Non-verbal communication ninja tactics
When I am behind the camera, I love a challenge, :)
...language barrier, psh — bring it on! :)
Recently, I was hired to conduct a headshot session with Mimy, a woman who visited NYC from Belgium, and was in need of a profile portrait to promote her singing career back home.
When I was told that she barely spoke 5 words of English, my first thought was "oh shit, how's that going to work?" I've never photographed someone with a language barrier before, and was concerned that my direction was not going to translate.
Fortunately, I did have an amazing translator to help me with the nuts and bolts direction.
During the session, I had my friend pull out his IPhone to capture some behind the scenes video of the process.
I figured that since this was my first time working with this type of challenge, I wanted to document it, regardless of whether it was a success, or turned into some weird disaster, lol
Spoiler alert - it actually turned out quite well. :)
After going through that experience, it offered me the opportunity to truly appreciate the power of non-verbal communication and energy that is included when directing a subject in front of the camera.
Yes, the language is super important, but, the facial expessions, body gestures and overall energy and focus that I leveraged with Mimy made her feel right at home, and we were able to achieve exactly what we set out to do.
Throughout the process, we also had some fun, and I was able to get some lively outtakes that I also shared with her to use for her social media pages:
It was a good time had by all, and a great eye-opener for me in terms of the power of communication and passion, and how it translates to the way I direct clients, whether they understand a word out of my mouth or not, :)
Now, onto you...
Are you in need of updating your headshot like Mimy, but, have been putting it on the back burner for one reason or another?
I can help you with that, :)
Schedule a call with me and let's see if we're a fit to work together!
PS - For those of you who aren’t in the know, I mail out these blogs 3x a week, and lemme tell you, they’re a real party, so, if you’d like to get in on this, sign up for it here and I’ll throw in a free gift for you...because I care, :)