My most challenging headshot session to date
Off the back of a headshot session I did in May 25' I was quickly booked for another session by another department at Penguin Random House - huge thank you to the teams at PRH for continuing to put their trust in me.
I had been feeling pretty horrific the weekend before, a high temperature and a throat which felt as though Edward Scissorhands had been at it - so I wasn't feeling in tip top condition when the day arrived. My day started before sunrise with a drive to Basingstoke dosed up on meds to catch an early train into Waterloo, this meant I was setup and ready to start shooting before 9am.
My approach to headshots is more considered than conventional. Every session is about creating space for you to feel comfortable, confident, and natural in front of the camera. We’ll talk through ideas, explore small adjustments, and refine each image together — finding that point where presence replaces performance. I’ll guide you through the process, reviewing images as we go to highlight what works and evolve the session organically. The result is a portrait that feels effortless, recognisable, and entirely your own
Obviously this approach is more time consuming, coming in at about 5 minutes per person - but if your team are getting headshots they're happy with then it's far more worth it than a collection of shots which may never see the light of day.
Better headshots start with trust. When someone feels seen rather than scrutinised, the whole energy of the portrait changes.
I know of headshot photographers who allow 2 shots per person and call for the next - I feel this is wrong for so many reasons, it means there will be no connection between photographer and sitter, plus it feels a really lazy way to approach this kind of work.
When you create space for people to relax, laugh, and just be, the photograph takes care of itself. That’s where the best images come from.
During this session in particular, I was surprised time and again by compliments from the sitters about my approach and patience - this was compounded at the end of the day when the organizer came to me to thank me for how I'd gone about my trade (especially in comparison to photographers they'd worked with before) - I left this session feeling really good about what I'd created for this team!
Things have gotten a little crazy over the past couple of months, but I'm certainly not complaining! Back soon to go over some of the things I've been doing.
P.S. there's a new and improved wedding portfolio site on the way to replace the current one found here - Will Fahy Photo - Weddings
I'm also putting together a brand new Instagram for my wedding work - news on that coming soon.
Thanks for stopping by, Will