Working from Home: Lifestyle Corporate Portrait Photography | Huumans
Something has happened in recent years to the workforce – specifically the work environment.
Suddenly, it seems like every other person is working from home – at least for part of the time.
Gone are the days when home offices and workspaces were reserved just for artists and budding sole proprietors – though it’s still also for them!
Now, even large corporations are allowing – and even encouraging – staff to work from home.
It’s pretty neat, actually – companies are now acknowledging that productivity can be maintained while people work from the comfort of their own home.
Throwing out the necessity for dress codes and rush hour commutes. (So much personal time back without that traffic!)
And people have embraced virtual meetings through the use of video conference apps, and a lot of business is conducted virtually and on the phone.
I recently had the opportunity to photograph Paula Festas, CEO and co-founder of Huumans, one such company that utilizes the digital workspace to efficiently support small business owners. A bit about their company via their website:
“Traditional Business Services are broken. They’re inefficient, slow, uncommunicative, expensive and confusing. So we fixed it with technology, monthly fixed-price plans, single services at affordable prices, unlimited business support and simple at-a-glance data reporting with integrated Financial Services…”
“Our approach has always been to take our experiences in running Small Businesses, and ask ourselves – and our customers – how can we make this easier? How can we make it higher value? How can we make work for everyone?”
“At huumans, we’re all approachable and deeply involved – the chances are, if you choose huumans to help your business, you’ll end up speaking to most of our team at some point. From Finance to Operations, to Product, Data and Tax – we’re a team that’s there to support you and your business, no matter what happens.”
That last part is pretty indicative of the changing work environment – that there is a high probability that if you enlist their help with your small business there’s a good chance you’ll speak to most of their team — technology is really helping to make everyone more accessible. Gone are the days of needing to figure out what floor and office door someone is behind to speak with them. Working from home as put business employees and clients/consumers at a similar level, creating a feeling of approachability and even kinship.
Even as the CEO, Paula works from home. The shoot aimed to showcase how this business owner works from home – a lifestyle corporate portrait session, without the stiffness of a draped backdrop or dress code. Instead, it showed her in her natural environment – cat, tea and coziness in her different work ‘zones’.
As someone who has worked from home for almost 15 years now it’s cool to see this way of earning a living becoming more common! It’s totally possible to be a successful business owner while being barefoot and – dare I say it – Huuman. (See what I did there? heh)
Here are a few of the lifestyle portraits of Paula in her home office.
Thanks for letting me into your home workspace, Paula!
And thanks to Xero for connecting us for this shoot.
View other corporate lifestyle photography/personal brand photography on this page and don’t hesitate to reach out if you’d like to document your business in a relaxed/approachable/lifestyle manner.