When in doubt, fake the damn thing :)
It’s essential to show your audience how you serve through your photos…
…even when none of them are in the room!
When it comes to working with speakers, authors, consultants and other expert business owners, there’s a lot of ground we cover during their lifestyle portrait sessions.
Mostly because these folks do a lot of different things in terms of serving those who need them most.
For my client, Casey, in-person training and workshops is a large component of her business as she helps executives deliver better presentations virtually and in a boardroom.
We talked about it at length during her pre-session strategy call and decided to incorporate it into the session.
Great…but Casey pointed out one, glaring problem.
We didn’t have any participants to fill the room.
So, I explained to her the concept of contrived authenticity - yes, it’s an oxymoron, but with purpose!
Here’s what I mean:
Once we’re in the conference room, behave in the same way you do during a real-life scenario; wear an outfit you’d wear in front of clients, write your framework on the board, deliver your presentation, and react to the attendees' questions and answers.
I, in turn, will photograph you in the room in a way that frames out all the empty chairs and focuses the attention on you - your body language, facial expressions, and other activities.
While a totally contrived scenario, its objective is rooted in capturing her authentic approach, demeanor and delivery.
And for someone like her who works with C-Suite clients that would never, EVER allow a camera into this type of meeting, this is the ONLY way she can get her hands on valuable photos like this.
So, with our plan in place, we went to work:
While there was no one else on camera in the room, did you even notice?
Better still, did you care? Or were you more drawn in to what she was doing?
While shooting a well-attended workshop would provide added visual benefits, these images will, nonetheless, serve the purpose of showing her audience what it looks like when she’s in front of the room during one of her trainings.
And the visual variety of these images, from the composition and angles to the expressions on her face, can be leveraged in myriad ways throughout her online presence, including her website, social media banners, and other marketing and promotional materials.
At the end of the day, when in doubt, just fake it :)
Over to you…
Do you conduct workshops and other on-site training for companies that won’t allow a camera to capture the action, but want to create a portfolio of images to help promote this aspect of your service?
I can help you with that.