Testing a new format Gallery Page
Turbulance
I’m experimenting with WordPress at the moment to decide whether to move the whole website over. I’m looking for something more responsive and a little more modern without getting too flashy and unusable.
So you may see some weird stuff going on with random template changes and it’s possible that at times the blog may be busted while I play with something in WordPress.
Generally the feedback on the website is that people like it’s simplicity – which is pretty much were the original design was aimed at. Easy access to photo portfolio, some useful info on who I am and what I do.
But although I transferred the image galleries to be mobile friendly some time ago, the bulk of the site is unchanged for many years. So maybe it’s time to take a look.
It’s soooo hard to choose pics for the web site. Even harder to talk about yourself and what you do!
More of Me
Some nice reaction to my last self-portrait post.
Now it’s Friday again and I’m messing with the studio set-up to give some more options for Business Headshots. There’s a lot of them about at the moment.
So out with the Clamshell lighting. A simple but effective beauty lighting: one light and a shiney reflector (in this case the triflector and stand).
And what Beauty is on hand to try it out? Well just me actually.
Last time someone asked that I smiled a bit. Trying to pull a natural smile on your own in a dark room isn’t easy but I tried.
Only that lovely clamshell lighting picked up all those wrinkles – I look like a pug! Time for some delicate photoshop!!!
One of these might actually work for a new profile image? Text your votes now!
For the interested, I also tested out the tethered set-up for another job on next week.  This allowed me to trigger the camera remotely with the wireless mouse and review the images in Lightroom without leaving my seat. I just had to trust the autofocus – which did a very good job at f2 on the 85mmf1.4. You may also spot that I added a small backlight so I have a slightly better edge to my hairline in the later photos (click the image for the higher res version). I just the Lowel video light but it’s hard to direct on your own. The background is a dark pop-up but it’s getting no light so it’s gone practically black. Liking the Black more and more…
Testing
It pays to be prepared. I have a Product Shoot tomorrow and my client wants to Direct. That’s an ideal situation for me because there are hundreds of small design decisions made in a shoot like this and I’d much prefer getting direct input from a client who knows what they want rather than finding out later that they wanted something else.
But this kind of stuff is time-consuming so I set up the lights and the supports this evening so we’re ready to go.
The mood board supplied features a lot of textured products in shiney containers shot from directly above. So I looked around the office to see what I had like that.
Lovely crema there lads.
What does your profile photo say about you?
My favourite part of LinkedIn is the ‘People You May Know’ page: a gallery of mug shots of everyone and anyone who has a connection to someone you’re already connected to.
A picture tells a thousand words. So what do you see when you look at all these faces?
Who looks professional? Who’s presenting themselves in a way consistent with the core values of their business.
Who do you trust?
Ultimately engaging with potential clients on-line is all about creating trust. Whether we like it or not, people form judgements about you when they look at your profile picture. It’s a skill we learn in early life and an important part of human relationships: ‘sussing someone out’; ‘reading a face’.
A good profile image can do that for you. It’s more than ‘just a headshot’, it’s your opportunity to make a good first impression – and you never get a second chance.
So next time you’re perusing the ‘People You May Know’, look at your own profile image and ask yourself if it’s serving you as well as it should.
I shoot professional profile images on location and in the Studio. We can discuss whether a formal or informal portrait would work best for your business and we’ll shoot a range of images so you can choose the best expression and presentation to camera.
First Holy Communion 2017
Wow, First Holy Communion Sessions for 2017 are already booking up.
In particular we have very limited availability for 6th May 2017 and 20th May 2017 is practically full. There are sessions available in the gallery for the other dates in May.
So give me a call if you have your Communion Date: 087 683 8511
Of course, you can still book a session for a different day – it’s lovely to come in on another day and spend a little more time on your photos. The package pricing is the same.
Professional Profile Portfolios
After many years of visiting Fota House and Gardens, I finally got to take photographs inside the house itself.
It was set up for a session to take a series of profile images for musician Sophie Creaner. Sophie needs a range of images to provide to media and organisers of concerts to promote herself and concerts in which she’s playing.
So rather than setting up a shoot just for a particular concert, we shot a range of images with different styles and settings so she has something for every occassion. We included headshots and I’ll end up delivering versions in black and white and panaoramic crops so that she has a lot of choice.
It was a great location for portraits and as usual Sophie was a pleasure to work with.
A Portfolio Session like this is a very cost-effective way of generating a stock of professional images for on-going promotional work. Don’t leave it until you’re being asked by press or PR for an image for a deadline tomorrow: take the time to plan the setting and layout of your images to present yourself in the way your clients will react best to.
Halloween Revisited
Our Halloween Dress Up raised a mighty €700 for our two chosen Charities: Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumin and the Ronald McDonald House.
Time has flown since last October’s Halloween Dress up and I just realised I didn’t get to post a follow-up as we ran through a very busy December and January.
A big Thank You to everyone who called by and took part. We had great fun as always!!!
First Holy Communions
We’re starting to get a steady flow of enquires for First Holy Communion photographs so I’ve updated details of Communion Sessions on the web site.
There are two key pages: the first talks about what services we offer for First Communions; the second is details of the Communion Print Packages.
Eddies in the Space-Time Continuum
Excuse the Hitchhikers reference but on Friday I got a real last minute request to help capture an office fit-out.
A lot of work was planned for the weekend and they were thinking a timelapse would be cool. But the carpet was going in in an hour or so.
I’ve done a few of these but nothing for three days long. Theoretically once you solve power and storage issues then it should be OK – as long as you get the Maths right. So I grabbed everything and we went for it. But you never quite know with these things and there’s no way to check it as you go (and no way to do it again if there’s a problem).
It turned out really well, no unforseen problems. This is the first cut of the timelapse. I edited it down a bit more and adjusted some of the colouring for the client but it is pretty cool…