Case study
Axel Rittershaus · Executive Coach and Leadership Consultant
Personal branding photography for a leadership consultant, Cape Town
A half-day personal branding session for Axel Rittershaus, executive coach and keynote speaker, shot entirely at his Franschhoek home. Complete Branding Collection, 40+ images, delivered within 24 hours.
- Client
- Axel Rittershaus · Executive Coach and Leadership Consultant
- Session
- Complete Branding Collection · Half-day
- Location
- Franschhoek, Western Cape
- Delivered
- 40+ images · within 24 hours
The brief
A personal brand relaunch, planned around an international audience
Axel Rittershaus is an executive coach, keynote speaker, and leadership consultant based in Franschhoek. His practice at targetter.com reaches an international market. When he got in touch, he was relaunching his personal brand and needed a substantial set of professional but also personal images to anchor the new website and support his positioning across multiple channels.
His existing image library needed an update. A single headshot cannot serve a website hero, a speaker directory profile, a LinkedIn banner, a keynote speaker one-sheet, and a podcast guest bio. Each of those formats needs different framing, different energy, and different context.
A pre-shoot call covered the audience, the channels, and the tone the images needed to carry. Axel shared a moodboard before the session, and a shot list was ready the next morning. The plan: portraits using portable studio lights at his home and home office, tethered throughout so feedback was immediate, followed by outdoor frames to complete the range.
Jürgen Banda-Hansmann has photographed executives, coaches, and consultants in Cape Town for more than 18 years. Jürgen's Photography CC is a B-BBEE Level 4 EME with 100% procurement recognition.
Personal Branding Photography · Complete Branding Collection
Axel Rittershaus · Executive Coach and Leadership Consultant · Franschhoek, Western Cape
On the day
A morning session at home, lit with portable studio lights throughout
The session ran tethered for most of the morning. Every frame transmitted to the connected screen as it was taken, so Axel could see each set-up in real time, adjust his expression or posture immediately, and confirm the image worked before anything changed. The moodboard sat open on a second screen throughout as a live reference.
Portable studio lights travelled with the session, which meant controlled, consistent light was available anywhere in the house. The home and home office served as the backdrop throughout: different spaces, different contexts, different frames — each one showing more of who Axel is and how he works, without needing to leave the property. Outfit changes gave the library clear visual variety across the morning.
The outdoor section at the end of the morning was the one time the session ran without the tether, and the frames carried a looser, more candid energy as a result. The grounds gave the final images in the set a natural quality distinct from the controlled light indoors.
The brief in practice
An international brief, shot at home in Franschhoek
Axel has lived in South Africa since 2010, currently in Franschhoek. His coaching and consulting practice reaches an international market, and the images needed to communicate authority in that context while remaining personal and approachable rather than corporate. The moodboard he brought to the session defined the balance clearly.
The range built across the morning was deliberate. Controlled portraits using portable studio lights, the podcast-style setup adding a media-facing dimension, images that used the home as a backdrop to show more of who Axel is, outdoor frames that carried energy and context. The result was a library with enough variety that different sections of his website could use different images without repeating the same look or running out of material.
The full edited gallery was ready within 24 hours. In his review, Axel noted that the volume exceeded what he had anticipated, and that the variety of scenes went further than expected from a single afternoon.
Frequently asked
Personal branding photography in Cape Town, common questions
- Who is a personal branding photography session for?
- Executives, coaches, consultants, keynote speakers, and professionals who need a library of images for a website, speaker directory, LinkedIn, or press. A branding session makes sense when a single headshot no longer covers the range of uses the brief demands, or when the existing image library is dated or inconsistent. Axel Rittershaus came to the session in the middle of a full website and brand relaunch, needing material to anchor new positioning across multiple channels for an international audience.
- Can a personal branding session take place entirely at my own home or office?
- Yes. Axel Rittershaus chose to shoot the entire session at his Franschhoek home, using portable studio lights throughout to achieve controlled, consistent light without needing a formal studio environment. Different rooms and spaces within the home provided variety, and the outdoor section at the end of the morning gave the library a looser, more candid register distinct from the controlled light indoors. The session is built around wherever the images are going to be used and where you will be most natural, not a fixed set of locations.
- What does tethered shooting mean, and why does it matter for personal branding?
- Shooting tethered means every image is transmitted to a connected laptop or monitor in real time as it is taken. Throughout most of the morning session, the tethered screen allowed Axel to see exactly how he looked in each set-up, adjust his expression or posture immediately, and move forward knowing the image worked before anything changed. There is no leaving the session wondering whether a frame landed. The moodboard Axel shared before the shoot sat open on a second screen throughout, so decisions could be made directly against the reference material rather than from memory.
- What does the Complete Branding Collection include?
- A half-day shoot at a Cape Town or Western Cape location of your choice, 40 or more retouched images in one consistent processing style, channel-ready crops for LinkedIn profile, LinkedIn banner, website hero, podcast guest one-sheet, and pitch deck founder slide, a pre-shoot 30-minute brief call, real-time on-screen review during the session, and delivery within two working days. The session can be at your home, office, or an outdoor space — and where a studio environment is needed, that can be arranged. The plan is built around where the images will actually be used, starting with the brief call rather than arriving with a standard set of set-ups.
- How quickly are the images delivered after a personal branding session?
- Standard delivery for the Complete Branding Collection is within two working days of the shoot. For Axel Rittershaus, the full edited gallery was ready within 24 hours, as he noted in his review. If a tighter deadline exists, same-day or next-day delivery is available at a 25% surcharge on the session fee.
What the client said
Just had a 4-hour photo session with Jürgen to get a substantial set of pics for my new personal branding campaign. We had one call to discuss expectations. I shared a mood board with him, and Jürgen simply delivered. Many different scenes, much more than anticipated. He's super fun to work with, and the results are just fantastic. Got the final, edited pictures within 24 hours.
Axel Rittershaus
Executive Coach and Leadership Consultant
Google review · Local Guide
Outcomes
What this delivered
Delivered
40+ retouched images across studio portraits, tethered podcast setup, lifestyle frames at the Franschhoek home, and outdoor portraits. Full gallery delivered within 24 hours. Channel-ready crops included.
Used in
Website relaunch, keynote speaker directory profiles, LinkedIn, international executive coaching and leadership consulting practice.
What changed
From a scattered, dated image library to a complete personal brand asset set for an international audience, produced in one afternoon.
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Personal branding photography, Cape Town
Your personal brand, shot in one afternoon, delivered within two working days
Studio Branding Session from R 4,950. Signature Brand from R 6,950. Complete Branding Collection at R 9,500. Written quote and shot list the next working day.