Building a Repeatable Creative Studio: How Birdhill Delivers Monthly CPG Photography at Scale

I'm Josh, based in Denver, Colorado, and I'm owner-operator at Birdhill Studio. We create photo and stop-motion video content for CPG brands on a monthly basis — started in 2020, right around COVID.

My brain works in a very systems-oriented way, so from the start the question was: how can we make this repeatable rather than doing one photo shoot for a client and then wondering where the next one is coming from?

Doing one photo shoot a year is tough to stretch across an entire year with product launches, seasonal campaigns, and all the different channels brands are pushing on digitally. We came in to solve that — fresh creative delivered consistently without brands having to build their own production house.

Can you talk about the big inflection points as the business has evolved — especially recently with AI, but even before that?

The very first inflection point was simply: can we make enough monthly revenue to keep the lights on? Once we hit that goal, we could trust the model worked and start building on it.

At the end of 2022 I bought my business partner Troy out — I call it the happiest divorce, because we both shared what we wanted and there was no disagreement. He told me he didn't want to own a business anymore, and I was honestly taken aback because I expected pushback.

In 2024 I planted my flag and said we are going all in-studio, because this business functions better when people can just talk rather than jumping on endless Zoom calls. In October 2024 we opened a dedicated studio space in Denver.

For every photo shoot we have 19 different milestones that have to happen — from reviewing concepts with the client to ensuring props arrive on time, sourcing a model, and making sure Instacart produce arrives the day of. Without the software systems we've built, I believe we would be drowning.

What would you say is your real differentiator as a business? I noticed you were very clear when you introduced the company about exactly who it's for.

We are extremely focused and specialized — we don't do projects, one-off shoots, paid ads, social management, or graphic design. It's not that doing less is special in itself; it's that we've put all of our resources around one specific service and we speak very honestly about what we do and don't do.

A small example: when we're creating monthly deliverables, an asset will often live in more than one place — so if it's going to be a website banner and an Instagram story ad, we're shooting it in a way that allows for cropability on both. That level of detail is only possible because we're not spread across a dozen other services.

What you sell is what you're going to get operationally. Because we have clearly defined plans with exact pricing and deliverables listed on our website, we're intentionally constraining ourselves — and that's what makes the downstream processes repeatable and automatable.

Entrepreneurship can feel lonely, but it also felt lonely with a partner because things were still extremely challenging. Since the buyout it feels more aligned — there's no confusion about who does what or who makes the call.

I'm curious about the meta-process: how do you decide what to automate, how do you review it, and how has AI changed that thinking?

Since we deliver on a monthly cycle, I think about how everything can flow back to phase one — month after month, across multiple clients, with photographer, stylist, producer, and retoucher all involved. The question is always: what is continuous rather than a one-off instance, and how can clicking one button trigger the next person's task automatically?

A friend of mine described AI as ketchup — you can use a little of it in image creation and refinement, but if you try to build the whole meal around ketchup, it's not going to go well. I've mentally adopted that, because what brands come to us for is real, high-quality, consistent photography that tells their brand story with authenticity.

We're delivering somewhere between 12 and 25 images a month per brand, so each concept has to pull its weight — there are no throwaway assets. That's why we're diligent about not just leaning into whatever makes something go quicker.

A phrase I believe in for our team is 'falling forward' — as long as our momentum feels like we're learning and growing, the rest is okay if it's not perfect. I'd much rather be falling forward than backward.