My First Photoshoot

Two weeks ago, I was contacted by St. Louis Magazine (a magazine devoted to all things about the patron saint of streets with mispronounced French names, Louis) about my annual Festivus party.

Apparently the magazine was looking to do an article on Festivus, and I have the only Festivus party in St. Louis that Google knows about. So I talked the reporter for a while, and he said I might be hearing from a photographer.

I have to be honest, I had no idea what a photoshoot entailed. I thought a photographer might take a few photos and call it a wrap, or maybe even grab a photo of me offline and Photoshop it a bit.

The photoshoot was today at my condo, and it was much more of a production than I thought. The photographer–who was really nice and helpful despite my nerves–set up two umbrella-like reflectors and took a number of photos of me in two different photos. The most interesting tidbit I learned was that when you do a photoshoot, you’re supposed to make subtle changes to your position and facial expression for every photograph to increase the odds that the photographer will get the perfect shot.

I wore my new Festivus shirt for the 45-minute shoot–it was hot off the presses. I hope it doesn’t ruin my professional credibility. I say that because when I got back to the office, I checked the circulation of St. Louis Magazine.

120,000 subscribers. Wow. 120,000 people are going to see me wearing a Festivus shirt in my condo.

Good for business? Maybe not. Good for the blog? Definitely. We’re going to be seeing some traffic in December, folks. Start thinking of your grievances so you can make this year’s Top 10 list.

18 thoughts on “My First Photoshoot”

  1. I wonder if you can get the reporter to mention where you got your Festivus t-shirt…maybe you could get free shirts for a year or something if they get a mention in the article.

    Reply
    • Good call. Spreadshirt.com also lets you sell shirts through that website, so I could sell them myself, but I don’t know many people who would spent $25+ on a t-shirt.

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  2. Congrats! That’s awesome!

    Yes, there is always more to a photo shoot than most people realize—good lighting, a variety of shots, etc. It’s good knowledge to have, especially if you ever need to purchase good photography (portraiture or not) in your career. It gives you and idea of why good photography costs as much as it does. I was even more amazed the first professional video shoot I did—the sheer number of people necessary, the amount of (literally) smoke and mirrors to create the right scene and how long it takes to get just a few seconds of good video.

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    • I’m surprised, actually, that they didn’t have a stylist for you. That’s often a requirement for portraits. Men always get a little weird about getting make up done until they meet the always chatty, always female and always attractive stylist, see how good they look and typically love the experience 😉

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    • Look at you, an old pro at the photoshoot. I talked about video with the photographer a little bit, and he said that good lighting is the key difference between a high-quality video and a low-quality one.

      I only had the one photographer at my shoot. No makeup person. That would have really unnerved me (I do NOT like makeup. I was already nervous enough to have the spotlight on me. Can’t they just fix that stuff with airbrushing and Photoshop? I asked the guy to make me look 10 years younger.

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    • I’ll definitely post a link when it comes out. Good question about Biddy (I always appreciate “What does Biddy think?” questions). Biddy was actually quite scared of all the equipment, and he spent the entire photoshoot in the other room under the bed.

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  3. This is cool, Jamey – can’t wait to see the link! Festivus will be here before you know it!

    I took part in somewhat of a photo/video shoot a few weeks ago for my job. It was so interesting to be “on set” while the taping was going on, and to see how the lighting, camera, microphone, etc. all worked together. It was not a huge production, but the first one nonetheless to take place in our office.

    Reply
  4. I saw the Festivus article! The photoshoot turned out well. The photo they used showed Jamey cooly standing in his balcony doorway–his hair in perfect alignment, festivus shirt sleeves casually rolled up, and a reflection of him in the doorway glass that seemed to say, “That’s right. I’m the one who’s going to pin you this year, non-relection Jamey.” (You’ll have to see this year’s Festivus shirt to understand that.)

    Reply
    • Sweet! I still haven’t seen it–it’s not out in grocery stores yet (and they haven’t activated the online link). I’m glad the photo looks okay. Not too goofy?

      Reply

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