Inspiring Creator Series: Aneta Laura

Aneta Laura is a professional brand photographer who knows how to make products shine in many ways. Her aesthetic texture play, deep dive into water work, miniature scapes, and resourceful bathroom scenes all showcase her product-focused styling and creative flair.

Originally from Poland, Aneta now resides in Melbourne, Australia. She is a natural creative at heart and has explored a variety of disciplines before finding her creative home as a product photographer, with a focus on cosmetic and beauty products. In addition to her work as a photographer, Aneta is also passionate about educating other creators and offers mentoring sessions to those who want to follow in her footsteps and improve their visual skills.

Aneta's sophisticated style is characterised by restraint and simplicity. She often uses just her product to make a bold statement, or employs clever prop hacks to give it context. However she does it, her colourful eye and vibrant styling always shine through, creating scroll-stopping content for her clients and endless inspiration for us.

Scroll down to get to know Aneta better and be inspired by her creative passion.

Meet Aneta Laura

Hey, it’s Aneta! I was born and raised in a small town in Poland. I have lived, worked and studied in a few different countries before settling down in Melbourne at the age of 20.

How did your journey to photography start? Have you always been a productphotographer?

I have always been drawn to anything that required creativity, but it took me a while to find my place in the design industry. I studied Visual Communication Design which allowed me to dig into different areas of graphic design, branding, typography, film, etc. Photography has always been a side hobby which I never really considered pursuing full-time.

As a hobby, I did a lot of street photography, I was fascinated by the geometry of architecture. I used to do still-life and travel/nature shots as well to express myself creatively. After graduating I felt a little stuck and had an unfulfilling job at the time, so I decided to upgrade my gear and get into photography full-time.

Three fun facts about me:

• I absolutely love animals and you can definitely call me a crazy dog lady. My getaways & staycations are always filled with nature and wild animals that I could watch for hours. I have plans to open my own pet care centre one day and to be surrounded by 20 dogs sounds to me like an amazing retirement plan. P.s., did you know there’s a Facebook group called “Dogspotting”? I’m not the only crazy dog person out there! :-)
• I love coffee! I’m a qualified barista (although I’m not sure how my skills are these days after such a long break!) and had the opportunity to work in some iconic Melbourne cafes in my early 20s. If I ever open a big studio, it will have the best coffee machine and Cold Brew on tap - you’re all invited!
• I’m a true crime junkie! I often listen to true crime podcasts when retouching images or going for a walk. I’m very interested in human psychology, and these two topics often go hand in hand. If I wasn’t working in a creative field, I’d definitely study criminology or psychology...or both :-)

What equipment do you currently use for your product photography?

The list is long and with the technology progressing so fast, I try to upgrade my gear quite often. Some of my gear I can’t live without includes:

• A decent tripod, preferably with a flatlay mount. I can’t imagine shooting still life and stop motions without one!
• As for the camera, I’m a big fan of Sony and currently eyeing their brand-new R5 for an upgrade. I also plan on getting a mirrorless Fujifilm camera for more personal projects
• Continuous and flash light sources. As my work is very bright with lots of sunny lighting, a powerful strobe is always my best friend on set! I work with Godox equipment and have never been disappointed with the quality. My continuous lights made a big comeback into my studio as the reels and video content is getting so popular.
• I also can’t imagine working without a good C-Stand, light modifiers and lens filters.

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What is your favourite lighting to use?

There are so many modifiers and creative solutions to choose from, but I would say a strobe producing sunny light and well-defined shadows if I had to choose just one! My favourite thing about lighting is that it can influence the mood of the set and help us create a certain atmosphere within an image.

If I had to give a recommendation for just one light, it would be Godox FV200 - the most versatile piece of equipment that allows working with still images, video and any social media content as well.

What is your best advice to share with aspiring photographers?

I will break the rules and give two pieces of advice hoping it will be helpful to others.

The first one is to truly understand what kind of work you enjoy producing, what is your photography style and what makes it recognisable. If you develop your own style, the right clients will find you and they will have a clear understanding of what to expect from you. It doesn’t mean that you need to stick to one niche or style, but if you look at some of the most iconic artists (not just photographers), they all have a very distinctive style of artwork. This is a long process and we all evolve, change and learn more about ourselves so just enjoy the processof developing your unique voice.

The second piece of advice would be to take full advantage of the resources, knowledge and skills you have right now in this present moment. I see a lot of creatives postponing their success because the circumstances may not be perfect, maybe they don’t have the best gear or that much space to work with etc. Waiting for the perfect moment will only postpone the growth and opportunities you could experience today. You do not need the latest camera, the strongest light and massive studio space to start your journey. It will come to you as the biggest reward if you decide to put in hard work today.

Your reels are really fun and , any advice for creatives wanting to produce this type of content?

I became friends with reels and made peace with the fact that social media is evolving and reels are here to stay. I would say don’t pressure yourself into creating as many reels as possible and generating as many views as you can - it takes all the fun away! I now try to record as much raw footage from sets, behind-the-scenes, etc. and keep it in a spare folder on my phone. When I feel like creating, I’ll then go through that footage and put it together including the final result of the shoot. I keep all of the raw footage for any future content as well.

I’m glad that Instagram decided to back off with pushing reels over still artwork, as long as it can co-exist with photo content I’m 100% on board!

Examples of Aneta’s behind the scenes content showing different ways to style with water play. Source:  @anetalauradotcom

How do you keep learning and evolving your skills?

The most important thing is to experiment. If you want to achieve a certain look, effect or mood and feel like you can’t, you need to break the problem down into smaller steps and understand what needs improvement. A lot of people get upset or annoyed when they try to do something and can’t, but I think it’s the perfect opportunity to understand which skills are we lacking. This method is free and very effective.

Get out of your comfort zone and try something new. Whether that means renting a completely different lens, shooting black and white, working with a product that’s highly reflective, etc. - it could be anything! Allowing yourself to make mistakes, creating something that isn’t perfect or trying something new will not only boost your creativity but also allow you to explore new areas that you may want to learn about.

Another piece of advice would be to listen very carefully to your clients and their feedback. If you have high revision requests about a certain issue (for example colour corrections, exposure) you need to focus on this area and improve.

There’s also lots of free resources online, from reels about gear to tutorial Tiktoks. Watch, learn, repeat! If you feel like you can’t find answers online or wish to learn from me, I offer 1:1 Zoom calls covering most of the topics and tutorials.

Which other creators do you admire and find inspiring?

Most of my inspiration doesn’t come from fellow creatives although there are many talented people out there! I often get asked where my ideas are coming from and I guess I’m still trying to understand how my brain works myself, but if I had to list a few areas it would be:

• Architecture for all the different shapes, colours and textures
• Visual merchandise - I love window shopping and analysing the set design based on eachindividual store, their campaign and what they tried to communicate.
• Nature - A lot of my work is directly inspired by nature, especially with its close connection to the beauty industry.
• Other I have a bunch of images of everyday objects that I simply find inspiring, it could be a sunset that looks like a perfect gradient or a street light producing a funny shadow during the day.

Inspiration is everywhere and for us creatives, it’s very important to be observant, intrigued and open-minded.

What are your three favourite props to use?

The basin situation started when I found a cheap pink basin on Facebook marketplace and a few hours later it was sitting in my hallway. It was this cute pink shade with a retro finish, and the outcome of the shots was outstanding! I realised that I can bring the lifestyle feel to many shoots and create a tiny bathroom without a massive budget. Any bathroom-related props are definitely my favourite, but for this part, we’ll keep it under basins :-)

Aneta demonstrates her resourcefulness sourcing a pink pedestal handbasin off Marketplace as a prop to help set the bathroom scene for her photoshoots. Source:  @anetalauradotcom

My second favourite would be fresh props - flowers, fruit, plants etc. I can’t find a better prop that compliments beauty products so well. There’s also something very unique about every flower that makes the final artwork even more special.

For the third one, I’ll say miniature toys. I’m totally obsessed with miniature styling and a big chunk of my mini collection comes from the toy section! This type of styling brings me so much joy and allows me to play with scale as an additional factor on set, it’s honestly so much fun!

What is next for you?

I have a lot of goals but also even more appreciation for what I was able to achieve so far and the place I’m in right now. It was a long and difficult journey for me to be where I am right now and I want to enjoy the present before putting all my focus into the future.

Sometimes we focus so much on our goals and future achievements that we forget about the journey that brought us here in the first place. I have some exciting things planned for 2023 but for now I’m focusing on current projects and personal growth.

Thank you Aneta for sharing your creative journey with us and being an inspiration to many of us in our community. Follow her journey on Instagram and be inspired by Aneta’s polished work too.