The CD Cover
– If you ever wanted to see what goes into a whirlwind Professional Headshot Session, you’ve come to the right blog post. Yes, besides creating professional head shots in Orange County, we also crate a few head shots for rock legends now and then.
Even though our portrait studio, Mark Jordan Photography, is primarily known for family portrait photography, a large percentage of our portrait session are Professional Headshot Sessions for business and the arts. Gratefully, David Pack (singer-songwriter of Ambrosia fame) first commissioned me back some six years ago to update his publicity photos. I’ve been working with David ever since.
This most recent photo session began when I got a call David that he and Fred Beato (drummer and owner of Beato Drum Bags) were doing an album project together and needed “a few” images for their CD cover. As it tends to be with work of this sort, the images are needed right away and there is no time to consult and brain storm. The extent of our planning was limited to meeting at San Clemente pier where Fred would show up in his red T-Bird and David would pack guitars and percussions.
So much for detailed planning.
Now, you may think that such meager organization might be disconcerting. And you’d be right. However, after 32 years of such slapdash arrangements you either get used to it or it’ll eat you up with anxiety. I choose the former, going into these serendipitous Professional Headshot Session with confidence knowing that something will reveal itself. In fact, I might go as far to say I almost prefer it this way. Without the shackles of preconceived expectations, both the talent and photographer are freer to explore the possibilities and capture unscripted moments.
My assistant (a fellow Master Photographer who I had mentored) and I showed at the appointed time and proceeded to wait for the talent to arrive. Fortunately, we arranged an arrival time about an hour earlier than actually needed. In other words, David and Fred arrived for their Professional Headshot Session right when we needed them, if not a few minutes early. With one hour of quickly setting sun and about a thousand exposures to create, we quickly got to work.
I’ve posted the Professional Headshot Session images essentially in the order they were created, so there is no need to describe each sequence. Suffice it to say, each was replete with it’s own set of challenging variables, not least of which was eliciting the requisite expressions, which, if you’ve read my previous posts, you will recall is the single most vital element to photographing people. Without expression, no matter how remarkable the design, the image amounts to nothing more than an electronic arrangement of pixels.
Actually, the most difficult aspect of executing a Professional Headshot Session for David and Fred was not my attempts to get them to emote but rather trying help David realize that his animated nature was precisely what was needed – without my intervention. Sometimes a client can mistake my quiet, self-assurance for photographic lethargy, not realizing there’s calculated intent in establishing an atmosphere of comfortability where the subject feels at ease to be themselves. While I did have to coax Fred a tad (i.e. relating/mirroring David’s excitement), for the most part, these two extraordinary musicians were a blast to photograph.
As to the Professional Headshot Session images themselves, every rendition you see here was created entirely within Adobe Lightroom (except one), with the yeoman’s work accomplished by the limitless creative tools in OnOne. Many of the treatments required a dozen layers or so to create the desired effect (along with a great deal of judicious masking). I thought you might enjoy seeing a few images of the 1,000 plus we created, as well as a couple versions from each.
As always, should you have any questions, no concern is to small.
As always, should you have questions regarding any aspect of our Professional Headshot Session, no concern is too small.
Mark Jordan
Master Craftsman Photographer
American Society of Photographers
International Photography Hall of Fame & Museum
Orange County Photographer of the Year
3-Time Honoree -EPCOT’S World’s Greatest Photographers Exhibit
When looking for a professional Orange County Family Portraits photographer, or Orange County Headshots Photographer please call 949-888-8071 or complete our online request form.