Close portrait of Darby Saxbe smiling in a blue patterned dress against a black and white graphic mural at The Spokein Los Angeles.

When Darby Saxbe came to me, she had a book on the way and a very practical question:

how do you get one set of photos to do a dozen jobs? Darby is a clinical psychologist and professor at USC with more than eighty peer-reviewed articles to her name, and her book, Dad Brain: The New Science of Fatherhood and How It Shapes Men's Lives, brings that research to anyone who has wondered what becoming a parent does to the brain. Her photos needed to work on a book jacket, a website, a Substack, press kits, flyers, and the kind of media request that comes in with a deadline of this afternoon.

Darby Saxbe's website homepage with the headline "Brain researcher, fatherhood enthusiast" over a photo of her smiling at a red cafe table with her book Dad Brain. — *Darby’s website,* *https://www.darbysaxbe.com*

We started the way I start every session, with a plan. Darby's words for the look were smart, playful, approachable, and a little nerdy in the best way. She wanted to read as a scientist people can trust and also as someone you'd happily sit next to at dinner, with blues, greens and mustardy yellows as her palette and nothing too precious. Wardrobe followed: a bike-print dress, a bold print jumper from Nooworks, a green dress, a blue striped / patterned dress and a few colorful accessories!

Three studio portraits of Darby Saxbe in colorful patterned outfits against yellow, blue, and gray backdrops, the last one holding a tall stack of books.

Karla handled hair and makeup at an Atwater Studio, where we shot colorful portraits against solid backdrops. Then we headed to The Spoke Bicycle Cafe in Frogtown, which had everything we were hoping for: brick, bike wheels on the wall, and the odd, colorful details that make a place feel lived in. There's a bicycle on the cover of Dad Brain, so hanging out around the bikes felt like a wink instead of a theme. We shot her against the brick, with a bike, and at a cafe table with her book. Here's the fun part: we shot this last November, and Dad Brain wasn't out yet, so there was no finished copy to hold! Darby held a blank book instead, without a slip cover, and I added the cover art into the final photos afterward, so the book in her hands and on the table is the real cover, before it existed in print.

Darby Saxbe in a colorful Nooworks Jumper with a hand on her hip, standing against a brick wall with yellow and red bicycle wheels.

Three portraits of Darby Saxbe in a green dress at The Spoke Bicycle Cafe, beside colorful stools, against a white wall, and with a green bicycle.

The best part of this one is seeing where the photos ended up now that the book is out. Darby's portrait is inside the jacket of the physical book. Her photos are on her website, on book tour flyers, and in news releases, and it has turned up in the promotion around her events and her Next Big Idea Club feature. The Sunday Times feature on the book used original illustrations, and they also illustrated right over one of my photos of her, which might be my favorite use of all.

Darby Saxbe's portrait beside a photo of the inside flap of her book, where the same portrait appears above her author bio.

Screenshots of press for Dad Brain, including an article about the fatherhood brain, a Next Big Idea Club feature, and a Sunday Times page, all featuring photos of Darby Saxbe.

Luke McConkey Illustration built around a photo of Darby Saxbe in a colorful floral dress, surrounded by hand-drawn books, hearts, a brain, a baby bottle, and a pacifier. — *Illustrations by* *Luke McConkey* *for* *The Sunday Times Magazine.*

Darby has also done something fun with the photos on Instagram: a series of carousels called "I'm a ___ Nerd," where each one pairs a different photo from our session with a reading list. There's a Relationships Nerd, a Gender Nerd, a Parenting Nerd, a Care Nerd, and a Home Equity Nerd, and a few of the lists include her own book. It's a great match for the "nerdy in the best way" note from her shoot plan, and a series like that takes a lot of different photos. Having them meant every post could have its own look instead of the same headshot on repeat.

This is what planning a shoot around use looks like. Before we ever picked up a camera, the shoot plan listed the jacket, press kits, website, Substack, and speaking bios, and even a note to leave room for the cover art, so every setup had a job.

Six Instagram graphics from Darby Saxbe's "I'm a ___ Nerd" series (relationships, gender, parenting, care, home equity), each pairing a photo of her with a book list. — *Images from* *Darby’s Instagram. Yes, I repeated one of them to make the grid work! :)*

Here's what Darby had to say:

"Keturah's pictures really captured the warm, approachable vibe I was trying to create with my book publicity efforts, and she also managed to find my best angles, too! It's been so helpful to have a variety of great pictures on hand that I can share whenever I have a media request or a promotional need."

If you've got something coming up that will need your photos in a lot of places at once, a book, a launch, a speaking season, this is what planning for that looks like. You can find Dad Brain, Darby's upcoming events and even more inspiration at Darby’s Website.

Darby Saxbe smiling with a hand on her hip in a blue striped top, in front of a leafy mural with a bicycle wheel graphic. — *Hair and makeup: Karla Vallejo. Locations: Atwater Studio and The Spoke Bicycle Cafe.*

Darby Saxbe: Author Photos for ‘Dad Brain,’ Designed to Be Used Everywhere

When Darby Saxbe came to me, she had a book on the way and a very practical question:

Here's what Darby had to say:

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