. I bring, you know, whatever foundation and mascara and touch -ups I might need just in case. Assume your phone is gonna die and not have battery because you’re…

amazing friend slash assistant is doing so many cool behind the scenes photos. Bring an iPhone charger. Maybe you want to bring, I last time I brought, we didn’t use it that much, but I brought like an even an iPhone tripod.

If you do all this prep work, you’re going to have so much fun on shoot day and you’re going to keep checking in with a photographer to make sure that you’re getting exactly what you want. Also to give you ideas of little variations on what you’re doing. If you’re working with a great photographer, they’re going to make you feel comfortable. They’re going to give you ideas of what to do and you want to just change it up, right? Like keep changing your angle slightly or keep changing your arms, right? So if you’re doing triangle pose, like try it with your hand on your shin, then trying it with your hands at prayer, then try it looking up.

then try it looking down, right? Like you never know what’s going to look amazing on camera later. So if you want to binge a couple America’s Next Top Model, which I think is easily streamable on some platform now, but you know how Tyra Banks and that show would always talk about it. You see the girls, like they’re always making these micro movements, right? To get like different angles. Do that, do that. I should watch that myself as a great refresher.

but that’s the vibe. You wanna keep changing little things up, the hands, the gaze, do it with your eyes closed, do it with your eyes open, do it smiling, do it more serene, do it with your hand on your heart, do it with your hands at prayer, do it with your hands on your hips, right? Like just keep changing it to get a bunch of options.

And then you’re not gonna trust your photographer or the assistant or anyone when they’re like, it looks great. You’re actually gonna get up and look and say, hey, can you show me and check in every 20 to 30 frames.

My last golden nugget super tip for you, which I think may be the best of all of them here as we do our grand finale, is that up to this point, I’ve kind of talked about a couple of different Google Docs or documents that you would have lists, right? So your prop list, we talked about all the things that you need. Your shot list, right? The different shots that you want.

Your plan for the day, right? That could be a separate document that’s like 9 a hair, you know, 12 p drive to studio, 1 p sew -in -sew arrives, 2 p shots with us together, 3 p change outfit, get these shots, right? The seated, the standing, the portraits, the other people, like really organizing the flow of the day.

One additional doc that you could have, which is a little bit related to the shot list, but I have started doing this my past couple of shoots and I’m so, so grateful that I have, is actually in the weeks prior to the shoot, screenshotting or finding actual images that are similar to what you want. So I do this a lot for YouTube thumbnails. I look and I try to see what thumbnails.

are really standing out on YouTube, like what positions are other yoga YouTubers using with their bodies in space that look amazing? And then I screenshot all of them and I put them in a huge document so that when I’m on set, I’m never like, hmm, what should I do with my body? I can have my assistant or I can look myself at the computer and just see an idea like, okay, this is cool. She has like her knee down, but she’s kind of in a lunge, but she’s kind of twisted towards the camera. Let me see if I can make that shape as well.

And then what inevitably happens is I make that shape and it’s okay, but being in that shape, I start to put my own spin on it and I start to get excited and inspired. And then I kind of put my arms up or I do something or it just gives me all this additional inspiration so that I’m never ever, ever in front of the camera without an idea of what to do.

This is also so helpful for your photographer because if you can show them like, hey, I’m looking to try to get an image like this or an angle like this from things you’ve screenshot either from magazines, like maybe you want a certain type of headshot and you’ve screenshot someones that look like what you want to get. Or again, I find it really helpful with YouTube because YouTube is so visual. The thumbnail is so important. It’s you know, you can scroll YouTube yourself and be like what positions or body positions are eye catching to me.

A lot of times they’re not even yoga poses or they’re not even things that are comfortable to do or they’re not even things that would ever occur to you to do because they’re like anatomically terrible for you, but they’re amazing photos, right? And they pull the exact person you want in. So having a bank of screenshots and images that you can work from the day of just to get inspiration, right? You kind of start by kind of it’s like Simon says, copying that shape.

But I find every time I do that, it’s like, boom, that it just, it like, I’m able to double click into so many other ideas, just using that as sort of a taking off point. And that is how you’re going to get so much out of the four hours you pay for or whatever it is you pay for, because you’re never going to be stuck, not knowing what to do with your body. You’re going to have an exact plan for the day where you maximize getting all the different types of photos you want, headshots, photos with other people, photos with students, photos alone. And of course, be realistic.

There’s only so much you can do in a half day or a full day shoot. But someone who’s organized like this as compared to someone who is disorganized, you are going to get so much more for your money and your investment if you do everything that I have outlined here.

and just know that you’re worth it. It is safe for you to invest in yourself. It is safe for you to invest in your dream of healing and helping other people. And you are gonna touch and impact so many more people if you have great eye -catching branding.

Take yourself seriously. This is going to help your clients and your students trust you.

An image is worth a thousand words and the right image can literally have someone have an impulse, an energetic attraction to you that makes them decide to buy right then and there.

I hope you have found this information helpful. I would love to hear from you. If you have, you can always find me on Instagram @larkinyogatv.

Send me a direct message and let me know what you think. Practice with me on YouTube, Brett Larkin Yoga, and I’m sending you so much love. From my heart to yours, namaste.

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