Overcoming Shyness for a Portrait

The client is a quiet, demure person that would’ve never thought to do a portrait like this. She is a friend of a friend for whom I had done some photos. The friend told her that I am professional and that she was totally at ease during the session. Ultimately it took the client another month to summon up enough courage to do a session. I met with her before the session to answer any questions and so that she could decide if she would be comfortable with me or not.

On the day of the session I could tell that she was still a little nervous. I had already suggested that she have her girlfriend there during the photo session which was in her apartment. All I had to do was look at her girlfriend who knew that she needed to give a pep talk. The client took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and away we went.

The client considered the session to be a watershed moment in her life. Forget the photos. It was the experience that she loved.

Using Natural Light for Photographs

The client was taking a break from the photo session,  had wrapped a towel around her and relaxed on the floor for a few minutes. As we sat there and talked, I noticed that the sun was shining through a tall, skinny window and was throwing a nice highlighted area on the floor. The edge of the highlight were nicely softened by some sheers.  I asked her to scoot over a little bit and I clicked off a few frames and we went back to talking. Later, as I was reviewing the day’s images, I came to the floor images. It was a different viewpoint for sure, but it had a quality about it. Call me weird, but I kind of like this shot. It really wasn’t part of the goal for the photo session but the client did get a small print of it in addition to the large prints she ordered.

Wedding Gift Portraits

I was commissioned to do a fantasy cover, along with several other photos, for a hard cover book that the client wanted to give to her new husband as a wedding gift. There were a dozen outfits photographed with the original intention of doing a calendar. After discussing it at length, the client decided to do something different and went for the book approach. Her plan is to do a book every 5 years.

Fashion Photography

This image came out of a day’s worth of portfolio photography for the model. After having her go through a ton of posing, she opened the car door to sit down for a break. Looked pretty good to me. I fired off a few frames and went on with the rest of the day. Turns out this was one of the best images because she was so relaxed. She wasn’t interested in a cover approach but liked the idea of using a photo as an article lead.

Cover Model Fantasy Photography

The cover was created from a portrait session. I had the client do some very subtle mouth and eye movements so that she didn’t look emotionally blank. It was interesting to hear her take on the session. She said that she never knew it was so hard to do facial expressions!