Monday, September 19, 2011

Be Striking. Be Happy!

I found the coolest site a few days ago which uses facial recognition technology to analyze the emotions captured in photographs. Naturally, I wanted to see how my own portfolio of photographs stacked up, so I ran the emotional breakdown on this very blog.

Here's what I got:


As you can tell from the colors (sorry it's a little blurry, it's just a screen grab), my work is happy almost 3/4 of the time! And people wonder why I love my job! LOL

Monday, September 12, 2011

Sneak Peek: Laurie Sittin' on the Dock of a Bay...

Love that golden oldie of the same name by Otis Redding, don't you? :)

Another sunny shoot from this summer...







While shooting with Laurie, an up-and-coming model, we ran into the nicest group of guys who were returning to the dock house from an obviously long hike. Their big backpacks and hiking boots were so perfect for the outdoors-y feel of the shoot, I just had to ask if they would mind shooting with us. One doesn't really become a photographer unless one is comfortable interacting with many different people from all walks of life!

Even though it was hot and they were sweaty and probably tired, they were great sports to play along with all my silliness and posing. Thank you so much, guys!!!



Monday, September 5, 2011

Sneak Peek: Joan's Business Portrait

Had an excellent opportunity recently to shoot with Joan, who is the Executive Director of the Kansas City Chapter of the CPCU and also happens to be a neighbor as well.

While the headshot itself is fairly straight-forward (a close view of the head and shoulders with direct eye contact is standard in most industries), what was particularly fun and challenging for me from a photographer's perspective was that this headshot was going to be displayed alongside some already existing headshots that had been taken a few years earlier. So I needed to create a seamless integration of Joan's new headshot with the existing photos by leveraging the existing color scheme and settings of the old images.



When Joan first called me, I initially thought of shooting an image with a much darker brown and tan backdrop, which conveys a very traditional and rich feel. Think tapestries, libraries, Harvard. However, upon talking with her and checking out where the photo was going to be used, I realized that this would look completely awkward and out of sync with the rest of the website. It was too dark and serious! The color scheme of blues, greens and whites called for a much higher key portrait, with a casual business office background.

Joan had this to say about her portrait: "Thank you for the photos. Dang, you make me look good!"

And I can't think of a better endorsement than that! =)

If you would like to schedule a business portrait for yourself or your entire team with Striking Photography, please give Debra a call at 913/602-8061 or email at debra(at)strikingphotography.org. We can shoot in the studio or on-location, and I am happy to work with you to create an image that conveys all the values your business stands for.