I don’t consider myself to be very photogenic. So I don’t have a lot of pictures taken of myself. But, good headshots are an important component when it comes to personal branding.
My wife is a talented photographer, but she prefers abstract over people. Except for the occasional picture of one of our kids, she would rather be capturing distorted reflections in puddles. A couple years ago, I convinced her to take a picture of me at the beach, and that has been my profile picture since. Because we were outside, and my eyes are extremely sensitive to sunlight, I was of course wearing sunglasses.
Every time I go out to lunch with my friend/attorney, he gives me a hard time about the photo. The sunglasses drive him nuts.
Last week, I overcame my reservations and had professional headshots done. Yane Di Nicola, who runs Photography by Monet, had done excellent work shooting some of my colleagues at KPA Associates, Inc., so I gave her a call.
We went to one of my favorite spots in San Diego, Balboa Park’s Organ Pavilion, and she quickly shot about 90 photos. After working her magic, below are the two photos we ended up with:
I think Yane did as good a job possible, given the subject. At least I’m not wearing sunglasses…
AEC Forensics 