Business Portraits, Headshots, as a business-building tool

 

Do you need a professional business portrait? Your first answer might be “no”, but;

• Do you have a website? Does it include a bit about you (a biography)?
• Do you publish a blog?
• Do you or will you ever issue press releases?
• Does you company have a newsletter?
• Do you ever write articles for your trade magazine?
• Or have them written about you?

If you answered yes to one of more of these questions, a professional portrait may be a good investment, and the good news is it doesn’t have to be a really expensive one.

How many times have you visited a faceless website? It’s still all about people. Who you are, what you do, your story and what makes you different are still incredibly important, but people still like to see what you look like! People still do look for the emotional connection – a person they feel they can get on with and do business with. 

We all lead busy lives, and standing out in the crowd is becoming harder and harder. We are literally swamped with information, be that in newspapers, from TV, from the Internet, whilst commuting to work, at trade shows, at meetings. In fact sometimes it all feels very anonymous.  

A professional portrait is an important tool in your branding toolbox, no matter how small or big your company it’s an essential part of your business identity. Enabling you to stand out from the mass market.

Having your photograph on your marketing materials gives you the opportunity to sell yourself. 

Now your business may depend upon more than selling yourself, but any time you connect your name and business with a pleasing professional image of you, the association will have a positive impact on your customers’ perceptions. As human beings we remember what we see as much as ten times longer than something we hear. There is no substitute for visual presentation for an immediate and lasting impact. 

So if you want to change or improve your position in your marketplace, and up-to-date portrait is a great place to start.

So ask yourself again: Do you need a professional business portrait? If the answer is now “yes,’ here are some things to avoid:

• Don’t take a photo of yourself in a mirror with a mobile phone.
• Use a passport photo.
• Or opt for a standard mug shot of you stood by a wall with unflattering lighting coming from on camera flash.
• Do not scan a print.
• Don’t cut your face out of a group shot.

All of these send the message that you couldn’t be bothered to invest in a professional looking image, which lessons your credibility. Ideally, the image used in professional representation should at least match the professionalism of the business or industry represented.

For more information please visit my main  website.

 

Baby photography ... Teddie at 5 months

These photographs were taken at Teddie's first session with me as part of a triple session package that I offer during baby's first year. It's great to see them grow and develop, but already you know he's going to be a real cheeky little boy!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

For more information please visit my main  baby photography website.

Baby photography ... Lyla at 5 months

This is little Lyla from her first photo session ... I just love the range of facial expressions you get from babies!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

For more information please visit my main  baby photography website.

Baby Photography … smile baby, smile!

It may look like an easy job, but trust me it isn’t. All babies are different – you probably already knew that – and therefore every photo session is different. Hooray I say – I’d get bored if I had to do the same thing over and over again.

Fortunately I have had it all in my studio; happy, sad, grumpy, tired, sick, hungry. I’ve learnt to work with it – and generally I head it off, by suggesting parents book a slot that matches their child’s happy time. Strangely the 11 a.m. session is the most popular, which is also the time most first time mothers have worked out how to get out of the house by, and this was with a 5 a.m. start. I love the challenge of photographing babies, watching them grow and their emerging personalities blossoming into toddlerhood.

The most popular baby package I do is a three separate sessions over babies first year – this particular baby promotion has been popular for the past twenty or so years (not that I was there at the beginning). It’s an absolute classic and is so popular because the free gift the parents receive at the end is typically a triple folio/frame, depending who you book through, containing one image from each stage of babyhood really shows how baby develops and changes during that first year.

The reason I mention this particular promotion is for the challenges it presents – typically a baby is photographed at 4, 8 and 12 months. In theory this captures the various stages of lying, sitting and standing quite nicely. Except some baby’s will achieve those stages early or latter than the book says.

I solve that one, by asking the parents whether the baby is sitting yet before I book the second session. I can’t be doing with rigid rules, who cares if this is at 7 months or 9 months? I don’t.

The key to it all is to manage the parent’s expectations. Everyone loves the smiley baby photograph, but the baby may have other ideas particularly when arriving at a new unfamiliar place. If I can keep the parents relaxed and happy, then I usually end up with a relaxed happy baby who may or may not smile.

I can honestly say that in my five years of photographing babies only one baby has come in and truly smiled and chuckled for the whole session. In my experience, and fortunately for me, parent’s love photographs that capture their child’s personality and I know I’ve achieved that when they comment, “That’s him! He pulls that face all the time!” The smiling baby pictures are the icing on the cake really – especially at 4 months old.

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For more information please visit my main  baby photography website.

Baby photography ... meet Joseph!

Meet little Joseph - his parents won the raffle prize that I donated to the Bishop's Stortford Baby & Toddler fayre held last month. This is my favourite photograph from our shoot, and whilst it made the shortlist, another photograph won the day!