Five minute therapist

Sometimes, I've only emailed people or chatted on the phone with them for just a few minutes before we meet for our photo session.

This can be awkward.  In some ways, what a good portrait photographer is trying to do is to get you, the client, to relate to the camera like a best friend.  Like a trusted, delightful friend that you are completely overjoyed to see.

Only reality tv stars and Heidi Klum see cameras this way.  The rest of us fake it.

So, we've never met before, and I stick a camera in your face, and I want to catch a second where you look at that camera like you look at your favoritest person in the universe.  It doesn't seem like it should work, but it does.  Why?

Because cameras don't matter (I know I've told you this before).  Cameras don't matter, photoshop doesn't matter.  The photographer matters.  A good photographer relates to you.  A good photographer can, in a matter of minutes, unlock a couple of things that make you YOU.  When people tell me "Oh, my nephew wants to be a photographer.  Do you have any advice for him?"  I say this: "He has to really love thinking about people, and talking with people, and being--at times--a five minute therapist.  That's the only thing that really has to come from within."

So, the next time you pick up your camera, think about this: it's not about you.  It's about your subject.  It's about helping them look at the camera with warmth and delight.  How can you unlock a little bit of that person to make them feel so at ease that you--and your camera--catch what is most beautiful about them?  I know you can do it!  -xo

Comments

[Patrick]

You have some of the most natural looking people in your photographs. The way you get people to open up to you and show who they really are is one of your greatest gifts.