“We needed to go deeper.” That was the throughline in my research when I stepped up to photograph Clem&Thyme Nutrition in Dayton, OH, for the third time this past fall.

One of my favorite things about brand photography is the ability to build deeper relationships with clients as we work together again and again. I get to know their brand like the back of my hand, which is so fun! It can also be a bit of a challenge—one that I’m always up for.

So by the time we reached round three with Clem&Thyme, the question wasn’t what do we photograph?

It was: what still isn’t visible?
And how do we take this image library deeper?

Two previous shoots had given us breadth—team photos, lifestyle and working portraits, imagery that clearly communicated who they are and what they offer. Those photos were doing great work on social. But as their new website started coming together, it became pretty obvious that this next round had a very specific job to do.

We needed to go deeper.

Leslie and I hopped on a call before scheduling the shoot day and talked through some of the gaps she and the team were noticing as they built out their new, more robust website.

See, Clem&Thyme is a large practice—ten dietitians with a wide range of specialties and multiple offices in Cincinnati, Columbus, and Dayton—and that scope had already been represented well. What we were solving for this time wasn’t range so much as specificity and placement.

After that call, I pulled away to do my own audit of the image library to see where we could be even more intentional this time around.

One clear need was the team. This time, the goal wasn’t just approachable, pro headshots on a clean backdrop.

We wanted images that showed personality and approachability—photos where each dietitian could have their own moment, and where a potential patient could realistically see themselves sitting across the desk from them. Those images needed to anchor the about pages, but also flex naturally across the site and socials to support the “simple changes, simple choices” lifestyle mantra that Clem&Thyme operates with.

Another gap lived in the specialty and service pages. In the past, stock imagery had been doing a lot of the heavy lifting. For a boutique practice that accepts insurance and serves such a wide range of people, that disconnect mattered. This round focused on creating more specific, lifestyle-driven imagery using the tests, tools, food, and resources each dietitian actually recommends as part of their process for treating those specialties.

The last thread we wanted to weave through all of it was representation.

Nutrition is deeply personal. In the past, we’d had various members of the team stand in as models for mock consult imagery. This time around, it mattered that the people on the other side of the desk reflected the real range of people Clem&Thyme works with every day.

By the time we pulled up to their farmhouse office HQ in Yellow Springs, the creative brief was very full—and I’m pretty sure Leslie’s car was absolutely bursting with props.

Shoot day involved a lot of moving pieces [more than 16 people on set with a lot, I mean a lot, of props], and I’m dang proud to say we pulled it off. Scroll through a selection of previews from the shoot below!

And if you’re the overly curious type, feel free to peruse back through rounds one and two with Clem&Thyme to see how this image library has grown and deepened over time.