The Pinterest board you’ll create before our shoot planning session will hold exactly 25 photographs picked by you which, viewed as a collection, exemplify the kind of look and feel you’re going for. Find out why a mood board like this is so vital – and how to create one!

Mood boards for personal branding photography

Fear can be one of the most crippling influences on your business success. If you’re a one-person service business entrepreneur, it’s definitely time you told fear to GTF.

Fear: chuck it in the f**k-it bucket

Choosing a brand shoot location is not about finding somewhere pretty. It is about choosing a setting that supports your message, your comfort, and your marketing. This guide explains how I help clients pick Edinburgh locations that feel natural, usable, and strategically right.

The best locations in Edinburgh for brand photoshoots (and how to choose yours)

When the world seems to be in flames out there at the moment, concentrate hard on what YOU can control. Do you have a post-covid exit strategy? You know, for exiting lockdown and all these restrictions and getting yourself properly back out there? If not, you need to start thinking about this sooner rather than later, and take the opportunity of the current slowdown to lay groundwork for coming back stronger than ever. There’s every chance that if you don’t, your competitors are.

Shit-show to shit-hot: your post-covid exit strategy

Update, 2026: this collaboration project is from pre-pandemic times and My Happy Journal has since ceased trading.  A Christmas message from Kirsty Bell at My Happy Journal Hello and welcome!Come away in. It’s so nice to see you. Have a seat, perhaps over there, yes there, the cosy comfy chair with the extra plump cushions and

My Happy Journal’s Magical Gift Guide

Feeling unsure about how to prepare for professional headshots? As a brand photographer in Edinburgh, I’ll guide you through what to wear, how to pose, and how to feel comfortable in front of the camera, so you get images that truly reflect you.

How to prepare for professional headshots

Selfies on your website – they’re a terrible idea. Don’t do it! Here’s why you need to engage a professoinal photographer to show you at your very best.

How selfies on your website destroy your brand

7 things I’ve learned this year – good, and not so good! How did YOUR year go? What did you learn from it, and what’s the best and worst things that happened?

7 things I’ve learned this year

Bagpiper photos in Edinburgh were something a bit different … Meet Glyn Morris of www.scottishbagpipers.com, Scotland’s premier piper. And read on to find out about the interesting and completely unforeseen “issues” which occurred during this photo shoot!

Bagpiper photos

Working mum guilt … Poisonous, isn’t it? As I’ve been a working mum for many years now, and as most of my clients are also working mums, I’m going to tell you exactly why we can all ditch the working mum guilt which plagues so many of us.

Here’s why to ditch working mum guilt – 5 surprising reasons the children benefit from your job