This Video for the Dove Real Beauty campaign is both powerful and emotional. I am not endorsing any brand. It's just that I watched it and it inspired me to write this post….
Our inner critical voice – about how we look – can be so destructive.
When I meet people at the start of a shoot I often receive apologies like " sorry I'm not very photogenic" or " you'll have your work cut out for you with me" and lots of comments along the lines of "I really don't like my ears/teeth/chin (sometimes I even have people saying to me at the start of a shoot "I hate my…..!") some may be due to sound bites people still have in their heads from comments that were made about them and how they looked as children or the critical voices of others perhaps at the end of a difficult relationship.
We do grow into our faces and bodies and our different life experiences shape how we look and feel.
All I ever see is a beautiful and interesting (different from mine) face in front of me. I am longing to photograph it and prove them wrong! Yes prove my clients wrong – perhaps not the best approach in business – as the customer is always right!
You do look good and you can feel great about you.
Just let yourself see what others see – even for just a moment.
Sounds perfect right? The ideal.
As more of our shopping is done online than ever before, websites have become an essential part of any reputable business. The first things we often see when we get to a website are images and photographs. The only way many of us will ever get an idea of what we are buying and who we are dealing with is through these images. On your business website, an integral part of who you are and what you do is your 'about us' page, your 'meet the team' shot or featured info about your product and services. How do you give a sense of who you are and what you do?
Think Trip Advisor: you choose your holiday destination, then you look to stay at a particular hotel. The website might show you some fab photos of the resort, the rooms, the decor, the facilities at the hotel, spa, bar, restaurant etc. This helps you to like their product or service and go ahead and buy it. Unless the only photos you get to see are the ones taken by visitors using only their phone cameras. Should you leave the making of the images professionally representing your business to people who have no understanding of what you want to do (and maybe no true understanding of the camera they have in their hand)?
This is where you create and freely share valuable information that is closely related to what you do or sell. This means informing people so that they know, like, and trust you enough to do business with you. This might be on social media or on your website. How do you make it interesting?
Professionally created images can help do this. They can grab people's attention. They can give an implicit sense of who you are and sell it for you. They back up what you are saying about your product or service, your staff, your premises- any aspect of your business- and they can illustrate it. It's much easier to offer beautiful luxury salon treatments with images of your salon looking luxurious and beautiful.
So why should we buy from you? If you look professional, approachable and confident in your environment then you have become the person we want to do business with.
Don't leave your photos to chance: put them in the hands of a professional.
For me photography has changed so much from when I first started taking photos on a City and Guilds course back in Dublin 24 years ago! At the time I was shooting on film (costly for a poor student) and working in the darkroom (lit with that iconic red bulb) to develop my film, create negatives and print my work. I still remember the smell of the chemicals and the delight in taking my processed rolls of film, born into the light for the first time, and holding them up to the window to see how they had turned out. Finding my way around the inside of the camera and the darkroom involved learning chemistry (mixing the chemicals for fixing and developing) maths and physics (for measuring light and time of exposure to light), as well as good old patience and dogged methodical persistence- all to capture that elusive image of a frozen moment in time.
Time inevitably marches on and as we all know the process these days is much more instantaneous- everyone has a camera on their phone by default and high end cameras have become more available on the high street than ever before. Our children have become accustomed to being bombarded by more photographs than any other generation in history. In 2014 1.8 billion images were uploaded every day!
But how many of them were any good?
How many were taken with care, patience and dedication? How many will stand the test of time?
The technology may have changed but the principles of photography have remained the same. And as time passes these throwaway images become the only direct link to those precious key moments in our lives.
Create an heirloom. Put them in the hands of a professional.
Whilst studying photography nearly 20 years ago I slowly became began aware of an interesting pull of contrary impulses: I was clearly falling in love with photography and in particular with portraiture including self portraits. And yet I had a strong desire to shy away from the camera myself. Initially I thought perhaps I was just a bit shy and maybe these feelings would soon disappear.
My name is Ursula Kelly and I am a long term sufferer of C.A.S. Otherwise known by me as Camera Avoidance Syndrome.
I sometimes still get bouts of it and as a result there are hardly any photos of me at all until my 30's.
Throughout my professional career (starting long before the age of the selfie but that's a discussion for another time) this sense of ambivalence has since developed into a really useful tool. I naturally feel akin to others who have expressed their own versions of C.A.S. and I now have an intuitive understanding of how to make the camera see your best sides (insides and outsides) despite your offsides.
But what does that have to do with business you may ask? You need head shots that show who you are and what you are calpable of. I can create shots like these in minutes saving you time so you can get back to working in and on your business.
Feel free to get in touch with me and find out more about the "power of a tiny picture" shoots I offer. I can help you look and feel more confident and natural so that you can represent and reflect your business in a positively professional light.
I don't claim to have a cure for C.A.S. but I do have the power to help you forget that you have it.
I believe there is a great portrait in everyone.
I love the human face and I want to photograph yours.