I’m not sure how the last blog post I wrote was 2 years ago…but it apparently was. I’m not even sure if anyone would know to look here anymore since the cobwebs are thick and dense both on this section of my website and my brain.
It’s not that there hasn’t been plenty to write about, I guess I just got caught up in the day to day of life and forgot that I like to write. I think I’ve forgotten a lot of things over these last few years. That I like to write, hike, swim, go to concerts…but I’ve been busy doing other things. Taking care of my family, cooking dinner every night (which requires an insane amount of trips to the grocery store…don’t even get me started on the price of food these days) and running my business.
I’ve pivoted that business over the last couple of years as well. I shifted the focus from Family Photography to Branding Photography. Not that I didn’t do some branding photography along the way for clients over the years, but now it’s the main focus and not the occasional job. I found that I didn’t want to keep niching myself down as a family photographer to ONLY photograph families and kids. I LOVE that part of my business, don’t get me wrong. In fact one of my most favorite things is photographing families year after year and watching their children grow. But I wanted more variety. I wanted to challenge myself as a portrait photographer. I wanted to get back toward the vision I had for myself when I studied photography and got my degree.
And now that I’m in that trajectory, more than I was before, I still feel like I need to course correct a bit. It’s so easy to get caught up in taking headshots and not portraits. What’s the difference you might ask? Well, let me try to explain. A headshot is a photograph of your head. hahaha But seriously, it is. It’s a photograph of your head that you can use for people to identify you. Now don’t get me wrong, there are good headshots, terrible headshots, and amazing headshots. I strive to be in the amazing category. What makes a headshot amazing is that you capture the personality of your subject, with just their head and face. Somehow, through their facial expression, the top and or jacket they’re wearing, the way they’ve styled their hair and incorporated any accessories, you “feel” who they are. This is not easy to do and I believe it’s when their energy mixes with my energy and we relate to each other in some way that their true personality starts to shine.
That being said, it’s just a photograph of their head, and it’s missing a whole lot more that can tell you about who they are. There is little to no environment. You barely see what they’re wearing. But with a portrait, you have room to tell a bigger story. When I was young, I was inspired by people like Annie Leibovitz, Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, and Dorothea Lang. I loved how their photography would say so much with so little. Paragraphs of words were conveyed sometimes by a single photograph and you could truly feel the image. THAT is what drew me in to photography. THAT is what I want to capture when taking a portrait.
Truth be told, I would love to have time with the people I photograph. Time to talk, explore who they are and who they want the world to see. Time to choose the right location, props, clothing etc. Time to create art and not just a photograph. I do feel lucky that one of my gifts is being able to do a lot of that in a short period of time. I work quickly when I need to, which is most of the time, and yet still capture more of a person’s soul than just their smile. That’s what keeps me tethered to this craft actually. Capturing the soul of my subjects, when they’re willing to let me in.
Enjoy a few portraits I’ve taken over the last 2 years that I’ve been away. And if you have a calling to have your portrait taken, I hope you give me a call and a chance to create an image that you not only love but communicates who you are deep in your being.
