When I first started emailing Nikki about her and her husband Hayden’s new outdoor lifestyle YouTube channel, I knew this would be a fun session that took me a little outside my comfort zone. I’m what you might call “indoorsy,” so the thought of going on a hike for their session made me a little nervous. But I was thrilled to try something new, and create a session unlike any I’d ever done before!

Nashville Outdoor Adventure YouTubers

Once I’d acclimated to the idea of an outdoorsy session, I worked with Nikki to find the perfect location. She and I felt that the Narrows of the Harpeth just outside of Nashville would be the perfect location for their shoot. With its waterfall and beautiful cliffside views of the Harpeth River, it exactly suited the look Hayden was going for. And on session day, we knew for sure that we’d made the right choice!

We began our session down by the beautiful river to get some photos of Nikki and Hayden as they hiked down to view the Harpeth River.  I captured them as they read the park map, which would be something they would typically do.  Then, we decided to get really adventurous and climb up to the big cliff with an amazing view of the Harpeth River. Remember how indoorsy I am? Well, it certainly came to the front of my mind as I slid down the hill after an extremely ungraceful slip! But that didn’t keep us from making it to the top where we created portraits that made even my bruise worth it!

An Amazing View

From distant scene-setting shots to closeups of their hiking boots (great hiking boots are important to their brand…and might have kept me from slipping, but that’s beside the point!) we explored a wide range of imagery for their session. As I dove deeply into their YouTube filming process before our session, I learned so much about—and was so impressed by—how they create the videos on their channel. So, I knew I wanted to recreate a film shoot for their brand. We even did a few flat lays of their gear!

The Waterfall

Then, we hiked down to the waterfall that is on the other side of the trail. You’ll be happy to hear I didn’t slip once! And once we made it down, we decided to document one of Nikki and Hayden’s favorite traditions: on each of their trips, Hayden carves their logo into a fallen log. Talk about great marketing!

I then wanted to show Nikki using her camera as she normally would, so we had what I like to refer to as a “shoot off” when I’m photographing other photographers (which is me shooting an image of her shooting an image of me).  After we finished this portion of our session, the light began to fade. But we had just enough light for a few more flat lays before calling it an evening. Our golden hour branding session couldn’t have turned out more beautifully, and it was such fun to get outside my comfort zone for a branding session I would never have imagined myself creating!

I love being able to create one-of-a-kind images like these Nikki and Hayden will be able to use to market their brand across their website and social media. I can’t wait to see it all come together!