A few hours photographing Natasha and her team produced a library of images Empower M365 still uses across its website, blog and LinkedIn, twelve months on.

Introduction

When Empower M365 approached me for photography for its new website and ongoing marketing, they sought more than just standard corporate headshots. As specialists in Microsoft Copilot training, Governance, and adoption, Empower M365 needed a versatile image library for its website, LinkedIn, and regular blog content.


I visited Empower M365’s offices in York and spent a few hours capturing Natasha and her team in action.


A year later, those photographs remain a core part of their brand and marketing content.


The Brief

Empower M365 is a people-focused business. Its work is about helping organisations and their employees understand, adopt and get real value from Microsoft Copilot.


The photography needed to highlight the people driving the business.

Instead of relying on generic stock images for articles and LinkedIn posts, the goal was to create a collection of authentic team photographs that would define the company’s visual identity.


And importantly, we weren’t creating photographs for one particular campaign or one particular post.

We were building a library.

Professional woman with curly hair in white blazer seated at conference table with laptop.
White Power M365 branded coffee mug beside a red-framed smartphone on a light green table.
Modern co-working cafe space with red bar stools, brick wall neon sign reading The Future Is Local, and people collaborating.
Smiling woman with curly hair wearing a burgundy jacket holds a coffee mug indoors near a brick wall.
Four women socializing outdoors on a dock, smiling and holding drinks in a garden setting.
A diverse group of professionals collaborating around a table with laptops in a modern cafe-style meeting space.
Woman in pink wide-leg trousers and floral top holding phone on waterfront boardwalk near historic bridge.
A man presents a digital strategy slide on a projector screen in a modern office meeting room.

Capturing People Doing What They Do

My approach was deliberately simple.

I encouraged the team to work and interact as they naturally do, sometimes gathered around a table in conversation, other times Natasha engaging with team members, or groups chatting informally.


Then I observed and photographed what happened.

No one needed to stage expressions or meticulously pose for the camera. Genuine conversations and interactions provided exactly the moments I was looking for; authentic expressions, gestures, eye contact, laughter, and the subtle details that make photographs of people feel real.

Even when we went outside for some group photographs, the principle remained the same. Rather than arranging everybody into a traditional corporate group pose, I photographed the team standing together, talking and interacting naturally.

This approach defines my brand photography: I’m an observer first, a photographer second.

Give people something real to do and let me capture it.


Building an Image Library

A brand photography shoot shouldn’t just produce a few good photographs.

It should produce useful ones.

During those hours in York, I focused on capturing enough variety to provide Empower M365 with a wide range of options long after the shoot was over.

Different people. Different interactions. Different compositions. Wider environmental photographs and tighter details. Images that could work on a website, alongside a blog article or in a LinkedIn post.

Each photograph is important, but the strength lies in the collection as a whole.

Because once a business has its own library of professional imagery, creating content becomes much easier.

Rather than searching for stock images that only vaguely reflect your brand, you have a collection of photographs featuring your own people, in your own environment, being themselves.

Two women in blue dresses sharing a warm hug indoors, smiling joyfully near a brick wall.
Middle-aged man in navy Lacoste polo shirt gesturing with finger raised, speaking expressively against brick wall backdrop.
Four professionals networking outdoors near a waterfront, engaged in friendly conversation on a bright day.
Two professionals engaged in conversation in a modern brick-walled office space.
Blonde woman in black top and leopard print skirt speaking at an event in a brick-walled room.
Group of professionals having a collaborative meeting around a green table in a modern brick-walled cafe workspace.
Group of six professionals taking a selfie outdoors against a brick wall building on a sunny day.
Group of colleagues having a casual business meeting in a modern office kitchen with blue cabinets.

Twelve Months Later

Perhaps the best measure of the shoot’s value is what happened afterwards.

Nearly a year on, Empower M365 continues to regularly use photographs from that original session.

They appear alongside blog articles and in LinkedIn content from both Natasha and the business.

Everyday posts might use quick phone snaps, but for core business content, Empower M365 uses the professional library. That’s exactly what a good brand image library should do.

The photographs weren’t created for a single day’s marketing; they became an asset the business could continually draw upon.


One Shoot. Many Uses.

Eventually, every image library needs refreshing.

People change. Teams change. Businesses evolve. Services develop. Websites are redesigned. Even a large collection of photographs starts to feel familiar with regular use.

That’s where an ongoing brand photography relationship can make sense.

Rather than waiting until everything feels out of date and starting again, we can periodically add new people, locations, situations and ideas to the existing library.

Empower M365 demonstrates just how much value a well-planned initial shoot can deliver.

A couple of hours spent photographing real people doing what they do created a library of authentic business imagery that was valuable immediately and remains in use twelve months later.


One shoot. A bespoke image library. Content you can return to again and again.

A man in a plaid blazer and woman in a red cardigan walk down stone steps outside a modern building.
Three women engaged in conversation at a modern office workspace with red seating.
A man and woman pose together on an ornate bridge with colorful crests, surrounded by lush green trees.
Two colleagues collaborating on a laptop at a cafe table, smiling and engaged in a productive work discussion.
A woman with curly hair works on a laptop during a meeting in a modern brick-walled office.
A man and woman in smart casual attire walk together along a brick building sidewalk.
Three women collaborating around a laptop in a modern coworking office space with exposed brick walls.
Three professionals networking and smiling in a modern brick-walled office space during a business meeting.
Two women smiling and collaborating on a Lenovo laptop at a wooden desk in a modern brick-walled office.
Professional woman in black jacket sits thoughtfully at a conference table during a business meeting.
Three women collaborate around a laptop in a modern office workspace with a motivational sign on the wall.
Group of professionals having a meeting around a table with a laptop in a colorful office environment.
Black Empower Now branded mug flanked by two notebooks with colorful logos on a white table.
Group of professionals having a collaborative meeting around a green table in a modern co-working space.
A woman with brown hair in a black turtleneck sits thoughtfully in a modern brick-walled office space.

Still working over a year later....

  • A consistent, recognisable visual identity across website, blog and LinkedIn
  • Its own people and environment, not stock imagery
  • No need to source images for every new article
  • Photography that shows a people-focused business as people-focused


It's a joy to see my clients use their images for so many purposes over time. This is what I mean by:

One shoot. A library of images. Months of possibilities.


Need your own library of brand images?

Let's create authentic photography of your people and your business that you can use across your website, LinkedIn and marketing.

Talk to me about your brand photography →


Group of professionals smiling outdoors, featured in Empower M365 LTD LinkedIn page posts about Microsoft Copilot coaching.
LinkedIn profile of Natasha Bradley, Copilot Adoption specialist, showing posts about Copilot coaching for senior leaders.
Senior leaders attend a 1-to-1 Microsoft Copilot coaching session in a modern office meeting room.
Three professional women collaborate around a laptop in a modern office, discussing Microsoft Copilot adoption strategies.
A blog page featuring two articles about Microsoft Copilot AI coaching for business leaders and workplace productivity.