Nationally syndicated talk show host and consumer advocate, Clark Howard, was recently in the studio to be photographed by my good friend and colleague, Tim Harman. Tim shot the images for the new site they are working on and I shot some natural light headshots while Tim was changing things on the set.

When you are working with clients who have very demanding schedules you have to build trust with the client quickly and you have to work quickly. You don’t have much time to worry about the technical part of our job. If you spend too much time trying to figure out your lighting and exposure, the time you have to build the relationship and the time you have to shoot is going to be gone before you even start.

Having a high profile client in front of you gives you some great opportunities. You have the opportunity to have your work seen by millions of people and you have a chance to expand your portfolio. Whenever I have a high profile client in front of my camera I’m thinking of my portfolio. Notice the personal part I’m trying to emphasize? Typically your high profile client may have a need for a specific look or feel to the photographs that are paying you to take but those may not be the type of photographs you want for YOUR portfolio. I’ve shot some high profile folks in my day that you will never see images of. Why? I had enough time to get the images THEY needed and not enough time to get the images I needed.

One in particular I can think of is a time I shot The Strokes for a local radio station. I got the shot the radio station needed, was working on getting the shot I needed but ran out of time. I do have a portrait of The Strokes…. but it isn’t what I want to show… so I don’t show it. If I show that image of the Strokes in my portfolio you would look at it, say it isn’t my best work, and the ONLY reason I’m showing it is because it is a picture of The Strokes.

I see it from time to time on photographer’s sites. The worst example I’ve seen lately is a portrait and wedding photographer claiming they have photographed X number of brides, grooms, babies, etc, etc. “I’ve even been commissioned to photograph the President of the United States.” Click through their site and there is a photo of the President of the United States. Shot with an 80-200 2.8 as he walked through a crowd of people. A bit blurry. Shot for the local weekly newspaper. It wasn’t a portrait or a wedding. It was a grab shot. It looked nothing like the rest of the images in their site. You can see the marketing is just a tad embellished at that point.

All that said. Work quickly, build trust, know your client, and try to pull something off while you have the opportunity to do so. This is my attempt to shoot Clark Howard for me. He’s a self proclaimed tight wad. He wears shorts ALL year round. He takes every dollar seriously.

Cheers,
Zack