The Photoshoot

1376d3246a70f30852318b715c5f55dfYesterday I participated in my first full photoshoot as a game publisher, designer, and published author.

I was recently interviewed by the St. Louis Business Journal about my company and the game publishing industry in St. Louis. Because I work at a home office, it’s not particularly conducive to interviews, so we met at a nearby coffee shop.

But when the photographer for the article contacted me a few days ago, I didn’t have much of a choice: The home office it is! This is where Stonemaier Games happens, so it seemed like the right place for the photoshoot.

I vacuumed and tidied up in advance, and I decided to wear a Stonemaier Games t-shirt instead of my standard work outfit, a full tuxedo. The photographer, a 30-something guy named Dilip, showed up at 3:00, and after he set up his lighting equipment, we got right to work.

I spent the next hour in two poses (standing and sitting, surrounded by games), chatting with Dilip the entire time. He made the process really easy. There’s nothing normal about being photographed, even on your home turf, and Dilip seemed to be aware of this. He kept the conversation flowing the entire time.

Now I have a newfound respect for people who are photographed on a regular basis. It’s not as easy as it looks. You have to do all of the following simultaneously for a solid chunk of time:

  1. Smile alternately with and without showing your teeth.
  2. Don’t slouch.
  3. Suck in your belly.
  4. Keep your chin at just the right angle.
  5. Hold a specific pose that you’d never do in real life.
  6. Don’t laugh.

That’s a lot of things to do at the same time! I was rather tired after we finished, and I rewarded myself with chocolate. Gotta maintain this robust figure somehow.

Have you ever been photographed in a similar way? How was your experience with it?

6 thoughts on “The Photoshoot”

  1. We just did a family photo session a few weeks ago. Try getting 3 kids to do all those things at once (minus the suck in the belly). Talk about tiring. We also rewarded them with chocolate afterwards. And congrats on all of your success!! Keep it up my friend!!

    Reply
    • Nick: Ha ha, that’s great–I can imagine it’s tough to herd in 3 kids and get them to sit still or pose a certain way! I thought about trying to get my cats in the photoshoot, but that just wasn’t going to happen. 🙂

      Reply
  2. I know that my avatar you see here makes me look like an effortless supermodel, but it was one of the most awkward experiences ever. What you see has been cropped quite a bit….the original includes most of the upper body. It was a professional portrait taken onsite for work, so I had the added benefit of having numerous coworkers watch me as I attempted to take a decent picture.

    I was perched on the very edge of a wooden crate with my knees pointed in one direction. I had to place one hand on my upper thigh and stretch one down towards my knee, I guess to get the angle of my shoulders to look best for a photo. Then I was instructed to turn my shoulders the opposite direction towards the photographer. Then I had to tilt my head. And put my chin down slightly. And look up with just my eyes. And smile. I felt like a weird puppet, but the result actually looked pretty natural, so I guess they knew what they were doing.

    The funniest part is I was wearing a suit with a patterned camisole underneath and one of my favorite necklaces when I took the picture. Cut to 8 weeks later, and the photos randomly arrive at work one day – it was on a large 16×20 canvas for display on a wall. I walked over and picked it up, and then looked down at what I’d chosen to wear that morning….same outfit, down to the necklace. Everyone wanted to see how it turned out right away, and I felt like such an idiot standing there in there as they looked back and forth between me and the picture while they laughed! 🙂

    Reply
    • That’s amazing! I’m glad you wore the right outfit for the unveiling of the photo. 🙂 I’ve heard that kissing/sex scenes in movies are directed in similar ways–often the actors have to contort their bodies into odd positions for the camera, but when we’re watching those scenes, it somehow appears completely natural.

      Reply

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