In the last 20 years, we’ve seen communication move from land lines to mobile and from mobile to increased usage of internet technology like “Skype”. Communication is becoming increasingly face to face (though not in the physical sense) as video chat and conferencing become ever more mainstream. A business portrait is crucial to attract customers. Before someone picks up the phone to call you (or your company), they’ve probably already checked out your Linkedin* profile (and been frustrated if there’s no photo or a photo that’s so small they can’t tell what you look like), your Facebook page and your company’s various social profiles and website “team” pages. Does the collective information paint an accurate picture of your company or is “cohesive” the last word that comes to mind? Don’t put the cart before the horse… In an increasingly online world, first impressions are all about internet presence and much less about a first phone call. If your representation of “you” is a bikini-clad photo from your last vacation to Puerta Vallarta (and yes, we’ve seen these on Linkedin), or your Facebook photos are public (and let’s just say that some of them shouldn’t be) or your team photos were […] Read More
Most people HATE having their photo taken. They are “camera shy” not “camera confident”. And I’ll tell you a secret… Other than the usual “I hate my teeth” or “I’m getting old” or “I have a zit”, there’s actually another reason and it’s not vanity. The only way you can see yourself is through the reflection in the mirror, but a camera doesn’t capture your reflection, it captures what everyone else sees. Because that captured image is reversed (from your perspective), it will always feel “off” to you… And that just adds to the anxiety we all have about imperfect teeth or weight or age. So how do you learn to love the camera when your inner being would rather have a tooth pulled than go get a required headshot? One: You are not Alone. You are in good company because I guarantee that most of your colleagues are also camera shy. Alleviate your anxiety by going to a shoot in pairs. Cheer each other on. Having a wingman (or woman) will bolster your confidence and they can give you a second opinion on your photos so your own, completely biased, judgmental opinion is appropriately supplanted. Two: You are Perfect Exactly as You are. How […] Read More
Fact: The human brain becomes more stressed the more it has to remember. This “cognitive load” is often the difference between making a wise decision and making a decision with consequences that can affect your company’s bottom line… Ever had to redo a photo shoot because you didn’t get what you needed? Ever wish you’d hired the right corporate photographer versus the cheap guy? In his book “How We Decide”, Jonah Lehrer asks us to consider a 1999 experiment by Baba Shiv, a behavioral economist at Stanford University: Using two groups of undergraduates, Shiv gave the first group a two-digit number to remember and the second group a seven-digit number. Next he told them to walk down the hall and pick a snack from two options: chocolate cake or fruit salad. When results were tallied, they showed that the group given seven digits to remember was twice as likely to choose the cake as the group given only two digits. Theory? Shiv hypothesized that the cognitive load (seven numbers versus two) made it much harder to choose healthy over decadent. In our current society, the conscious mind is so overtaxed, that all it takes is a few extra bits of information to […] Read More
We’ve spent a long time thinking about the question of why some portraits feel friendlier than others and we think we’ve figured it out… Especially when it comes to friendly business portraits. From a psychological perspective, relationships between strangers take place at a comfort level of about two to eight feet. Intimate relationships between siblings, between mother and child, between good friends and between romantic couples close the gap to a mere 18 inches. Between the two is the everyman’s land of “personal space.” It runs from two to four feet and is used by potential new friends and potential business associates. It is more impersonal in nature so it’s strange that it is called “personal space”. How does this relate to a business portrait? Well, if you are more than six feet away from someone, your angle of vision can comfortably take in a subject’s entire body, head to toe. If your angle of vision is coming from only 18 inches away, then you take in less of the body… To illustrate: In other words, photos, depending on how they’re cropped, can give a false sense of intimacy to a viewer… a feeling that they know the person much better than they actually […] Read More
Officially, Susan Goddard Photography creates dryer-fresh advertising, corporate and editorial imagery for advertising agencies, design firms, magazines, and corporations, both public and private.
Unofficially, I've lived in the USA for 30+ years after narrowly escaping a rainy future in England. I can discuss American politics but not English ones, unless you count the politics of the school playground. I love chess. I've won one lottery (although there was no cash involved, just an elusive Green Card). I play six-degrees-of-separation for fun and find that in Denver, it's usually only two or three degrees (even if it's the President or a Hollywood movie star and sometimes it's one and the same). I have seen one low-flying, UFO in broad daylight. I am completely in love with my dog, Bodhi, who lives up to his name in every way (a being of wisdom and enlightenment). I am bummed (how's that for eloquence) that neither DaVinci or Einstein are still anchored to Terra Firma because I'd love to meet them, sit around a fountain somewhere (hopefully with an Americano in hand) and ask them what their take is on "Life, The Universe and Everything"... (Thank you Douglas Adams.) I love "Game of Thrones", "Homeland" and all things "Shameless". And I love being in the business of photography.
