Brand Photographer Press Release Example, 3 Easy Wins

Most of these case studies come from emails my readers send me. With their permission, I share them with the names changed. I do this so that others can learn from what worked and what didn't. Have a story of your own? Share it with me.

3client stories published
5local outlets ran them
2shoots booked from the credit

Lucinda Hale’s name showed up in the local paper, in small print under a photo of an old barn.

It said “Photo by Lucinda Hale, Missoula photographer.” That one line brought her new clients.

The story wasn’t about her. It was about a client’s cidery.

This brand photographer press release example shows how she got it there.

Lucinda is a brand photographer in Missoula, Montana.

In four months, three client stories ran in local outlets. Five owners got in touch after seeing her name, and two booked shoots.

She didn’t need a PR firm or a paid news service.

She needed a client list, a calendar and one friendly question.

The problem

For a year, Lucinda had sent releases about her own business. A new studio space, a new package and a small award.

She sent six in total. None ran, and only one editor replied.

Looking back, the replies and the silence told her everything.

“Not for us, thanks”

That was the one reply she got, to her release about a new package. The editor added that the paper didn’t cover service launches.

She had written an ad and called it news.

The release also ran to two pages, with a list of every package and its price.

“Who is this for?”

She asked a friend who worked at a weekly paper to read her award release. The friend asked who in town would care about it.

Lucinda couldn’t answer, which was the answer.

Silence, with no photos attached

Her releases arrived as long PDFs with no photos. Her own work, the thing she was best at, wasn’t even in the email.

Editors had no picture to run, so they had no reason to run the story.

The solution

Lucinda stopped writing about herself. She started writing about her clients’ milestones, with photos ready to use.

She made three changes.

Lead with the client’s news

She looked through her client list for real local news. A cidery had rescued a 1920s barn. An outfitter was turning forty.

A music school had its first student orchestra concert.

Each owner said yes when she asked if they’d like to share it.

She promised each one that nothing would go out without their approval.

Let the owner speak

Every release now had a short quote from the owner, in her own words. Lucinda asked two questions and lightly tidied the answers.

The cidery owner’s line about saving the barn her grandfather drank coffee in became the line every outlet used.

Send a photo pack

She attached three photos to every pitch, a wide shot, people at work and one close detail. Each had a caption and a credit line.

She also pasted the release into the email body, in case nobody opened the attachment.

The process that worked

Lucinda worked through three stories over four months, one at a time.

Each took about two hours of writing and an afternoon of choosing photos.

The cidery

She started with the barn, because it had the strongest picture.

She drafted the six parts using ten press release ideas from clients’ news and sent the draft to the owner.

The owner sent it to the paper’s business editor from her own email. It ran nine days later, with Lucinda’s wide shot across the top.

The outfitter

The outfitter’s fortieth anniversary went to a weekly paper and a local radio station.

The radio host interviewed the owner for five minutes and read out the photo credit.

Lucinda sent the photos at 2,000 pixels wide and offered larger files for print.

The music school

The concert story went to a neighborhood newsletter and the town’s news site.

Both used the photo of a nervous ten-year-old tuning a violin.

She agreed photo rights with each owner in a short email before anything went out.

She kept the wording simple. She also read the SPJ Code of Ethics, which reminded her to keep each story accurate.

That mattered with the music school, where two parents asked that their children not be named.

She left the names out of every caption.

The brand photographer press release example in numbers

After four months, three stories had run across five outlets. Each carried her photo credit.

Five owners contacted her and mentioned seeing her photos in the news.

Two booked shoots, and one asked her to help with a release for its own anniversary.

What we learned from here

This brand photographer press release example shows a simple swap. Your clients’ news gets printed, and yours usually doesn’t.

Lucinda’s old releases were tidy and well written. They just asked editors to care about a business readers had never met.

When she lent her photos to her clients’ stories, both businesses won.

Choice	Ran in the paper	Ran out of steam
Subject	A client’s milestone	Her own new package
Voice	The owner’s quote	Her own sales lines
Photos	Three, with captions and credits	None attached
Sender	The owner, from her email	A studio address editors didn’t know
Format	Release pasted in the email	A long PDF