CAA was probably one of my biggest jobs for 2015. It was three days of shooting with many people from different office locations. Just coordinating everyone to show up when they were supposed to was a headache, at least I imagine it was as I didn't have anything to do with it. My friend Tessa coordinated the whole thing for me and it definitely didn't seem very fun at all. Anyhow, thank you Tessa for setting this all up and giving me the opportunity to bid on this job. It was a great experience and everyone was super patient and easy going.
I like doing big corporate headshot contracts because it is good money for me and I also get to meet a lot of people and have that familiar feeling of stress I used to get photographing weddings. The stress where you can potentially muck this up and waste the time of many people. Luckily, this never happened to me.
I have noticed some similarities through a few corporate shoots. This is purely from my limited experience but...
- 50 % don't want to be photographed and are there because they have to
- 5 % sabotage their own picture by holding on to their non-interest by not being prepared (didn't do hair, makeup etc), just to realize "oh crap, ready or not these pics are going to be on the website"
- You know when you see yourself on video and you look and sound weird? Well, this seems to be the case with headshots. Some people are outright shocked at what they look like.
- 99 percent of people say "I am not photogenic", right after they say hi to me. Reality is everyone is photogenic in some shape or form.
- The people who seemingly don't care about how they look, are the people who spend the most time agonizing over their selection, and requesting more time.
Money is always the killer of creativity. I often spend an hour with people when they come to me for headshots. We usually get something nice within 15 minutes, but in an hour, you keep getting better and better images. It also gives you time to experiment, and relax. Unfortunately with corporate gigs, it would be impossible to stay within budget to allow for that amount of time. I do hope one day I will get a crazy gig where time and budget is not a factor, and non-traditional headshot are the deliverable.
