Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Genuinely You!

A simple question turned into a 2 hour distraction: Can you send me some examples of your head shots? I tend not to put head shots on my website, since they are... relatively boring, compared to my "candid portrait" style photos. I went through my photo sessions and realized I've actually done a decent number of head shots over the year. I figured I might as well make an ad out of the pics, since I was putting them together for a potential client anyways. My ad headline is: "Genuinely You: Head Shot Photography by GinkgoPhoto".

It may not be the season for family holiday photos, but perhaps it's the season for people to fulfill resolutions and finally get that head shot for the updated resume, website or what not.

The thing with head shots is that there are limits. I can't get too crazy with composition. There are expectations for head size in proportion to photo size, clear lighting, whole face visible, mostly face forward, a normal happy expression. There are just things that employers will expect about a head shot photo. So, I have to try and bring out personality and uniqueness within those constraints.

As for GINKGOPHOTOTHON, I have twelve moms signed up. I had to add an extra half day, and asked that a I'M FULL notification be put up on the mom's club bulletin. While it's wonderful to have so much support, I have to be realistic - for every client I will spend a decent chunk of time working with after the shoot, for edits and what not. It's a big time commitment on my end, and I don't want to get stressed out. I've already spent some 6-8 hours on this project. I spent this morning trying to stay organized - family info in excel sheets, keeping track of who had responded/not, if I had responded etc etc.

I've been very distracted from edits, which I am still ploughing through. I must say, being a photographer in itself requires much multitasking. My brain seems to be losing capacity for name recall or past clients. Given I've now shot hundreds (maybe even a thousand? If one considers family portraits of 3, 4 , 5 or many more...) of people, it's understandable... and not due to aging.

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