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Oct 24, 2022

This week on the Marina Perry Podcast, Marina is joined by Stepha Doyle, an international branding photographer, creative wildcard, content creator, speaker and facilitator. She is also the co-founder of Daydream Dreamday photography and branding studio. Her vision, art, and work centres around self-expression, creativity, aliveness, and humanness.

 

She taught herself photography at age 19 but felt too young and naive to feel confident in it. It wasn’t until she became a blogger and starting Instagramming that she picked the camera back up again. After being asked to take photos for others’ social media profiles is when she really launched herself into photography as a career.

 

The best photos are less about the pose and more about the human connection. It’s the intimacy and vulnerability we see in them. Photos are just another journey to self love because we’re seeing ourselves through a different lens. We start to learn our best angles and poses, and overall start feeling more confident in ourselves. When in doubt, move more, and do what feels natural.

 

There’s such a stigma when it comes to selfies, and despite how commonplace they’ve become, they are still met with judgement. But being unafraid to take your phone out when you’re feeling good and capturing that moment, doesn’t make you conceited. In many ways, it’s empowering and a way to come into your own. We downplay these parts of us and take away this love because there are all these narratives around if we love ourselves too much then we’re not a good person. Meanwhile, there are so many industries that profit off of people not loving themselves. 

 

Nailing the “big selfie energy” comes down to approaching it from a place of neutrality and realising taking a picture doesn’t mean anything. On the technical side, Stepha recommends exploring different lighting like natural and ring lights, and playing with lighting angles. Learning the foundations of photography is great, but don’t be afraid to experiment and break the rules. Don’t take just one or two, either. Sometimes it takes a hundred shots to get the one that looks the best, and not even all of Stepha’s photos are keepers. Understanding what we see online is not a true representation of real life. 

 

Our personality is a large piece of what can build a brand and help people remember us, so creating content that capitalises on who we are on a personal level is so beneficial. We feel safe around what we know, so being imperfect and showing that vulnerability is key to making those connections. 

 

Learn more from Stepha Doyle and listen now!

 

Bio:

Stepha Doyle is an international branding photographer, creative wildcard, content creator, speaker and facilitator. She is also the co-founder of Daydream Dreamday photography + branding studio. 

Her vision, art and work centres around self-expression, creativity, aliveness, and humanness. 

 

Mission/message:

To support people in feeling their aliveness and the liberation of their self-expression through photographic experiences, art and creativity.



What You Will Learn:

 

  1. Background on Stepha Doyle and how she broke into photography.
  2. How to take your selfies to the next level.
  3. Why you should take a humanistic approach to branding. 

 

Additional Links:

instagram.com/stepha_doyle

instagram.com/daydreamdreamday

https://www.stephadoyle.com/photography