Excitingly imperfect

I bet you get nervous in front of a camera.

No?  Really?  Yeah....me neither ;)

I also have another problem: I am terribly nervous about being nervous in front of a camera, which results in a fear spiral of OH NO I WILL LOOK AWFUL AND I AM AFRAID OF LOOKING AWFUL NOOOOO which leads to a look of both defeat and defensiveness: I already *know* I will look awful so here's your awful picture, you mean camera.

(This is probably why I am on the other side of the camera for a living.  Boy, there are layers here....)

However, just to be contrary, I absolutely love taking pictures of other young professionals like myself.  And I fully expect them not to be nervous, and have a lovely time.  Tall order!

I think this is why the most common thing I hear during a photo shoot is "Wow, this is really pretty fun!  I look awesome!" (well, the most common thing I hear is "I look bad in pictures!" followed by "Am I smiling weird??", but this is a close third).

YES.  This is pretty fun.  And you do look awesome.  And since it's okay with me that you *not* look directly at the camera, or we play with angles, or I look for a place you feel comfortable or a way to shoot you that makes you comfortable...we will have fun and great results. You will look beautifully, excitingly, magically imperfect.