Every once in a while you meet a kindred spirit through work. I meet Pia Cato, owner and founder of the Vanilla Pod Bakery in Cheltenham many years ago through working as a wedding photographer on the wedding show circuit and a long friendship blossomed.
I had two briefs from Pia for a series of brand photo shoots. The first being featured here today was an updated collection of images of Pia as the face and founder of the business that could be used across all communications. The second (coming soon) was of the team at the bakery, their incredible skills as bakers, the cakes themselves including the samples sent by post, and a little look behind the scenes.
Here to accompany the first collection of brand images of Pia as an entrepreneur and business founder, in Pia’s own words, is how she found the brand photo shoot session.
“I have known Nikki for years now and she is just amazing.
She is seriously knowledgeable and her images are so beautiful.
I just knew Nikki would be the perfect person to photograph my new team images. 💕”
“I had never hired a professional photographer to take professional images before, I had only used students from the local university. I was always on a budget.
However, this time I knew I needed to invest in some amazing images, my business is in a different place from when I had the last photos taken, and I wanted professional photography to reflect this.”
“I wanted gorgeous images of the team and images of myself.”
“Nikki was just fabulous, the whole team warmed to her straightway. She was brilliant at giving direction and getting the best out of us, especially as none of us are used to having our photographs taking by a professional. I can’t say a particular part of the shoot was my favourite because the whole session was just amazing.”
The collaboration ahead of the shoot on Pinterest and detailed shoot boards gave a really clear direction to the day/s itself . This was something I haven’t even thought of doing before organising at the shoot with Nikki.”
“The key images I wanted were pictures of the team and myself. The reason for this is we didn’t have any of the team and the pictures of me were seriously outdated. People buy from people, so I wanted to make sure I had some images to put on my website and social media of the people behind the business.”
“Go for it! Nikki is so much fun, puts you at ease straight away. Is super organised and guides you through something that is quite daunting when you don’t do it for a living.”
Luxurious bespoke cakes for those extra special celebration, from relaxed yet beautiful wedding cakes to fun filled show stopping celebration cakes. Pia and the Team love to provide a full cake design, tasting and set up service. And they post out delicious cake Tasting Boxes. They can also create corporate gifting cakes.