Why should I get my picture taken?
Every one of my clients has their unique story that brought them to my camera.
"To celebrate the grace that comes with age" - "...I always feel overlooked in my family. It would be nice to find a reason to celebrate me for once." - "I'd love someone to capture me now as I am." - "Something just for me." - "I would love to get an updated authentic head shot." - "Help myself embrace my beauty beyond 40." - "I want my kids to see that circumstances don't define you and age is merely a number." - " I feel more myself than I ever have and I love me, all of me."
When I think about what people tell me, I've found that the reasons can be broken down into three broad categories. Each is equally valid, and maybe there's a little bit of everything in there most of the time, but there's usually one core reason that tips the scale for them to pick up the phone, or drop me an email.
I'm never in photos by myself; I look/feel great; I want to look/feel great!; I want to be seen for the real me
I just got my dream job; I just got a promotion; I'm starting a new business; I just gained a new qualification; I just moved to a new home
I survived cancer; I'm beating a chronic illness; I left an abusive partner; I lost it all and had to start over
Let's take a look at some real-life examples of people who wanted their photos taken by me and the reasons they shared to do it. There are far too many to list them all here, but here are just a few.
Celebrating Self
Jen had a meteoric career rise in the military working in cybersecurity, but in her middle years found that it was taking a toll on her mental health and family - "It surpassed my role as a mother, wife, friend, daughter...I had to learn how to dial back some of the traits that weren't serving me in life....Now life looks much different. I'm fanatical about self care, present for my daughter, mom to a rescue dog. I worked really hard to build a life that I love. I feel absolutely limitless."
That attitude was reflected in the images she posed for and selected in her gallery. Although we captured a variety of poses walking, standing, sitting and laying, it was photos like this that grabbed her the most. She said after that "I've never loved looking at photos of myself more than this!"
Jen had never done any kind of personal portraiture or modeling before our session together, but her images remain some of the very best examples of my client work - and that's all down to her attitude and belief in herself.
Celebrating Success
Janet's story is one of hard work and self-improvement, but in an unexpected area of life! As a physician and mother, she had to balance her home and professional lives - and as she discovered that meant prioritizing one or the other at various times. She doesn't regret it, but acknowledges that in her career she "was doing what she was supposed to, but not what was needed to get to the next level." In her personal life though, she was working on keeping up with her friend who, like her, enjoyed running! She trained hard, tracked down experts for advice, and ended up improving her times so much that she has now completed several events with her friend across the country.
Her photoshoot was a neat dichotomy, celebrating her hard work and identity as a physician on one hand, and showing off her running medals on the other. Her photos highlighted the fact that it doesn't have to be story of "success" in the usual sense we might think of it these days, and if it's something important to you then it's something important enough to celebrate and create a memory of.
Celebrating Survival
Colleen, one of the contributors to my Forty over 40 on Film project began her phone call with me saying "I didn't think I was vain enough to get pictures done..." She had the idea in her head that to get photos for the sake of photos was somehow excessive and prideful, and she felt anything but that. Now in her mid-fifties and struggling with serious health issues she felt that her best days were behind her, and she had actively avoided being photographed for years. Her family brought her up short with a shocking realizing - with her health so precarious, they might be left with no photos of her to properly remember her by.
At that point the narrative switched completely - EVERY day to her was a once-in-a-lifetime event, and no day was promised. Every day that passed without helping her family remember her was a day lost to time. In a sudden departure from being the woman who had avoided being photographed for years, she arranged a hair and makeup stylist to come to her house, dressed up for the occasion, and we spent over an hour working carefully to capture her in a best a manner as we could. I got photos of her, and several of her with her husband, and her parents. It was a sobering thought to realize that the photos I was taking of her could very well be the last she would ever have taken in her life. At the end of it her mother was in tears, and I have never felt more relieved to see the fully developed negatives come off of the roll!
Colleen's favorite from her session with me.
It needn't get to the point where you are thinking it's "too late" to get portraits done. It's never too late, and it's never too soon. Maybe some of the answers at the top of this page resonate with you, or maybe you can think of your own reason to get a portrait done. Had a great year? Celebrate with a photoshoot! Had a bad year? Feel better by getting a photoshoot! Drop me a line and let's get your picture taken.
Edited to add: Colleen passed away December 23rd, 2024, shortly after she purchased a set of prints for her family. I also gifted her family the 16x26 print that was on display at the Jax Photographer's Hub art show in May 2025.