Sharing is Caring

This past weekend I had a wonderful headshot session with a new client. He was actually a referral from my current client and subject of last week’s blog, Felicia. She had mentioned that Luis would give me a call to schedule a session. Talk about taking action. He called me on Friday. We chatted about what he was looking for which were some simple headshots that he said he needed as soon as possible. Well, as soon as possible ended up being Saturday. Normally, I don’t schedule sessions the next day but I made an exception. Also, normally, I go to my clients but he insisted on coming to my home studio.

While he was here, we got a chance to get to know one another. We even talked about how when you talk to people over the phone that you sometimes try to picture what they look like. I actually stopped doing that years ago. Not only was I not good at it but picturing them put certain pictures in my head which I would use for inspiration. Once I met them in person, those inspirational images went right out the window because I would be inspired by them differently. I don’t know if that makes sense but basically, it just didn’t work for me. I recounted to Luis a time when I was still working in Corporate America and I had a phone interview. I pictured the woman as of European descent, with curly red hair and freckles, tall and slim. When I met her, she was petite and Asian with midlength, straight, black hair. Yeah, I was way off base with that one. Hence, no more conjuring up images from my imagination.

What I did know about Luis was that he works with and is friends with Felicia and has a beautiful Mexican accent. I know that may sound funny to some people, but when he spoke it was so melodic and deep. He thought his speech was broken and not smooth at all. Funny how we perceive ourselves differently from the way others perceive us. What we did agree on was that I do not have an accent. I do remember when I went to the UK and was told that I have an “American accent”. Okaaaaaaaaay. I guess that encompasses all of them. Anyway, I thought it was an interesting conversation.

Oftentimes when I see or photograph people, they ended up reminding me of someone famous. I went to a networking meeting a few weeks ago and met a man who looked like he could be related to Blake Shelton. He said he gets that a lot. Luis reminded me of Luciano Pavarotti. Gee, maybe I should have asked him if he could sing. Anyway, since he just needed one headshot, I set up for a studio session. Below are some of our favorites from the session.

This last one came about because Luis told me that he really liked Felicia’s images because she was outside in some of them. To be honest, I was not prepared for that because they had two different packages nor did we discuss it. Doesn’t matter. My job is to provide my clients with what they want, so we headed outside to my backyard. Of course, this would be during a time when my backyard was in disarray. The grass needed to be cut. Part of our fence is missing because two of the posts rotted out and my husband left the ladder and the grill in the middle of the patio. What did I do? Moved the ladder and shot around the grill. I also made sure that my bokeh was shallow enough so that you couldn’t tell how bad off our backyard was. The other thing I had to contend with was the lighting. It was an overcast day, which I normally love but not that day. It was directional in the wrong direction. Luis kept getting shadows under his eyes and I certainly didn’t like that. No matter where I moved him, the sun just wouldn’t let us be great. That’s when I had to bring my light outside to allow for just a bit more control. This is the outcome of that situation.

I was really pleased with how they turned out, as was Luis. So, if you’re in the market for some headshots or branding portraits, I do hope that you will consider me to be your photographer. You won’t regret it and you’ll have fun in the process. Remember, sharing is caring!