Carla Watkins Brand Photography - Visual Magic Maker

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Carla Watkins Brand Photography - Visual Magic Maker

✨Spellbinding branding photography for vibrant businesses and their colourful, unconventional owners.✨
Based in Essex, covering the whole of the UK.

Brand & commercial photography for colourful, magical weirdos! Visual magic to help your business stand out. Based in Wivenhoe, covering the whole of the UK.

29/10/2026

Artists are notoriously bad at showing their faces as well as their glorious work. I help fix that - and we get to have fun in the process too!

26/10/2026

When did you last update your brand photos? If you had to think about it, it's probably time.

22/10/2026

If you make or sell physical products, it's incredibly helpful to have photos of your whole process to hand.

Showing the behind the scenes can help to demonstrate how much skill, love and human-ness goes into the product they receive.

And of course there's an opportunity to make all of it personal to you & your brand - Artist Philly here uses all sustainable, recyclable materials in her framing and packing of her artwork, prints and cards, which fits with her brand values and those of her clients too.

19/10/2026

If you're nervous about what you'll look like on camera, don't be!

I'll stop frequently during your shoot to show you what I'm capturing on the back of my camera. The screen's not fabulous and of course they're not the final edited shots, but they'll give you a general feel for what's happening.

More importantly, this is part of the co-creation process - because these are your photos! So we can look at what we've got, tweak our setup or poses or outfits accordingly, and you're much more likely to come away with a set of photos which you'll actually use.

15/10/2026

We live in a world where remote working is normal and physical location doesn't actually make that much difference to the viability of many businesses and services.

But who you are is important whether your clients are hyper-local or all over the world, and if you love where you live it's always lovely to bring that connection into your brand photo library.

You never know who it might pull into your world!

This is Annastasia of Making Words Work, who has clients all over the country but is very firmly anchored in Colchester, so we made sure to get some shots of her with the iconic Jumbo in the background. They fit the rest of her photos, and have the bonus effect of being instantly recognisable to anyone else with a connection to Colchester!

12/10/2026

Anyone else's tools have personalities? My cameras are technically the same - both the same make and model, similar age, same cards & lenses used across both.

But MAN, one of them is more of a diva than the other! Hence the colour coded straps so I know which one is which.

08/10/2026

There are some things in every business that can't be described just with words - you really do need photos too.

I think Kitti at The Art House is probably the best example I've ever had of this. You can say "she creates colourful hair" or describe her as a "hair magician" or even that she "specialises in vivid colour", but while those words are all accurate, nothing really sums it up like her process and end result brand shots!

(yes, she's been responsible for all my full head colours to date, yes, she is dangerous in the best way and yes, she is totally worth it!)

Want to make some photo magic for your own business? Give me a shout!

05/10/2026

Most of my clients are multipods, whether that's having more than one business, or multiple passions in business and life.

And have you ever met a woman who *isn't* juggling multiple things on a daily basis?!

My brand shoots start with an in depth planning process, to work out what you want to show, what your most ideal clients need to see, and what makes you feel most like you.

All these things draw your ideal client in, but the magical connection which makes them know you are the obvious choice often comes from the most unexpected places, and the things outside of your actual service.

I'm here to help with that too, and we figure out together how you show up in your brand photos before I ever pick up a camera.

This is the excellent business coach Sarah Yandell playing piano in her beautiful home. Nothing to do with her business, everything to do with who she is as a human!

03/10/2026

Hiiiii! Figured it was time for a reintroduction - I'm Carla, hello!

Looking at my grid you'd be forgiven for wondering what it is I actually do - I'm a photographer, split between brand and fantasy with increasing crossover as more people realise that the best way to connect with your ideal clients is to be 3000% yourself (and let me photograph exactly that).

While I am indeed magic with a camera, my superpower is people - and making you feel comfortable and relaxed, which is how I get the shots I do.

I have been doing this full time for the past 8 years, and alongside a job for a good few before that, and I am spectacularly good at creating epic photos for your marketing and then absolutely failing at updating my own social media because I am waaaaay too absorbed in my magical offline world. (which I write about over on Substack, because blogging is a habit I've had since 2004 so am unlikely to break it now!).

I have a studio & office in Wivenhoe, an accidental life size carousel horse, a whole roster of niche hobbies, and some joint ventures I'll talk about in other posts. Plus two silly kittens, ADHD (to absolutely no one's surprise), a camper car and a tendency to dress for colourful, magical quests rather than for any form of practicality or real life.

And an absolutely ridiculous back catalogue of wonderful clients and personal work I have never got round to sharing properly.

In theory, brand photography & businessy stuff lives Carla Watkins Brand Photography - Visual Magic Maker, fantasy, mermaids & magic on Carla Watkins Photography and everything else on Colourful Magical Weirdo so you can follow each/all depending on what you want to see more of.

So here goes - challenging self to actually post on the actual internet about my actual work. Reminders happily accepted if they come with hot chocolate and a chat!

(Photo is a selfie in the studio office today because otherwise I will never actually post this...)

01/09/2026

Quick fire questions - camera systems!

I love my Sony cameras but couldn't bear to switch all my most beloved lenses when I changed systems, so I use a Sigma converter and kept them all.

Address

Colchester

Website

https://carlawatkins.com/

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