Jewelry Ecommerce Photographer | Kate Benson

Haus of Urbi

The jewelry company, Haus of Urbi, was launching their brand in the U.S. and needed the perfect jewelry photographer to capture their collection for a great online presence—the kind of professional touch needed for stunning jewelry website photography. After a thorough search, they selected Kate because of her impressive experience, high-quality work, and efficient approach. The team absolutely loved their experience, especially since this was their first major shoot. Kate’s patience, organization, and practical advice on logistical blind spots were invaluable. In the end, they were ecstatic with the final images and editing, noting that Kate truly went above and beyond to make sure all their needs were met.

Denys and Pratt, co-founders of Haus of Urbi answered some questions about their company and experience working with Kate as their jewelry website photographer

Jewelry on model and e-commerce Website Photography

What inspired you to start your company?

Pratt: I grew up around jewelry. It was an active conversation and something I did together with my mom. We would often go through her wardrobe and wear different pieces of jewelry. She would often tell me details about the piece I would wear – how it was made, what materials were used to make it, what are natural pearls, how to know the difference between a real pearl and a fake one, a real diamond and a fake one. This excited me and this passion I guess just called to me. Fast forward to now, after being in the business of jewelry making for over 3.5 years now, we have realized there is such a market for quality jewels. People are tired of cheap jewelry that tarnishes, or breaks or discolors your skin. People are looking for quality metals that last and that they can wear with confidence.

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What was it like getting your business off the ground and growing?

We come from an entrepreneurial backgrounds. Prior to Haus of Urbi, we’ve managed various start-up projects, started other businesses, including investing in real estate. Our humble beginnings with jewelry started with hand making it about 3.5 years ago from our home studio in Virginia. First iteration of the business was growing through Saturday farmer’s markets / pop-ups to get our brand out there. During this time, we learned a lot about jewelry, customer likes and dislikes. The love and response from customers kept us going to keep pivoting, making quick changes on the very feedback we received. Our second iteration of the business was breaking into a owning our own physical, pop-up store (brick and mortar) – we added new designs and experimented with gemstones. Today’s iteration of the brand is as we know it – including a fully integrated, customer & product-focused online store and our flagship store at Reston Town Center, which opened in Q3, ’25!

How did you find Kate & what prompted your decisions to work together?

We found her through google search. We did an RFP with 3-4 different photographers but Kate definitely rose to the top in terms of her experience, work quality, and efficiency.

In Kate’s words:

I could tell from our first conversation that Denys and Pratt were well educated in the world of photography. They knew what they were looking for but were open to discussing the best way to get there with the right team.

Haus of Urbi had a large number of pieces, hundreds actually. A lift like that in photography alone can be a large task. I had a lot of ideas off the bat to save them some money. Through shooting wide where we could zoom in on multiple pieces in one shot (so one photo could be used 3 ways, full and as two detail shots) as well as recoloring pieces we were able to bring the project into their budget.

E-commerce jewelry photographer Kate Benson for Haus of Urbi jewelry website photoshoot

What was your experience working together like?

We loved working with Kate. She has been great with helping us prep, especially considering that this was our first shoot, which came with big implications of launching the Haus of Urbi brand to the U.S. market. We engaged on multiple calls during the RFP phase to ensure expectations were sent and that all of the necessary information was shared across between parties. Kate was incredibly patient in answering our questions and providing prompt responses. Kate provided her POV on common blind spots during the shoot, and the logistical lead up to it, which only helped us to be better prepared. During the shoot, she was a dream to work with! The set up was on time, everything was extremely organized. Kate gave us time on shoot to go over the pictures and approve. We didn’t feel rushed. We felt confident, well informed and had a fabulous experience.

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From kate

I always try and look at the project in it’s entirety. With clients are as dedicated as Denys and Pratt, we scheduled a number of pre production meetings that ensured complete understanding of all their jewelry photography needs. That allowed me to make suggestions that saved time and ultimately budget for them.

For example, each of their over 100 pieces of jewelry had both a gold and silver version. That translates to quite a lot of photography time and expense, especally when working with the models. I suggested recoloring the gold pieces to their silver versions to cut the shooting time in half. That translated to getting 100+ photographs of jewelry in a day we had packed to the minute to get 50+ pieces shot.

How did you feel at the end of the project?

We were ecstatic! Kate went above and beyond with the pictures and editing. She carried the same enthusiasm in post production, as she had on the day of the shoot. We went back and forth on a few edits and she accommodated all our needs.

Kate’s final thoughts

Although Denys and Pratt were self proclaimed “newbies”, their trust and professionalism resulted in a jewelry website photography build that estabolished companies would have been excited for. Their level of self awareness on what they could do, as well as their willingness to call in help when things felt overwhelming were admirable. It’s a daunting task to take 200+ pieces of jewelry and create a full website in a week with multiple images per piece of jewelry, still life and on model. This robust built launched the Haus of Urbi into a comapny that looked many years estabolished.

I enjoyed every moment of this shoot, thank you so much for trusting me to bring your brand to life!

To shop the collection, visit the Haus of Urbi website or Instagram

Work with Kate

Working together doesn’t feel anything like work. Friendships are forged, jokes are told, songs are sung and by the end of the day you’ve forgotten you were there to make the unforgettable images you now have.

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FAQ

Do you have a studio?

Yes, my private photo studio is about 45 minutes to an hour north of downtown Boston in picturesque Portsmouth, NH.

Do you offer remote shooting?

With over 2/3 of my clients scattered around the US, I offer remote shooting to any who choose it.

We’ll connect via video call, text messages or email (depending on the level of participation you want) throughout the shoot. Clients chime in with idea’s, feedback and approval in real time so we don’t waste a moment.

Want to come in person? Great! Let’s put on some great music and collaborate face to face.

Can I get RAW files?

I shoot tethered most of the time because it allows clients can see every image I take, but it also means I will need to do some work on each file after the shoot to ensure it still looks as awesome as it did when you saw it on set.

How much will a photoshoot cost?

Your project is unique and you shouldn’t pay for anything you don’t need. Each of my quotes are based on the same factors (time + costs + use).

Once we have a list of the number of images to shoot and something to illustrate what they should look like, I’ll calculate specifically for you what that would cost to create. That said, I’m always happy to give a ballpark rage for a price if ideas are still being developed.

What are the "costs" of a photoshoot

Costs are everything you see in the photo (and whatever time it took to get those items/people ready). That could be location rentals, talent like models, props & wardrobe, food for everyone, etc.