Headshots That Tell Your Story...and Help Build Your Brand

If only there was a key on your computer to access everything you need to build your brand. Your headshot is one of those components that would be on the list.

by Skip Cohen

I wanted to expand the concept from my headshot topic in yesterday's post.

​Kristen Jensen: I first met Kristen when I was working with Panasonic's LUMIX Ambassadors many years ago. While her key focus as a photographer has been image capture over the years, she's expanded her expertise to help professionals build their brand strategy. There's no doubt in my mind that she's one of the very best at assisting people to define and then build their brand.

Images copyright Kristen Jensen

​​​Going through Kristen's website, I wanted to share how portraits have helped build her own brand.  She's included a photograph of herself relevant to each topic on her website as she wears each "hat" important to her business. And under the heading of each specialty, are thumbnails of her work with clients.

Her three main points of focus in working with a client are as a photographer, videographer, and brand strategist. She's also included a photograph of herself related to blogging, and on her contact page, she's made it a point to be on the phone with her monitor loaded with images in the background, again reminding her viewers she's a photographer.

Terry Clark and Environmental Portraits: In his section, which is tied to his own workshops, Terry made it a point to share images that show him teaching.

When you look at many of Terry's portraits over the years, you see he's a master at environmental portraiture for his corporate clients. A portrait really does tell a story when it pulls in the environment of the subject—something so many of you need to do when considering your own headshot.

Over the years, I've shared a lot of Terry's work on this blog. He's a talented artist with an infectious passion for the craft. When you look at his images, it's very easy to not only understand what the subject does but also notice how their expressions are always relaxed—a testimonial to their interaction with their photographer.

I pulled a few screen shots of some of my favorites of Terry's, just to help make the point about how your own headshot might look, if you brought in the environment.

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Images copyright Terry Clark

​Kristen and Terry are helping me make a point in today's post - take the time to get some headshots demonstrating who you are as a professional photographer. Let's clean up all the bad selfies, grab shots, and even pictures artists used of them when they were kids! Make your headshot one more example of your skills as a professional - not somebody's Uncle Harry!