Lifestyle, Portrait & Brand Photography
Life | Things | Spaces | People
Trevor Chisman
Trevor is a lifestyle, portrait and brand photographer based in Scotland, with a relaxed, documentary-style approach to photography.
He works with small businesses, entrepreneurs, artisans, and makers to help them tell their brand story, promote their business, and showcase their passion.
His focus is on capturing real, natural and unscripted moments. The behind-the-scenes, everyday events that tell the story of who you are, what you do and why you do it.
What is documentary-style brand photography?
Documentary photography aims to capture real life, everyday events. Unfiltered, unscripted, and entirely honest. Not posed scenes or perfectly curated smiles – but real people doing what they do, exactly as they do it.
Unlike the standard posed business portraits and product shots, which often feel disconnected from the soul of your brand, documentary photography is rooted in authenticity.
At its core, documentary-style brand photography is about storytelling. It’s about showing the sweat and tears, the mess, the process, the laughter, the coffee cups, and the quiet moments of reflection.
It invites people into your world. It makes your audience feel like they know you, and people buy from people they know, like and trust.
The final images might be grainy, have motion blur, streaming light, sun flares, or deep shadows. These aren’t flaws – they’re intentional accidents that add character and soul.
Is documentary-style photography right for you?
If you hate the idea of posing in front of a camera, documentary-style portraiture might be just the ticket. Forget the forced poses and fake smiles, environmental portraiture is about capturing you in your natural environment, doing what you love.
Documentary photography works well for small businesses, personal brands, solo entrepreneurs, artisans and makers. People who are their business.
People whose work is hands-on, personal, and fuelled by passion. If that’s you, documentary photography doesn’t just capture what you do, it captures why you do it.
Whether you’re throwing clay on a wheel, sketching out a design, tattooing a client, folding towels in your treatment room or wrapping a sourdough loaf – those moments, captured authentically, speak louder than any staged photo ever could.
But it’s not just for creative businesses. It works for service-based businesses too. Think coaches, yoga teachers, acupuncturists, massage therapists, barbers, café owners, dog groomers, florists – anyone whose work involves connection and care.
Documentary photography gives people a window into your world and lets them see how you do what you do.
It will help you grow a bank of authentic imagery you can use to tell your brand story on your website, and across social media, email marketing, brochures, and course platforms.
It’s also less intense that standard brand photography and portraiture. You’re not standing in front of a white backdrop wondering what to do with your hands.
You’re just doing the thing you love in an environment you’re comfortable in, whilst I quietly documenting it. We might chat, I might gently guide you into better light, but after a while you’ll forget the camera is even there. Which, by the way, is when the best images happen.
If you’re looking for authentic imagery with character and soul, that shows people what you do and how you do it, then documentary-style photography might be just right for you and your business.
