New Year New Headshot!
New Year, New Headshot!
Business Portraits on location by Pete Martin Photography
As with every year, my January is filled with people from all walks of life updating their headshot.. or ‘business portrait’ if you prefer.
The start of a new year is a natural time for reflection and renewal, both personally and professionally. While setting goals and updating strategies often top the list, there’s one crucial element that many professionals overlook: updating their headshot. Here’s why a fresh headshot is a vital investment for your business in the new year.
1. Your Headshot Represents Your Brand
In today’s digital-first world, your headshot is often the first impression you make. Whether it’s on LinkedIn, your company website, or professional directories, your photo is a key part of your personal brand. An outdated headshot can send the wrong message, making you appear less current, approachable, or professional. A new year is the perfect time to ensure your image aligns with the polished, credible persona you want to project.
2. You’ve Changed, and So Should Your Photo
It’s natural to evolve over time, and your headshot should reflect who you are today, not who you were five years ago. Perhaps you’ve adopted a new hairstyle, wear glasses now, or have simply matured in appearance. An up-to-date headshot signals authenticity and allows others to recognize you when meeting in person.
3. Stay Competitive in the Market
In competitive industries, staying relevant is crucial. A fresh, high-quality headshot can set you apart from others in your field. It communicates that you’re proactive, detail-oriented, and invested in your professional image—qualities that clients, partners, and employers value.
4. Celebrate Professional Growth
A new year is a time to acknowledge your achievements and growth. Updating your headshot can symbolize the progress you’ve made in your career and the goals you’re striving toward. It’s a subtle but effective way to mark new beginnings.
5. Consistency Across Platforms
Your headshot should be consistent across all platforms to reinforce your professional identity. If you’ve recently revamped your branding or updated your online presence, a new headshot ensures cohesion across LinkedIn, social media, email signatures, and marketing materials.
Tips for a Great Headshot
Hire a Professional Photographer: They’ll know how to capture your best angles and ensure proper lighting.
Dress the Part: Wear attire that aligns with your industry and the image you want to portray.
Choose the Right Setting: Whether it’s a clean studio background or an on-location shoot, pick a setting that complements your brand.
Be Authentic: A genuine smile and relaxed posture go a long way in making your headshot approachable.
Final Thoughts
Updating your headshot might seem like a small detail, but it’s one that can have a big impact on your professional image. As you step into the new year, take this opportunity to present the best version of yourself to the world. A fresh, modern headshot is more than a picture—it’s a statement of who you are and where you’re headed in your career.
Leicester Law Firm Photographer - Business Portraits & Headshots
Leicester Law Firm Photographer - Business Portraits & Headshots
Professional company photographs taken on location
I’ve been photographing the amazing people over at Johnson Astills Solicitors for two years now. Their finance director introduced me to them as they had expressed an interest in having a branding and marketing refresh.
Johnson Astills are based in the heart of Leicester City, in the Mattioli Woods building at the bottom of New Walk.
My first shoot there was a full day, and we managed to get 75% of the company photographed. I then went in a few months later to capture the rest. JA have a pretty complex but brilliant website where when you click on a persons bio the image then floats above the rest of the site. I really like this design feature, but it means slightly more editing for me.. I have to remove the background from each photo. I visit JA 3-4 times a year now as they seem to be in a constant state of growth taking on new members of staff for all departments.
Take a look at a few of the photos taken over the years
I also capture some team photos for the various departments, Family, Litigation, Crime etc
It’s fair to say we have fun on these shoots!
End Of Year Roundup Pete Martin Photography
Leicester Headshot Photographer Pete Martin 2024 roundup
Professional Corporate and Events Photographer Pete Martin - Leicester
My Best Year Yet
I'm so excited to share that this has been my best year yet as a professional photographer! I've had the opportunity to work on some amazing projects, meet some incredible people, and capture some truly unforgettable moments.
I'm grateful to all of my clients for trusting me with their photography needs. I couldn't have done it without you!
Here are a few highlights from my year:
* Working with the brilliant people over at Miele
* Learning more video and drone skills
* Selling an image to the Daily Telegraph for a1yr usage
I'm so excited to see what next year brings! I can't wait to continue to grow my business and capture even more amazing moments.
Thank you for reading!
Sincerely,
Pete M
Aramas Law Lifestyle & Branding Shoot Manchester
Manchester Law Firm Branding shoot for Vogue Turkey
Environmental & Lifestyle portrait shoot for UK and UAE Family Law Firm Aramas
Samara from Aramas Law in Manchester has become somewhat or a regular client over the last two years. I make the trip up there 2-3 times a year so Samara can update her headshots, get new team members photographed and get some lifestyle/branding shots as well.
This particular shoot in October 2024 was a particularly interesting one, as Samara was being featured in Vogue Magazine Turkey.
We put together a mood board for some shot ideas, and we would be using her office space in Manchester City. I also had the idea of using a side street as it looked interesting and the light was good.
Overall we shot just over 200 images, and I edited 99. Here are a few of my favourites.
And here is the final article, and a hi res version of the shot used in it.
The image used in the article, Vogue Turtey
The Hi Res image
Also on the day we updated Samara’s headshots, all in a 1.5hr shoot.
Office Headshots Leicester Tech Company, Kazzoo IT
Kazoo IT New Office Space Dock 3 Leicester, New Headshots
On location portraits & headshots for IT company.
My good friend Chris Cain from Kazoo IT had recently moved office spaces. He’s moved into the prestigious and new Dock 3 here in Leicester. A dedicated workspace for anything tech related.
Also as the team has grown Chris wanted to get individual headshots and a team shot for marketing purposes.
After looking around the new building and trying few things out, we chose to use the office as a backdrop, I do like this style of headshot as it adds a little more interest rather than a plain grey (or other colour) backdrop.
Would you have headshots taken this way?
Northwood Leicester Estate & Lettings Agent Photoshoot
Leicestershire Lettings and Estate Agents Branding/Lifestyle Photoshoot
Headshots and Environmental Portraits for personal branding & marketing
It was that time again for another photoshoot for Gosia and the fine folk over at Northwood Leicester.
I always look forward to these shoots as every person i’ve met there has been fun, the sessions are always a blast. This was no exception!
Headshots were discussed, but they wanted to get away from the grey background.. so we did a few test shots using the office space as a backdrop, and it looked great!
Katie had also researched a competitor who had some shots done at a local studio, one which I use for certain jobs. Katie then had the idea to use a wall and door in the office for similar shots, we again did a few test shots and they looked great.
The ladies also needed some environmental shots for marketing emails and social media. we ran over a few ideas and quickly got shooting!
The last image to capture was a full team shot.
It was a truly brilliant session, and i love the images produced. I believe they do as well all 4 people there left me Google Reviews!!!!
Take a look at a few of the images below.
Published Leicester Photographer Pete Martin
Published Leicester Photographer Pete Martin - Art Festival Event Photography
One of my favourite jobs of the year is ArtReach’s Journeys International Festival.
Journeys Festival International brings together artists and communities to explore big ideas and create experiences that will excite and entertain. It was first delivered in Leicester in 2013 and since then has hosted regular editions in Manchester and Portsmouth too. With this festival, we create a platform for artists from sanctuary seeking backgrounds, a showcase to share artistic talent, community cultural exchanges and incredible live events.
I’ve been photographing this event since 2021, and every one has been amazing. Such diverse performers and some absolutely moving themes.
In October 2024 the festival returned to Leicester, so armed with my camera and a few lenses I took to the streets for a weekend of event capture.
Over the 2 days I took 2,847 images and covered 48,000 steps!
Here are a couple of images from the weekend.
Here is a link to Journeys Festival. https://artreach.org.uk/journeysfestival/
On a side note, two of my images were featured in ‘Church Times’.
A few days after this was published I was contacted by an editor for the Daily Telegraph. They wanted to purchase a licence to one of the images! The licence was 12 months online and 1 print use in the UK.
So I’m officially a published photographer!
Furnley House Community Champions Awards - Photo & Video
Leicestershire Photographer & videographer Interviews and Events
One part of my work I don’t often speak about is Video, or Videography.
Whilst my passion will always be photography, lots of the same principals apply to videography. Ok, the lighting kit if different, and there is audio to consider.. and the editing is completely different!
But I enjoy it.
A regular client, Furnley House needed some video interviews for their Leicester community champions awards night. Last year I was a finalist in the awards so couldn’t photograph the event. But I did attend the interviews and enjoyed the whole experience.
This year Furnley House wanted a different look to the videos, last year they had vides against a plain wall with people looking into the camera. Absolutly nothing wrong with that, and those videos looked great in my opinion.
As they wanted in different, myself and Charlotte from Cross Productions chose to do an interview style video, which would mean the camera was set to one side and the person who was being interviewed was looking at Charlotte and not the camera.
But I wanted it to be even more different.
So, I set up using Furnley Houses coffee bar as a background, but threw it out of focus. I then added to accent lights to the side of the person with different coloured gels on. I kept the lights in shot and even changed the gels around half was through the day.
Everyone got mic’d up with a wireless radio mic ensuring great audio.
The recording day was a great success, here are two interviews
The following month and it was time fo rhte awards night, which I photographed. This took place at the City Rooms, a notoriously hard place to photograph as its always pretty dark in there at night and the ceilings are high not allowing for great on camera flash techniques.
Here are a few shots from the awards night.
Belmont Hotel Interior Photoshoot
Belmont Hotel Leicester Property Interior Photography Shoot
Commercial photographer Leicester
This was a nice enquiry that came in from a friend of mine who has seen a few of my recent shoots where I’d photographed some commercial places (Miele Stores and Everyone Active Leisure Centres).
I set up an in person meeting with the general manager Robert where he shows me around the two function rooms which were still in a state of refurbishment. I’ve known these rooms for about the last 8yrs as I’ve photographed many a function in them! They were looking a little tired and dated to be fair!
We pencilled in two dates for me to go in and photograph the rooms, one ahead of schedule and one a safe time after the refurbishment would be complete. Luckily the first date was used as all the contractors were ahead of time. And the rooms look amazing!
A local venue stylist was tasked with dressing the room, and she did an amazing job. I shot the main big room first, then the smaller room. While in the small room the bigger room was being turned around from a wedding venue to a business conference type of space… this happed three times so we could capture the room in every way possible.
It’s been great to see the images shared on all of their social media channels, take a look at a few of them below.
Personal Branding Photography - Environmental Portraits
Personal Branding Storytelling Photographer Leicester
Lifestyle & Environmental Portraits
1 year ago I photographed Lauren & Kelly who had recently set up L & K Financial Limited. Both really nice ladies who wanted a couple of headshots and a few shots together for their new website and social media. They had tried another photographer who had sadly got the brief wrong, so I got the call. The brief was text book for me, it was the exact type of headshot I do, even down to the grey background!
On to this year, I get another email saying they have taken on a third member of staff who needed a headshot, but they also wanted some ‘in the office’ types shots as well. You could describe this as a personal branding type shoot as it features the people as they are, showing their fun side.
They found a great location, an estate agents over in Oakham. We were allowed to shoot there for the morning, so we got straight into the team in the office shots. We ventured outside as there was a nice bench area, some brilliant looking black shutters and green area. We also used a couple of area’s inside, the bar being my favourite. Yes, this estate agents have a raised bar area!
Take a look at a few of the shots taken during the morning.
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