Special Intensive Weekend Workshop:
Saturday, September 14 –
Sunday, September 15 –
(9 AM to 5 PM)
Saturday, 9 AM to 12 noon – Introduction
Saturday, 1 PM to 5 PM – Basic
Sunday, 9 AM to 12 noon – Intermediate
Sunday, 1 PM to 5 PM – “Starting up as a business” / Special Guests
Two Days for $350
Individual Workshop:
Introduction $120
Basic: $150
Intermediate: $200
Seminar: “Starting up your photography business”: $120
Question? email
One of the things I hear the most from actors who come to me for a head shot is,”I just need a photo that really captures ME and who I REALLY AM!”
As harsh and cruel as it sounds, I really want to say,”Why? What casting director cares who you REALY ARE??”
If I go to the beach, I dress very casually. If I go out to dinner, I dress up a bit. And if I attend a formal event, I wear a tux. It’s still “me” at each event but I dress differently and perhaps even behave differently, and hopefully appropriately, for each occasion. 
To have one head shot that captures who and what we “are” is impossible because we so many different people depending on the situation. For actors, it is imperative they identify their “casting”. It is vital they know how they are seen by casting agents, not how they see themselves or are seen by their friends, loved ones, or relatives.
A tall lanky model type girl walked into my studio one day for head shots. She was really beautiful and had a sort of “Playboy” look with blonde hair, blue eyes, slightly oversized breast implants, and rather obvious lip injections. She said,”I’m so sick and tied of getting sexy roles and always being asked to take my clothes off. I’m a GOOD actress and I want to do more serious roles!”
All I could think of to say was,”WHY?”
While not an understanding or compassionate answer, it was painfully obvious she had invested in her physical looks, her body, and her skimpy wardrobe.
She told me she could play a “lawyer” and “here’s my suit jacket” for the shot. Indeed she did have a suit jacket but it was a plunging neckline and she chose not to wear anything under it. When I suggested she wear a blouse under her jacket to “look a little more official”, she said she didn’t want to because it “didn’t feel sexy”.
Oddly, the very next day I had a sweet and charming young lady come to the studio who was sort of the opposite. She was rather plain looking and I thought about all the wonderful roles she could get as a farmers wife, pioneer woman, or dust bowl maiden. She said,”I want some photos like these” and handed me magazine photos of Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, and other top models.
Acting requires one thinks of themselves in third person and remove ego from the equation. It requires an actor to look at themselves objectively as possible and ask what roles are right for them.
Who looks like you? What roles are they playing? You don’t have to BE a mom to play mom roles. You can be a full time mom and play roles as a judge, a sexy hooker, or a fighter pilot. It just depends on how you are perceived by casting agents.
While there are many classes available for figuring out what “type” you are, it really is a matter of basic homework and being honest with yourself.
Acting is a job and like any other job, it means you work at it. Figure out how to best market yourself because YOU are your product.
I have been blessed to be able to make a nice living as an Actors Headshot photographer for the last 30 plus years in Los Angeles.
Today I am starting a new blog. I’m a newbie to all this, so perhaps it is fitting that I start off on my daughter’s BIRTHDAY!!!! I can’t tell ya how old she is because she’d kill me. So…for her birthday I bought MYSELF and iPad! YAY…good Daddy! OK, fine….I bought her whole new computer. Got her a Apple Powerbook. She’s happy.
Other than her birthday, the only news is, I went to a photo show tonight at a gallery over on the West side. The show shall go unmentioned because it was pretty awful. Since I’ve been a photographer for over 35 years, it takes a lot to impress me. I’m NOT impressed when photographers BRAG about NOT using Photoshop. They take a peculiar high and mighty stance as if they were “purists” when, in truth, they are just bragging about what I see as a shortcoming. Photoshop is just like any other tool…a lens, a camera, a filter, and all the decisions made around those items. To proclaim,”I didn’t manipulate it…this is how it really looked!” is incorrect, naive, and snobby BS. It simply just isn’t so. Human eyes see differently than cameras. Digital or film sees differently than human eyes. A camera lens does NOT replicate the exact image a human eye sees. Most importantly of all…we are all different from each other, so when we both look at the Grand Canyon, we see something different. And don’t even get me started on Black and White imagery. While I DO enjoy some B&W images (like the works of Ansel Adams and Helmut Newton), we would not even KNOW about it if color had been available from the beginning. Weird how habit can become a standard by which other things are measured…even when it is BAD!
I use the best equipment available to me. I use the best post processing software available to me. This is the same as a painter using the best paint and canvas he can afford.I no longer even OWN a film camera. If I shot film, I would be out of business in less than a year. No client is going to “wait for a couple days” for film to be processed any more.
SO…back to this show. I will concede that some people enjoy the random errors introduced by a lousy camera. From my point of view, if you can’t repeat what you have done, then it is not a controllable art form. Perhaps that is the draw for some artists, but that just makes me uncomfortable and subjects my “art” to the random failing of equipment. All of the “camera flaws” aside, what we have left are the basic concepts of good photography. Composition, line, form, movement, texture. The images in this show weren’t even well composed. In Photo 101 students learn basic art principles like the “Rule of Thirds”. If the basic concepts of art are missing, no matter how randomly “cool” the effects are, we are still left with an ill composed, flatly printed, and poorly executed piece of wannabe “art”.
Bad photography doesn’t become good just because someone has enough money or backing to publicly display it. It’s still just BAD.
This blog COULD degenerate into a discussion of “what is Art”…but suffice it to say…bad photography is just BAD PHOTOGRAPHY. I say,”Raise the Bar!!”