I don’t get the opportunity to take head shots very often but when I do I find that i really enjoy the process. It’s a completely different animal than weddings and couples portraits. When you have two people in a relationship posing together the hard work is making them comfortable. Once you get them comfortable and having fun the pictures make themselves. It’s not easy to get someone to open up in front of a camera but once it happens you can roll with it.
Head shots are tricky because they are traditionally so static. Stand here and look at the camera and smile. When you see a good head shot you can feel like you already know the person in the photo. Duane is my father in law and he is a fantastic person. Duane has worked in the Structural Engineering industry for over 40 years and has recently decided to start freelancing. I’ve been helping him get a website going and last week he let me take some photos of him to use for his web presence. I try to use natural light as often as possible in my wedding and engagement work but for these photos I used three. It’s easy to focus so much on lighting that you overlook the emotional aspect of photos. Duane is an honest, emotional and humble man and I think this photo reflects that.