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Custom Brand Photography for Michigan Businesses: Build a Photo Library That Tells Your Story

Updated: Apr 23

Over the past two years, I partnered with the Michigan Department of Education’s 10 Cents a Meal program to create custom brand photography across Michigan—documenting how local farms are feeding students from the Upper Peninsula to Detroit. Together, we built a versatile image library designed for long-term use across grants, social media, internal reporting, and public outreach.

Farmworker harvesting onions, seedling trays with sprouts, chef preparing food in a school kitchen, gloved hands washing kale, lunch tray with local produce and Michigan milk carton, golden beets held by farmer, sunrise over vegetable rows

What Is a Custom Brand Photo Library?

A custom brand photo library is more than just a folder of nice images—it’s a curated, strategic archive of visuals that reflect your values, mission, and audience. Unlike one-off shoots or impersonal stock photography, a brand library is built over time to show your company in action. It includes a wide variety of images: people, places, details, signage, context, and culture. These images are consistent in tone and quality, giving your business a unified visual presence across all touch points—from your website and brochures to social media and grant applications.

Children and adults harvesting kale, planting seedlings, washing greens, bunches of scallions, raised school garden with mural, hands harvesting carrots, salad bar with colorful produce, school lunch tray with sandwich and asparagus, child holding a green pepper

Why Michigan Businesses Should Invest in Custom Brand Photography

When your visuals are aligned with your message, they become one of your most powerful marketing tools. For companies in Michigan—especially those serving local communities, working with public programs, or receiving grant funding—custom brand photography offers several key advantages:


  • Builds trust with your audience through authenticity

  • Creates consistency across all platforms and departments

  • Supports visibility in competitive grant or government-funded sectors

  • Saves time when you need images for a campaign, report, or publication


If your business is rooted in purpose, people, or place—your images should reflect that.

Heirloom tomatoes on a produce scale, gloved hands packing carrots, children eating lunch in a classroom, crate of striped eggplants, rinsing scallions with hose, colorful food justice mural, hands holding white onions, bee pollinating squash blossom, harvest of cherry tomatoes in yellow bin


Visual Storytelling: MDE

When I began working with the Michigan Department of Education on their 10 Cents a Meal program, the goal was clear: show how local farms are feeding Michigan students. But the project quickly evolved into something bigger—a two-year journey documenting the farm-to-school story across Michigan.


I visited farms, food hubs, school cafeterias, and classrooms—each with their own lighting, pace, and personality. From the Upper Peninsula to Detroit, I photographed hundreds of real moments as they unfolded. Over time, I built a cohesive visual archive of more than 2,500 images.


The final delivery included:

  • A 1TB hard drive with categorized folders for easy access

  • A shareable online gallery used by MDE teams across departments

  • A consistent editing style for brand unity

  • Fully coordinated logistics, including scheduling, permissions, and model releases


Custom brand photography collage showing hands harvesting onions, seedling trays, a chef preparing food in a school kitchen, washing kale in a commercial sink, bunches of golden beets, sunrise over farm rows, and a school lunch tray with local milk, apple, and cherry tomatoes


Working Together

When businesses partner with me, it’s not just about capturing images—it’s about creating strategy. Together, we’ll:


  • Outline your communication goals and visual gaps

  • Plan a photo shoot—or series of shoots—that reflects your real work in action

  • Handle all logistics (including site visits, model releases, and scheduling)

  • Deliver a growing archive of high-quality, brand-aligned photos


Whether you need images for marketing, internal training, social media, or grant reporting, I’ll make sure you walk away with visuals that are as functional as they are beautiful.


Behind-the-scenes photos of photographer Sarah Rypma working with children, capturing produce in greenhouses, and photographing local food programs across Michigan
"We worked with Sarah on a photography project that highlighted Michigan-grown produce being served to kids in schools. Sarah diligently met our project goals of showcasing different methods of food production and distribution, including traditional farms and hoophouses, hydroponic farms, urban farms, school gardens, and food hubs. I couldn't have been more impressed with the care and attention that she gave to the stories behind the photos, of kids learning to love fresh fruits and veggies, of farmers sharing their life's work with the next generation, and of people advocating for a more equitable food system. Her expertise and passion shines through in the flawless quality of the end product," - Cheyenne Liberti MDE
Custom brand photography collage featuring tomatoes on a produce scale, gloved hands packing carrots, children eating lunch in a school cafeteria, striped eggplants in a harvest bin, scallions being rinsed, food justice mural on a school building, freshly harvested onions, bee pollinating a squash blossom, and cherry tomatoes picked into a yellow crate

Let’s Build Your Visual Story

If you're a Michigan-based business—especially in Kalamazoo or Southwest Michigan—and you're ready to move beyond stock photography, let’s talk. Whether you run a school district, nonprofit, food hub, or healthcare program, I can help you build a custom brand photography library that reflects your mission with clarity, connection, and purpose.


Explore More Work

I work with commercial clients across the state—view this custom photography project for Schupan and see how we visually supported their mission and messaging or browse my commercial photography portfolio to explore how visual storytelling can elevate your brand.


Let’s build something that lasts—and tells your story from the inside out.




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