Six years.
That’s how long I’ve had the privilege of working with the incredible team at LMW Auto Repair (LaScuola).
And over six years, a lot can change.
A business grows. Teams evolve. New locations open. Websites change. Marketing needs change.
And the photography needs to grow right along with it.
Today, LMW Auto Repair has three locations serving our region, and if you spend some time clicking around their website, you’ll see a whole lot of familiar photography. (Mine!)
Six Years of Photographing LMW Auto Repair
I’ve always loved long-term commercial photography relationships because you get to know a business in a way you simply can’t during one afternoon with a camera.
You learn the people.
You learn the spaces.
You start to understand what makes the business different—and which little pieces of it are actually worth showing prospective customers.
LMW has trusted me with that responsibility for six years now, and I don’t take it lightly.
For our most recent round of commercial photography, we planned two shoots across two of their locations with one big goal:
Build a versatile library of custom photography that actually shows people what it’s like to do business with LMW.
Creating a Custom Photography Library
We needed much more than a few photographs of mechanics working on cars.
So we photographed everything.
Team portraits.
Employees working throughout the shops.
Interactions at the front desk.
Conversations between team members.
Customer experiences.
Details throughout the facilities.
Wide environmental photographs that establish the space and tighter images that capture the little moments.
Some photographs were carefully staged. Others came together naturally as we worked our way through the locations.
The goal was variety.
When a business invests in commercial photography, I want them to walk away with more than a handful of beautiful images. I want to create photographs they can put to work across their website, social media, advertising, recruiting, print materials, and whatever else their marketing team dreams up next.
LMW has done exactly that.
Their website today is filled with photographs we’ve created together over the years—and I LOVE seeing that.
When Your Customers Show Up for the Photo Shoot
But there was one part of these shoots that told me more about LMW Auto Repair than any staged photograph possibly could.
Their customers showed up.
We wanted to create authentic photographs of the customer experience, so LMW invited several of their real customers to come into the shop and help us create them.
And they actually came.
These weren’t paid models pretending they’d brought their vehicle in for service.
These were real LMW customers giving up part of their evening to come hang out at their auto repair shop, pose for photographs, and enjoy a slice of pizza.
Think about that for a second.
Your mechanic calls and says, essentially, “Hey, we’re having a photo shoot. Want to spend part of your evening here pretending to talk to us while a photographer takes pictures?”
And you say yes.
THAT says something about a business.
People don’t give their personal time to a company they merely tolerate.
There was an ease between the customers and the LMW team that you can’t really manufacture. They knew each other. They were comfortable together. They laughed.
My job was simply to take that real relationship and translate it into photographs.
Staged Doesn’t Have to Mean Fake
That’s also why I don’t mind the word staged when we’re talking about commercial photography.
Yes, we staged plenty of moments.
“Stand over here.”
“Let’s have you guys talk while you’re looking at this.”
“Can we move the car?”
“Let’s do that again, but this time…”
That’s part of creating intentional imagery.
But there’s a big difference between staging an interaction and manufacturing a relationship.
The people were real.
The employees were really LMW employees. The customers were really LMW customers. The spaces were their actual working shops.
The relationships already existed.
I was simply arranging all those real elements into the strongest photographs possible.
That’s where commercial photography gets fun.
Photography That Grows With a Business
One of my favorite parts of looking back over six years with LMW is seeing how much has changed.
They now have three locations.
Their team has grown.
Their needs have evolved.
And the photographs we’ve created together have become part of how they present themselves to the community.
That’s exactly what I want from an ongoing commercial photography relationship.
Your business shouldn’t have to rely forever on the same handful of photographs from one photo shoot five years ago. As your company changes, we can keep adding to the library—new people, new spaces, new services, new locations, new stories.
Over time, the collection becomes something much bigger than a single photography session.
It becomes a visual history of the business.
The Spark Is Back
During my most recent visit with LMW, I snapped a quick selfie.
Nothing special. Just me at work.
But when I looked at it afterward, I noticed something I hadn’t seen in myself in a while.
The spark was back.
The excitement.
The creativity.
The energy.
I love this work.
Photography has always been about more than a camera to me. It’s people. It’s relationships. It’s learning businesses from the inside out and helping tell their stories in a way that feels authentic.
I love spending my days with business owners and teams who are passionate about what they do—whether that’s repairing vehicles, serving clients, building products, or changing their communities.
And after six years of walking into LMW Auto Repair shops with my camera, I still leave with the same two things:
Great photographs.
And a reminder of why I love what I do.
Thank you, John, Lonnie, and the entire LMW team for trusting me with your story for six years.
Here’s to many more.
