Taylor contacted me about actor headshots here in Albuquerque, New Mexico saying she had never had any made before. I told her that more and more actors are choosing me as their headshot photographer and that I could make great headshots for her like I have for many other actors already this year. As you can see from the headshots in this blogpost, for her very first headshot shoot, Taylor absolutely rocked it! We shot on both a white and a black background as I do for most headshot clients these days. I start shooting on white, and finish with black. The latter color usually wows the client with how different the photo ends up looking. Thank you Taylor for choosing me as your headshot photographer!
Having a headshot on your website gets more clients
In asking for feedback from a client about why that client chose me, among the multiple reasons given, the one that stood out to me was because I had a picture of myself on my website. This is the exact advice I give to many people I meet at networking events that have, to me, anonymous websites without their photo and sometimes even without their name anywhere on the site. If I meet you in person, I will go to your website later to follow up and seeing a modern, professional headshot helps me remember who I was talking to. If we have never met and I am seeking out a service or product, seeing the face of the actual person behind that business makes a big difference to me personally. I believe this is especially if your job involves working with people. People want to see who they will be working with, hiring, making a purchase from. This is one of many reason why having a modern, professional headshot is not only critical, but also the best value in marketing and branding there is!
If you asked me, I would tell you that a tripod is a must for making long exposure photos. In fact, I have already shared some long exposure ocean photos from San Diego featuring the Ocean Beach Pier that were all shot with my Nikon mounted on a tripod. That said, if getting a tack sharp image is not needed, handholding a slightly long exposure photo, especially with a lens that has VR (vibration reduction), can produce some very cool shots. The latter was the method I used to hold my Nikon right above the incoming water at Imperial Beach, San Diego, California at sunset. Why do a long exposure? Because it makes the water look like stretched out cotton. In the above shot you might easily think it was taken from a boat in deep water, when in reality it was me in less than ankle deep water letting that few inches of water whoosh past me as the camera’s shutter stayed open for 1/6th of a second.
Business Headshots suited to the client in Albuquerque
Jeff visited the JCP Home Studio in Albuquerque, New Mexico needing a very specific business headshot with guidelines provided by the new company he is working for. They had a neutral, soft gray background and were a centered orientation style headshot. Here is a photography secret: you do not need to go out and buy a gray background. A white background, depending on how you light it, looks gray! The physical background used for this headshot, is the exact same one used for this one, for example. Know matter what your headshot needs are, I can produce a professional, modern headshot for you here or right at the location fo your choice, be it your office or home.
For the first 4th of July in a long time I had my camera out on a tripod using bulb mode and an index card to capture multiple fireworks burst in one exposure. Setup in a wide open field at Balloon Fiesta Park in Albuquerque, New Mexico I had a clear view with little wind to blow smoke into the frame, but on the other hand not much of a foreground to set the fireworks in. My step-by-step guide for making fireworks photos goes into even more detail about how and why I like to photograph fireworks. Still, I was pleased with the images I was able to make even from a good distance away.
The Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce has added some new team members since I last made headshots for them in September of last year. So I took my mobile studio headshot photography setup back to the Chamber, but this time shooting outside in a breezeway. The American Flag and the New Mexico State Flag were still used as the background, and I still used my signature setup of a 26” softbox setup as a beauty dish with a silver reflector for the lighting. One addition this time was putting a light on the flags to provide separation of the background from the subject, as the end of the breezeway was in dark shade.
The ski resort town of Taos, New Mexico is a place one would expect to find sweeping views of mountainlandscapes. For my photograph of such a well known view, I wanted to make it standout by using in the foreground and old, relic of a pickup truck to juxtapose with the natural features of the background. Both the foreground and background contain old things, with the former old in terms of human years, and the latter in terms of geological millennia.
