As best as I can remember, for the first time since I was a kid, I saw a movie at a drive in theater. The experience was great (the movies were not)! This was part of an ultra-rare, full weekend off, out of town, not part of a photo job holiday. It was me and Jessica and our dogs Kiki and Artie all in the M3 with the top down completely under the stars, looking up at the big screen. And the stars! They were so bright and vivid! Not since I spent the night at the bottom of the Grand Canyon did they look as vivid to me.
Thanks to Jessica’s curiosity about the curious and the website Atlas Obscura, on a recent weekend trip to Las Vegas, New Mexico, we drove up a picturesque road to the United World College, checked in at the visitor’s center, and were handed a key card to The Dwan Light Sanctuary. This is a peaceful temple of sorts that uses architecture and prism widows to create a visual interior landscape of geometric design. I found it quite the unique space as my eye was drawn to both the architecture of the building itself, and the scattered light falling on its walls. This is a hidden gem of tranquility deep in northern New Mexico.
Coralee has been both a networking friend and a client for a long time here in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Recently she gave me a great referral to photograph a hotel recently bought by one of her clients, as she is a commercial real estate broker. As a thank you to Coralee, I invited her to come to the JCP Home Studio for a complimentary headshot session. I really appreciate referrals, so I was glad to be able to make these great headshots for Coralee. Thank you Coralee for thinking of me!
Anyone that has met Jessica knows she is a pretty huge The Nightmare Before Christmas fan. I could not even tell you the number of Nightmare themed items she owns, it has to be over 200! She often dresses up as Sally from the movie, and it just so happened that I already had a white seamless background setup from an earlier shoot as she was getting ready to go to a Halloween in August party (seems mighty close to actual Halloween, but that’s just me!) so that allowed for a quick cosplay photo shoot before she left! Jessica posed to retreat a few of Sally’s actual poses from the movie after having done her own makeup and donning her Sally dress. I think she looks great, but I may be biased!
Heather contacted me wanting headshots to represent her as the professional she is, a psychologist. She even came to Albuquerque all the way from Arizona having specifically sought me out to be her headshot photographer after doing extensive online research! I am very glad that Heather chose me as her headshot photographer and traveled over 3 hours because it was a very fun shoot as her partner and her dog were in studio too! It was a lot of fun, and also as you can see some fantastic headshots with a lot of impact were made.
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!
