Top 10 locations for branding photography in the Tri-Cities
If you’re a business owner, you know the importance of setting the right tone. In your marketing, your content creation, your customer experience. Everything you create to bring in more customers should reflect that tone, that vibe, that feeling you want to evoke from people when they work with you.
That’s your brand.
So when you have a brand and a business that you’re building, but no physical location that expresses that… you can get stuck.
I’m here to help!
I’ve done location scouting for years for my clients, and I have found some of the best locations in the Tri-Cities, WA for a myriad of sessions. From family pictures to senior photography, I’ve got you covered on spots. So today, I’m going to give my top 10 places to go for your branding photography. With each location, I will give you a rundown of the vibe, business type, and physical address, with my own review of my experience with each.
At the end of this, you’re going to have so many ideas for your branding photography that your biggest location problem will go from “I don’t have anywhere to shoot” to “There are so many places I can’t choose!”. Don’t worry, I can help narrow it down too. All you have to do is reach out to me to schedule your consultation and I promise, by the end of our meeting you’ll be ready to jump in.
Without further ado…
The top 10 locations for branding photography in the Tri-Cities
1) Novel Coffee & Tea
710 George Washington Way, Suite B-B Richland, WA
Cost: Free (or the price of a coffee, 😉)
Getting to this location is easy. It’s in Richland in the building right at the entrance of Howard Amon Park on Lee and G Way. The parking lot leaves a lot to be desired, especially since most people around the TC drive gigantic vehicles that they have trouble parking, so it’s near impossible to get through the tiny driving space. My recommendation to avoid that is to just go into the entrance at Howard Amon and park down in the big parking lot and then just walk up the steps to the shop.
Once you get through that fiasco, the inside of Novel is like walking into a dream. They have curated the space beautifully, with velvet furniture and gorgeous wall sconces that shine a magical light on the 1 black accent wall. The 2 walls covered in outward facing books are the perfect photo op for book lovers, and the bistro tables lining the black wall create a great small workspace for meetings or for someone who just wants to sit and enjoy some delicious drinks while getting their remote work done.
For pictures, there are SO MANY spaces within this shop that have a totally different backdrop. And the owners are more than happy to let you come in for your photos without charging any sort of fee. One fallback is that you never know what you’re walking into because I’ve been there when it was totally packed and impossible to find a seat, and I’ve been the only person in the place. So it’s sort of a gamble on timing, but every time I’ve been there for pictures it worked out great. Here are some photos I’ve taken there:
Pasco, WA
Cost: $109 for 1 hour, hourly rate goes down from there for larger chunks of time
This location is in a residential neighborhood and is a studio built by the owner, who is also a local photographer. It was designed beautifully and has all the things you need for a portrait session from backdrops to furniture to lighting, plus bathroom, changing room, makeup table… the works.
Aside from the gorgeous studio, they’ve also added on the option to rent the outdoor space which includes a pool and a curated garden. It can be rented for hourly studio space or for full events. Their packages are really flexible but can get spendy, so if you’re on a budget this may not be the space for you.
A huge bonus of renting this space is that it’s the only photo studio that I know of in the Tri-Cities that has everything you need for a successful shoot. It’s not just a pretty space, it’s incredibly functional as well. As a paid space, you also have the guarantee that your team are the only people in the studio.
3) Libraries
Various locations around town
Cost: free!
Each of the Mid-Columbia Library branches has a different feel. They’re all obviously book related, but the construction and design of each varies. My favorite branch is the Kennewick branch on Union. One drawback to this is that it is important that you get the okay from the library staff before taking pictures there. Contacting anyone via their website or email is near impossible, and getting someone to call you back leaves a lot to be desired. So you do have to depend on whether the person working that day will allow it… which is sort of a bummer. But pictures in a library can be so much fun and creative, especially if you’re a coach or you work in education.
4) Airbnb or VRBO rental
Cost: Varies
Airbnb is a great place to look if you have a specific vibe you’re looking for. However, it can also be tricky because many of them aren’t interested in a day rate or would prefer you not to use the space for commercial photography. I have a feeling that stipulation is protecting the owners against their home being in adult films, so it’s always worth a shot to reach out to the host via Airbnb’s messaging feature and explain what you’re doing. The worst they can do is say no, and then you know not to reach out to that host for future projects.
A huge bonus of this option is that if you find a space you love and the host is on board to allow it, you can get some unique images. Nobody else in your area is likely to have used the space for their own branding session, and it allows you to find a space that’s exactly what your brand vibe is going for. Plus having a full house to use opens the doors for pictures of you sitting out on a patio, in a kitchen, at a “home office”, and even relaxing on the couch.
5) Downtown
Cost: Free!
Before you ask “which downtown?” I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Downtown Kennewick, Downtown Pasco, and the Uptown in Richland are all beautiful locations. Each one has a unique design, but they all carry that downtown urban feel with bustling small businesses and old brick buildings. Parking in all 3 is easy to find on a regular day.
Kennewick and Pasco both have a lot of older brick buildings, while the Uptown has been decorated with several murals that make for good backdrops. A lot of people use these areas for pictures, so you don’t have to get permission to do so. The drawback to that is that a lot of other local business owners may have similar pictures. One cool thing about these areas is that small business owners love to support each other, so if you see a shop that has gorgeous décor that goes with your business’ vibe, chances are the owner will allow you to come in and get some pictures. So that’s always a plus and can add a lot of extra variety to your gallery!
6) Hotel Lobbies
Cost: Usually Free but you should call ahead
There are dozens of hotels in the Tri-Cities area, and pretty much any town you visit, and many of them are beautiful in their own way. With these, I suggest calling ahead and confirming that they allow professional photography inside their lobby. Many chains do not, and it would be a huge bummer to plan your session around a location that won’t allow you to take pictures.
I’ve taken family pictures in the lobby of the Lodge at Columbia Point, and the manager was totally okay with it as long as we didn’t block the stairwell or any guest access. Their lobby is phenomenal, and the pictures came out really great. For a branding session there are even more options because you don’t have to find such large spaces to get pictures of just you and maybe a couple of employees.
7) Zintel Canyon, Kennewick
Entrances at 7th and Vancouver, off of 15th Ave near Conway, and near 24th and Ely
Cost: Free!
If your work focuses on the outdoors, my favorite place for nature pictures is Zintel Canyon in Kennewick. Not only is it over a mile long, allowing for many different areas to shoot, much of it is shaded – a huge plus during warmer months. There are spooky areas, well-lit sunny areas, water, tall grasses, trees, you name it and you can probably find it in Zintel.
There are a couple of drawbacks to this location. One is parking. During busy times of the week parking is atrocious. The other is the foot traffic, because again during busy times of the week there are a lot of people coming and going. But the cool thing about it being a walking trail is that people don’t typically stick around in 1 spot, so you can find some cool areas in the trail away from the main path and you’re golden.
I have to address this here, because a lot of people make comments on social media about the unhoused population that camps in this trail and how dangerous it is. I have lived near Zintel Canyon for a full decade, and have walked the trail both alone and with my family and clients more times than I can count. The only time I have felt scared on this trail is when I go walking in the early morning hours, and that’s only because it’s eerily quiet and still. This is my lived experience, and others may have a very different experience than me. If this is really a concern for you, it may not be a good spot to take your pictures.
8) Local College/University
Cost: Free!
Here in the Tri-Cities we have Columbia Basin College (CBC) in Pasco and Washington State University Tri-Cities (WSUTC) in Richland, both of which have some beautiful architecture and several buildings to choose from. CBC has a relatively new indoor garden courtyard that is gorgeous, and would make the perfect location for a photo shoot. WSUTC has a lot of buildings with huge windows, letting in a lot of natural light and creating a very bright atmosphere.
Both campuses have a ton of parking since it’s necessary for students, and neither require you to be a student to visit the campus. These have a similar drawback to some of the other public spaces I’ve listed of not being a private location, but if their vibe matches yours it might be worth it.
If you don’t live in the Tri-Cities, consider a college or university campus local to you. They’re designed to be aesthetically appealing to attract students and applicants, so chances are the one closest to you is gorgeous as well.
9) The Space
1384 Jadwin Avenue, Richland, Washington 99354
Cost: $88 per hour with a 2 hour minimum
The Space is an open-concept rental studio that can be used for events, classes, workshops, and photo shoots, and is a pretty big space. It’s ideal if you plan to bring in your own furniture and décor instead of using what’s already there, because decorations are very minimal. The cool thing about it is that it has a few different colored walls, arched windows, and a barn door for the bathroom, which provides a lot of backdrop options to set up in front of. There are also stairs, which makes for some fun opportunities for changing up posing, and a small kitchen area for any sort of “making coffee” type shots.
Another bonus is that they provide tables and chairs with your rental fee, you just have to set them up yourself if you want to use them. It’s also private, which means no clueless bystanders are going to unwittingly end up walking in front of your photographer or behind you as you make the perfect authentic smile.
10) Studio Bespoke
1393 George Washington Way Ste 3 Richland, WA
Cost: Varies depending on the use
This studio used to be called the Fitting Room, they recently rebranded and remodeled and they’re now Studio Bespoke. I have a Group Branding session scheduled there on June 17th, (you can read about that here) and the owner was extremely kind and easy to work with to get it booked. The prices are dependent on how long you want to use the studio and what it’s being used for, but it’s the least expensive of all the paid studios I’ve listed here.
There is a ton of natural light since 2 walls are lined with windows, and the windows are cute so they’d be fun to use as a backdrop too. This space is decorated in a sort of boho feel, but has different textures like brick walls and wood floors to incorporate into your pictures. And with the bonus of this being a private space as well, you don’t have to stress about the public getting in the way of your pictures.
As you can see, private studio spaces are limited in the Tri-Cities area.
Websites like Peerspace and Storefront have few, if any, listings in our area. If you don’t have the ideal space for your brand in your home and you don’t own a physical location for your business, you have to get creative. But your photographer can definitely point you in the right direction once they know more about your personality and vibe.