As a first-time photographic ‘model’ who is happier backstage, some might say Ginny had her work cut out on this summer shoot. Could she meet me where I was and, further, capture the essence of my brand?
Ginny has a passion for connecting people, place and business in her work. I approached her to help me visually represent my brand as she was recommended by an organisation I trust, and I like her work. Happily she agreed.
I am a writer by trade, excited to be updating my website and in need of a good and representative portrait photograph.
To help lay the groundwork for our forthcoming shoot together, in our first telephone conversation Ginny asked me, ‘Where do you connect [to] and feel comfortable?’ A peaceful local reserve where I can relax staked an immediate claim to this opportunity.
Here we met for the first time, where Ginny’s professionalism, subtle reassurance and delicately layered confidence shone through. She supplied a strength and direction to the day to the extent that, even as a ‘newbie model’, I trusted her enough to hand over to her process, adding and incorporating my own suggestions as the morning developed.
But let’s not be swayed...
There is a bottom line. Take me out of my comfort zone in front of a camera and I ask the question, ‘How might I, and others, recognise my business in these pictures?’
In other words, could she secure it - the ‘real me’ - in a single shot?
We covered different poses and locations, used props and confused passing strangers into thinking that perhaps they should recognise me!
Ginny was adaptable and thorough throughout taking hundreds of shots, and then, with a snap of a lens cap, we were done.
The next day I received over eighty proofs from which to select favourites.
There had been a moment on the shoot when I had entered ‘flow*’, otherwise known as ‘the zone’. For me this means being deep in thought, creatively industrious and surrounded by and connected to nature.
And there is the evidence in a picture, at the centre of a metaphorical dartboard.
I am not sure how she managed to capture such a fleeting signature experience… but she did.
Laura Feinberg
Website: www.thestrictlysustainablewriter.com
More about ‘flow’:
TED talk from the man himself:
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