“Okay… whose legs are volunteering for this one?”
Near the end of Ashley Yates Realty’s brand session, we were setting up one of the more playful concepts we had planned: a newspaper, a chair, and a pair of heels kicked up in the air. Someone had to commit.
That moment summed up the energy Ashley wanted for the session: elevated and professional, with plenty of personality.
Ashley is the broker behind Ashley Yates Realty, and she puts a lot of effort into marketing her business. She’s highly active on social media, has a full-time marketing person, and works with a videographer to create property content and Reels.
Her photos were ready for an update. She’d been using a headshot that was about three years old and had done another photo session the year before, but the images never quite felt right for her. When she contacted me, she called what she needed marketing photos.
I actually loved that. Because these photos needed to give her team something they could use.
Starting where the work happens
We began at one of Ashley’s active listings.
For a real estate team, photographing inside a home gave us an easy way to show their work in context. We used the entryway, kitchen, paperwork, signs, and branded pieces to create images that immediately connected back to real estate.
Before the session, I asked the team to bring anything that belonged in their world: listing sheets, contracts, folders, their magazine, mugs, hats, pens, keychains, and other branded materials.
Those details helped make the photographs their own. They also gave us more storytelling options from each setup, which matters when you’re building a marketing library instead of relying on one profile photo.
Bringing Ocala into the story
Our second stop was Ivy on the Square in downtown Ocala. The exposed brick, historic building, and old black-and-white photographs of Ocala gave the session a strong sense of place.
We used the private room for team portraits and images of the women working together around the table with their own marketing materials. For a business rooted in the local real estate market, it felt like the right setting to bring a little Ocala into the photographs themselves.
And moving three women, a photographer, assistants, props, and video gear from one location to another? A very calm and graceful operation, obviously.
Clean images built for marketing
We finished at Studio on Magnolia, where the clean backgrounds gave us a completely different kind of content.
This was where we created updated Realtor headshots, polished team portraits, and images with enough open space to work well in graphics and social media.
We also brought out Ashley Yates Realty’s own magazine for one of the playful editorial images we had planned, along with the newspaper setup that started the whole question about whose legs were going in the air.
At one point, Ashley’s videographer was filming behind the scenes while my assistant was filming the behind-the-scenes of the behind-the-scenes. There was no shortage of content being created that day.
One session, a lot more to work with
What I love most about the final gallery is the range.
Ashley and her agents now have updated headshots, team portraits, working images, branded details, lifestyle photographs, and playful content they can pull from for social media and future marketing.
The variety came from planning each location, prop, and setup around how the photographs could eventually be used.
For Realtors, brokers, and real estate teams looking for brand photography or Realtor headshots in Ocala, Marion County, or Citrus County, that’s always my goal: create a useful library of photographs that makes it easier to keep showing up consistently.
Because when you’re already putting this much effort into your marketing, your photos should be working right alongside you.
Ready for marketing photos that actually give you something to work with?
Let’s create a purposeful image library built around your business, your personality, and the way you actually market.
P.S. A big thank-you to the team at Ivy on the Square for welcoming us into the space, and to Ashley Yates Realty for trusting me with this one. You can follow Ashley and the team on Instagram here.