Personal Branding Photos for Monica “Tyler Moore” of NYC

After shooting Monica Liang-Allen’s personal branding photos, we can’t help but think of her as the Monica Tyler Moore of NYC. After reading this post (and viewing this awesome retro vid), you’ll see why.

Monica and I got to know each other through our posts on LinkedIn. Insta-connect!  Food? Yes. NYC? Yes. Art, music, networking? Yes!

Then she asked if we’d shoot her personal branding photos.

Ummm, yes!!! 

We spent some time discussing what she wanted to portray — personality traits, professional imagery, and more — and how she planned to use her personal branding photos.  This is a really critical step if you don’t want to get the same ol’, same ol’ cookiecutter images that so many people end up with. And it’s a step that we try never to skip. It’s one of the things that sets us apart from other photographers out there.

We brainstormed a little, and I came back to Monica with some ideas.  You know, places around the city, a combo of studio and environmental portraits, etc. She’s an insurance professional with World Insurance, and the city is absolutely central to what she does for a living.

Traveling to her clients and prospects in NYC, Monica is downtown, uptown, midtown. She’s on the train, in a restaurant, traipsing through a NYC iconic building, looking up at all the things that … well, that we ALL look up at in NYC. I feel like Dr. Seuss would’ve been handy here — she’s on a train, she’s on our brain, she’s eating food, she’s doing good.

But I digress.

What did we want to capture in Monica’s personal branding photos?

How ever-present she is in the city. How busy she is. How efficient she is. A sense of her impeccable style. Her consummate professionalism. 

We wanted to provide a sense of the urban landscape in which she works. Capture her in consultation with her clients. Show her traveling on the MTA.

And always with that warm smile on her face (set off by her own red lipstick) and that phone in her hands.

We started at our studio in Chelsea. Tiagi, one of our favorite makeup artists, met us there. I brought coffees for all, and we got down to work. First some traditional headshots, then we cabbed over to the Flatiron District for some urban shots.

We easily were able to achieve a few different looks by simply putting on and taking off a jacket and a scarf. It was freakin’ freezing out there on the day of the shoot, but she handled it like an absolute champ.

We also made sure to get traditional headshots for LinkedIn and the corporate website, environmental portraits of her in action for social media and posting, and a host of others to give people a more well-rounded sense of who Monica is.

I’d love to get even more portraits of Monica, because she really is a fascinating person. She spent some significant time in China, is a very knowledgeable foodie, has created some absolutely stunning art, is a Buddhist (we talked meditation), and also treated me to some amazing dim sum.  Annual dim sum is a tradition we instantly adopted with some work colleagues, and I can’t wait for our next one.

Monica Tyler Moore of NYC. Or perhaps more appropriately, Monica Liang-Allen of World Insurance.  Watching over NYC one block, one building, one human at a time.

If you need insurance, Monica Liang-Allen’s got you covered.  She’ll help you protect what matters most. Check her out on LinkedIn , and let her know we sent you!