Christie's headshots

It's very difficult to shoot for another photographer because they know what you're doing and you want to try to live up to their vision and idea. So I was a bit nervous to shoot a few headshots for my friend Christie. And we also had lots of people around us and maybe watching us because there were several groups warming up for the D.C.I. competition. We wanted to make it a quick shoot so that we could go watch the performance and then we found out we couldn't take our cameras in, bummer! Oh well. We watched several performances and relived some of our own high school band days. We finished off the night with some amazing Dippin Dots - seriously, those are really cool!

Kris's headshots

One of the interesting things about what I do is that I get to meet different people and I get to learn about them and about what they do.

I had the opportunity to shoot some headshots for Kris and I came to realize what a talented pianist he is. He is the product of a lifetime of studying, practicing, composing, and playing piano.

From the beginning, I knew what Kris was looking for in terms of headshots since he'd told me that he was needing shots for promotional material and such. So I knew I needed to do some simple shots without fancy backgrounds and that's what we started off with. The beginning of any session is usually the warm-up time, both for the 'model' and for myself. So I always start off with something simple. The 'model' will eventually start to feel less uncomfortable in front of the camera (hopefully!) and they'll also start to trust me more (hopefully!) I was thankful that Kris had told me at the beginning that he trusted whatever I did since he'd seen my work on my website. That means so much to me because then I feel free to just do whatever comes to me, rather than trying to fit into a box. Kris, thanks so much for telling me that! So, you'll see a variety, from simple, to in-between, to more funky and moody.

Without a time constraint, we were able to shoot several different things and not feel rushed. But amazingly enough, we stayed within a 2 block radius for three hours! After the session, Kris generously gave me a copy of each of his CDs with recordings a live performance, and some original work. WOW! I listened to the two of them for almost a week straight in the car. Check them out -they're available on his website.

Kris, thanks for trusting me and I hope you enjoy them.

To see the rest of the images, go to my website http://www.karellephotography.com/ and click on 'Digital Studio' on the far right. From there, follow the instructions and look for Kris Becker's headshots. You'll see the images that are on my blog and the rest of the images.