Radio Front Desk
Radio Front Desk is a podcast that talks to real people in real clinics about what it takes to build a health and wellness business.
Host Denzil Ford, Editor-in-Chief of Front Desk magazine, digs into the inspiring stories of folks building their practices from the ground up — including what works, what hasn’t, and everything in between.
Created by the team at Jane App, this podcast is your source for discovering fresh ideas and proven strategies for clinic life. Join us on this journey of building a practice you love.
Radio Front Desk
How to get great clinic photos through authentic healthcare photography
Could your clinic's photos be doing more to help you connect with new clients?
In this episode of Radio Front Desk, Denzil is joined by photographer and business owner Ian Harland to explore how authentic photos can make your clinic stand out, build trust with potential clients, and even boost your SEO.
Ian has captured many of Jane’s marketing photos, and here, he shares his tips on creating visuals that feel both inviting and reflective of the care you provide.
What You’ll Learn
- Why brand photography is key to building trust and attracting clients online
- The types of photos every clinic should (and shouldn’t) use in their marketing
- How authentic photos improve your website’s SEO and discoverability
- DIY photography tips for practitioners on a budget
- How to find and work with the right professional photographer for your brand
Guest Bio
Ian Harland is a Vancouver-based photographer capturing compelling visuals across a diverse range of subjects and industries, with Jane App being one of his valued clients in the health and wellness sector. With a keen eye for detail and a passion for authentic storytelling, Ian's work spans outdoor adventures, travel, portraiture, and collaborations with businesses to enhance their visual presence.
Resources mentioned
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Because just like authentic photos make your clinic more inviting, authentic support makes all the difference when you’re starting something new.
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Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as professional medical, legal, or financial advice.
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast host or its affiliates.
I was recently looking for an accountant in Vancouver and it was so frustrating looking at all these websites where I couldn't really tell who was behind the company, what they were about. Lots of the photos were just a piece of paper with a pen on it and it was like really, really rough stock photography. A girl wearing like a white button-up shirt with a super blurred background it's like who is she? I don't know. Background it's like who is she? I don't know.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to Radio Front Desk. I'm your host, denzel Ford. I have a hot take. Too many businesses rely on free stock photography and it's kind of the easy way out. You know what I mean Perfectly polished, a little too generic and the same faces and poses that you've seen a hundred times on different websites. That's why I wanted to bring on photographer Ian Harland. Ian's taken photos for Jane and he has such a gift for capturing that authentic spark. You know the real people and the real work behind a business. In this episode we'll talk about why authenticity matters so much in your photos, what to avoid when your clinic's images are feeling flat and some easy DIY tips for capturing your own brand. Let's get into it, ian. Welcome to Radio Front Desk. How are you doing today?
Speaker 1:I'm doing well.
Speaker 2:thank you for having me I'm really excited to talk to you. You are a photographer and you run a photography business. You've taken photos for jane, which is how we came to know one another, and I've always been in awe of what you do. Every time you do a shoot for us, I'm just like how this is so wonderful, and how did you capture the moments that we're trying to capture?
Speaker 2:so I wanted to have you on the show and just dig into your process a little bit in a way that maybe would be helpful for our listeners, who need to get photographs for their businesses absolutely to start off, you are a business owner. Could you just describe that a little bit? What's it like for you having a photography business?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I started my photography business right out of high school and I think I had this idea that I'd just be able to do lots of photography. That was what I was confident at, it was what I felt like I was good at. But I quickly realized, as I'm sure many of these clinic owners realize as well, the business is much more than just the service that you provide. It's the marketing that goes into it, it's the accounting, it's all of the small moving pieces that you never really think of, and it was a bit of a rude awakening when I was 18 and I suddenly had to do taxes and marketing and websites and then just attracting the clients that I wanted for my business.
Speaker 1:Eventually I'd like to think that I kind of have figured it out and I've got clients that I'm really happy with. But it was definitely a challenge when I first started and it still makes up lots of the work that I do nowadays as well. I would say that a minority of my actual work is the taking photos or editing. Lots of it is just client relations and putting myself out there to potentially new jobs and projects.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm just going to throw out a keyword for everything you just described, which is brand photography.
Speaker 1:So, clinics.
Speaker 1:They have a brand and they need a visual representation of that so what type of photos are most important, like headshots or showing yourself in action yeah, I believe that to create trust with potential clients online, showing photos in action is one of the most powerful, because it feels very relatable, and I think that that's something that people really want. When they see photos online, they want to have an idea of what it's like working with people. They want to see what the business is all about, and if it's just all very posed photos or like just a clean interior shot or something like that, then you're kind of like missing that human element.
Speaker 2:One of our other interviews was Meg and nina from articulate design and consulting. So they they operate a firm that designs clinics yeah and so they help clinics take the vision of the care that they offer and turn that into a space that represents that care, and one thing they talk about, though, is like your clinic doesn't have to be like a very medical.
Speaker 2:It doesn't have to have like a medical vibe underneath it, so chiropractors don't need a photograph like a very medical it doesn't have to have like a medical vibe underneath it, so chiropractors don't need a photograph of a spine on the wall massage therapists don't need a photograph of all the muscles and the anatomy of the muscles so. I think that translates very well to photography. So I wonder if you could just talk about that a little bit, what you think of that and the power of photos yeah well, one thing that we've touched on a little bit, what you think of that and the power of photos.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, one thing that we've touched on a little bit is the power of photography to build trust with clients or potential clients, and probably similar to what these interior designers were talking about is like when it comes to medical clinics you don't need everything to feel so sterile, even with the photos. Photos, so you don't need to have a straight face necessarily. Yeah, for the team headshots.
Speaker 2:Having a bit of personality, showing off the space, a bit appearing like relatable is what people are looking for and that's what will make you stand out I guess too, as you're talking, the product that you're giving is the care, and so the product that you're offering is the care that you're giving, and so these photographs sort of represent your product yeah, absolutely, that's a great point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you want the photos and like the interiors to feel more like a warm hug instead of completely devoid of any life or care or any of that what?
Speaker 2:what photos should you not have in your marketing materials or on your website?
Speaker 1:there are some good stock photography out there.
Speaker 2:What that does feel relatable.
Speaker 1:No, but I think that for the most part it should be avoided, because lots of time it does feel like a little bit sterile and devoid of life.
Speaker 2:My thing with stock photography is that this is actually why you're here with us, the reason we went to find you is because we launched a telehealth solution during COVID and every tech company out there had the same three photographs the same woman talking she had the same blue shirt with white polka dots on. And it just bothered me so much that our product was being marketed the exact same images as all these other companies that had telehealth, some of them not even in our industry, necessarily Like those photos were so overused across so many technology verticals.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, just to be clear, I am not advocating for stock photography.
Speaker 1:I'm saying that some of it's decent, but most of it should probably be avoided because people are looking for that personal touch. Yeah, I was recently looking for an accountant because I'm just kind of like I don't want to deal with that anymore, and I was looking for different accountants in Vancouver and it was so frustrating looking at all these websites where I couldn't really tell who was behind the company, what they were about. Lots of the photos were just a piece of paper with a pen on it. It was like, yeah, really really rough stock photography. A girl wearing like a white button piece of paper with a pen on it. And it was like really, really rough stock photography. A girl wearing like a white button up shirt with a super blurred background. It's like who is she? I don't know.
Speaker 2:I want to really emphasize what you just said. Like if you look at a website, even for an accountant, something that's very just. We all got to do it. If you look at a website, there's no human presence.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's images that and in this day and age I really think most human beings that have access to the Internet can tell you whether something is a stock photo or not.
Speaker 1:There's a very like.
Speaker 2:It's too perfect and our eyes have a sense for that. Absolutely so. If you look at a website like that, it's just the human psychology behind it is there's nothing to latch on to, there's nothing to connect to, there's nothing to, almost like you see nothing of yourself reflected back to you, and so there's, there's. You're just gonna like go to the next one, go back to google and look at the next one down absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I completely agree, and I think that that's only going to become more and more pronounced in the age of companies who are trying to, in their mind, maybe save money by going with, like an ai content production which is just a different version of stock photography.
Speaker 2:That's such an interesting aspect to this, because you can generate photographs with AI.
Speaker 1:What do?
Speaker 2:you think of that?
Speaker 1:Well, I absolutely believe that these AI photographs will, like they can completely do the whole like stock photography vibe decently well, but they're still kind of like missing that human touch and like the story behind why the company is what it is and like how it's different from other people. Yeah, I mean, I recently my my partner was showing me some like AI headshots that their company has done and I was like really impressed by them, but they were also kind of like missing the like, the actual human spark still. Maybe in the future they'll become better, I don't totally know. Then, maybe like the selling point for like actually hiring a photographer would just be that benefit of having a real headshot taken is like the sense of place that you get.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah, somebody passed me a new headshot for our team to use for them recently and it was done by AI and it looks better than some of the previous ones.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:In the sense of it's more put together. But it's also the thing I don't like about it is that I know this person very, very well and it doesn't actually capture who they are, and that is my issue with it is that it it was just like it went really far away from who I see this person right who they really are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I thought that was it's almost like a character version of them, like an avatar in a way yeah yeah, or they. They look a little bit younger, a little bit skinnier. I don't know yeah, I'm curious to see where it goes, but I do think that people are searching for that authenticity that, at least at the moment, can only be captured from real photographs.
Speaker 2:I love that. I mean, I think that's kind of what I'm thinking too that it's like using photographs to capture the authenticity of what someone is going to experience when they come in for your services.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah the trend that's been going across, like all of the different photography spheres that I've been in. Just last week I was I was part of like an hour and a half branding session with destination vancouver. They're another one of my regular clients. I do shoots for them most months and throughout that presentation they were just drilling in the idea that we want photos that feel very authentic, inviting, real, like, draw people in and like that's what people are looking for nowadays.
Speaker 3:Yeah, hey there, christina, here Just a quick moment to share that this episode is brought to you by Jane. We know how much heart you put into building a practice you're proud of, and that's why we're here to make things like scheduling, charting and payments run a little smoother. If you'd like to take a peek head to janeapp forward, slash pricing, because we love a good bonus. Don't forget to use the code radiofrontdesk for a one-month grace period. Okay, I'll keep it short and sweet. Back to the episode.
Speaker 2:Let's lead this into if we're going to do a photo shoot, and let's just start with a limited budget version of it if somebody was maybe doing it themselves? How do you think about keeping the brand cohesive visually?
Speaker 1:yeah, I highly recommend that people look at the photography that they already have that's representing their brand, See if it aligns with what you want your branding to be and then from there you can start to see if there's a certain direction that you want to go into. And one thing that I do when I'm doing branding shoots with clients or even just like standalone shoots, I'll look at what's been done in that space in the past and I'll pull photos whether it's from magazines, other industry leaders, competitors, even art and I'll pull these all together and then I will use that as a reference for future content creation.
Speaker 2:And then I'm trying to think of the clinic owner, owner, how they could think about creating that kind of a board for themselves, and then what do they do with that?
Speaker 1:yeah, once you have that board set up, then you'll have an idea of what kind of photos you need. So at that point there then it's like creating a shot list. So a shot list is literally just a list. Where it's like we'll get candid shots of practitioners in action, we'll get headshots of the team. Where it's like we'll get candid shots of practitioners in action, we'll get headshots of the team. We'll photograph the space, we'll get some detail shots of some of the little things that we've made, we'll get an exterior shot and from there that's the starting point of what you need to do in the photos.
Speaker 2:What would a first photo shoot look like? And let's just do if you were doing it yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, first of all, like, and I'm gonna assume, on your iphone. Yeah, whatever gear you have is is fine. Like phones are now pretty good. You can get decent shots with them, as long as you have decent light which we can go into.
Speaker 1:When I first enter a space, I would try to declutter it, even though clinics are working spaces with photography. Ideally you want it to look as clean as possible, but there is also a balance to be struck. You know like you can imagine this space here, for example, if we removed everything and it was just like a bare couch and a bare chair. That's boring. So you want to strike that balance where it feels like a good mix of lived in and decorated but also not cluttered. Once that's done, I would look at the lighting that we have available.
Speaker 1:Lighting is something that is huge in the quality of the photos, arguably even more important than the camera in some situations. So natural light is your friend. It creates beautiful, just soft light that's very flattering on the human skin. So ideally, if there is window space, we want to open those up. Turn off the top lights. The other reason you want to turn off the top lights if you have window light is because top lights are often more orangey and then the window light is a bit more blue. So that color contrast is another thing that just makes it look a little bit more amateur and not as refined.
Speaker 1:From there, just going through the different shot list for things like headshots, if you shoot it at a wider angle, like just having it on like the normal zoom on a phone, there's going to be a bit of distortion with the face.
Speaker 1:But if you zoom into, like times two, times three, if times four is an option, maybe, do that you get less facial distortion and you'll also get a bit more of a polished look. And then, when it comes to getting practitioners in action, I would highly recommend just getting them to do what they normally do. I recently did a shoot for this couple. They do physical therapy and personal training and then one of them is also a massage therapist and for the first part of the shoot they just had their clients come in and they ran them through what they normally did. So start off with stretching, then doing some sled pushes, doing different workouts, and that gave me tons of different options to work with and it also let them interact with each other in a way that was really natural, engaging and really drew the viewer in a lot of people who will see those photos to connect with these people instantly, compared to if everything is like very, very posed right, let's talk about social media like how do you approach that any differently?
Speaker 1:can you be?
Speaker 2:more casual. Should it be the same photos that you took on your diy photo shoot?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, I think the recycling content is a great option. I think there's probably this misconception, as business owners, that people are just seeing everything that we're posting everywhere but, like most people will not be seeing almost any of it. So what you're posting on your website and on your social media, people likely won't see that it's been posted twice. So with social media, it's really important to be posting consistently if growing and like building an audience is important. So if you've got the content and it's already on your website, I don't see any problem with recycling that and putting that on social media.
Speaker 2:Do you have social media for your business?
Speaker 1:I do. Yes, I've got one primary Instagram account and I've fluctuated how much effort I've put into it. When I was younger and starting my photography career, I was using it quite a bit a bit, but I quickly realized that I was spending a disproportionate amount of time on social media, to the positive impact it was having on my business. I realized that I could put more time into things like optimizing my SEO and dealing with clients that I've already had in the past than just constantly pushing more photos on social media can.
Speaker 2:Can you drill down into SEO, search engine optimization a little bit?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your website and the various web pages on it so that Google and I mean it's primarily Google, but also the other search engines will see it and then hopefully push it to people who are looking for certain services.
Speaker 1:So if you're a therapist in Vancouver, it would be pretty amazing if you came up first when people Google therapist in Vancouver and in the past you were able to do some stuff like keyword stuffing, which is essentially where you just put in the word therapist a million times and it shows up high on Google because Google is like this is the best place for people to get a therapist. But Google's gone much more intelligent about that and to now do well on Google, you have to create web pages that are genuinely useful for people. One of the things that Google looks at is how much time people spend on certain web pages and like that's why when you're trying to like Google a recipe, you get someone's entire like childhood story and like every trauma they've gone through and you just want to like see the recipe.
Speaker 1:But for Google they're like oh, this person is finding must be finding this webpage useful because they're spending a lot of time on it.
Speaker 2:Do the photos have any role in all of that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess there are two parts that photos serve in SEO that I can think of. One of them is it engages the people who are on the website to stay longer and see if it solves the problem that they're there for. And then the other thing is every individual photo can also show up on Google Images, and that can be another way that people can potentially find your website, and what you have to do to get them on Google Images is write alt text. I think that it was initially for visually impaired people, but now it's turned into a tool that Google can use to see what a photo is about. I was recently looking at my Squarespace website and they're now using an AI tool to just automatically see what's in the photo and write a little blurb about what it is that hopefully it shows up on Google Images.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So how can somebody find a professional photographer? What should they be looking for if they're going to invest in a professional shoot?
Speaker 1:So once you already have the mood board and possibly the shot list already created, the shot list already created, you'll have an idea of what you need for your photography, and there are many different photographers out there who all have various styles, and it's important to align with one that will reflect your branding. There are some photographers that specialize in a bit more of that polished look and like and like. We've been talking about like authenticity through most of this podcast, but the reality is like authenticity can mean a lot of things to different people. And then the other thing is that photography varies very widely in pricing. So if you're just starting out, some of the options may be a bit more limited and you may need to start with someone who isn't as progressed in their career yet.
Speaker 2:But then, if you do have the budget to invest in more photography, that does open the door to potentially working with more photographers yeah, those are really helpful tips and I love how you're calling out that sometimes authenticity might actually be like a more professional even in this case, like a more clinical setting, if that's what your clinic is.
Speaker 2:So I love that you called that out. I don't want to forget that. Well, thank you, ian. This has been such an amazing conversation with so many great tips. You can check out Ian's playbook in our show notes. We'll link it there. And then, ian, if anyone out there wants to find you, where can they find your website?
Speaker 1:Hopefully it'll be linked below to help my SEO. But yeah, it's ianharlandphotographycom. I also have an Instagram account, Ian Harland Photo. You can see my work on.
Speaker 2:Awesome.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:That's it for today's episode of Radio Front Desk. Huge thanks to Ian for shedding some light on his creative process and reminding us that photography doesn't have to feel super polished, as long as it feels authentic to you. If you'd like to see some of Ian's work or dive deeper into his playbook for clinics, check out the links in our show notes. Thanks for tuning in to Radio Front Desk. I'm Denzel Ford and we'll see you next time.