Who wants a free headshot (post-lockdown)?

[learningtofly]

No room for any more, I’m afraid

Well, I'm gearing up to launching (once we come out of lockdown) what will be a new headshot business, but I'm short of "stock" images for the website. In fact, until I can upload more than the few I have at present I can't do much in terms of launching.

With that in mind, I'm looking to set up a day/half day in a studio in High Barnet (this one) during which time I'm prepared to offer anyone interested a free shoot plus one fully retouched headshot in both high resolution and web-ready versions. Once I've officially launched this will cost a minimum of £200 so it's a nice little offer to anyone who can get themselves over to Barnet. The studio has seating areas, tea/coffee facilities, a bit of parking outside, and is close both to shops and to High Barnet Station (which is at the end of the Northern Line).

Please note that what I need is headshots rather than portraits, so the focus will be on just that (closely cropped head & shoulders images, taken on a white, grey or black background)... perfect for LinkedIn, other social network profiles, etc. I'm not really looking for teams from the office, as that would be chargeable... this is just an offer for TZ members and their partners (I need shots of both men and women) as a mutually beneficial arrangement between mates.

If you're interested then drop me a PM - if I can get enough people to make it worthwhile (at least half a dozen but the more the better) then I'll canvas views in respect of dates, etc. Weekends are possible too, so hopefully we can make a plan that works for everyone.

This is the kind of thing I have in mind (one of them is actually my son - you can decide which)...

[Kingstepper]

Soundood?

[wileeeeeey]

Soundood?

"No teams" unfortunately so Soundood is out.

Great offer Tony.

[learningtofly]

"No teams" unfortunately so Soundood is out.

Great offer Tony.

Aren't you local?

[wileeeeeey]

Aren't you local?

Yes, but my wife is cutting my hair so I might skip this one until the barber reopens. Would be great to have a recent professional pic.

[AlphaOmega]

Hi Terry,

It might be worth contacting small marketing agencies in your area and offering them something like this.

Pics are always a pain and the results are often indifferent. You can check this by reviewing their 'Contact our team' page.

They might jump at the chance of sending an employee or two and they might be able to offer reciprocal work through their larger clients if they like the results.

[Omegamanic]

Leave Terry out of it ;)

Good luck with the new venture. If we were local, we’d most likely pop round.

All the best

[AlphaOmega]

Leave Terry out of it ;)

It's not a typo.

[alfat33]

PM sent :)

[Onelasttime]

I could do with a new passport photo

[learningtofly]

Hi Terry,

It might be worth contacting small marketing agencies in your area and offering them something like this.

Pics are always a pain and the results are often indifferent. You can check this by reviewing their 'Contact our team' page.

They might jump at the chance of sending an employee or two and they might be able to offer reciprocal work through their larger clients if they like the results.

Haha... interesting idea, which I shall give some thought to. The only thing that might prevent me is if I see them more as a target market once I'm launched.

Leave Terry out of it ;)

Good luck with the new venture. If we were local, we’d most likely pop round.

All the best

Thanks Scott, much appreciated.

Yes, but my wife is cutting my hair so I might skip this one until the barber reopens. Would be great to have a recent professional pic.

It must still be worth getting a free shot - I can do a bit of tweaking on the hair in PP if necessary.

PM sent :)

Star!

I could do with a new passport photo

If that means you'd like to come along then drop me a PM.

[Onelasttime]

If that means you'd like to come along then drop me a PM.

Ah, I was only joking, but good luck.

[Foxy100]

Oh, you mean a headshot photo. In that case no thanks, Tel. I thought you were punting for business for your new venture.

[Mj2k]

Well played sir!

On a serious note sounds a great venture Tony.

Work do ours annually, so will leave the kind gesture to someone else to take advantage of.

Need an updated one though, through lockdown after trying a grade 0.5 realised I was more thin on top than I thought. My current photo has me with a full head of hair, which surprises clients a little when the cam gets switched on.


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[Rodder]

Sounds a great idea. So many workplaces require ID and lots of people use it on their email address. Most look awful.

I do wonder if there’s scope for some artistic creativity, I’ve seen some emails with more creative photos of colleagues and they certainly look better #give_a_fake_impression!?!

As an aside is there any way you could get in to school photos, there has to be good money from that!

[learningtofly]

Tony, would you be willing to make a house call (San Diego)? After all, it is winter in England!

I wish - I might even be able to meet my granddaughter!

If anyone would like to get a sense of Tony’s portraiture work, here’s a headshot he did for me, I’m especially pleased with how he dealt with my buck teeth and crossed eyes in post...

Oh, you mean a headshot photo. In that case no thanks, Tel. I thought you were punting for business for your new venture.

You worry me sometimes.

Sounds a great idea. So many workplaces require ID and lots of people use it on their email address. Most look awful.

I do wonder if there’s scope for some artistic creativity, I’ve seen some emails with more creative photos of colleagues and they certainly look better #give_a_fake_impression!?!

As an aside is there any way you could get in to school photos, there has to be good money from that!

Corporate stuff has to follow the brief, and for the most part that means keeping it simple. You never know, though.

Established school photographers have everything pretty much sewn up, although I'm not sure that it's particularly good money (especially after the freebies they always have to throw in, like new shots of all the staff).

[jeff]

The very best of luck with the new venture Tony.

I've enjoyed your fine photography over the years, as I'm sure have many others here.

I hope the current situation improves enough to allow you to get things off the ground before too much longer.

[learningtofly]

The very best of luck with the new venture Tony.

I've enjoyed your fine photography over the years, as I'm sure have many others here.

I hope the current situation improves enough to allow you to get things off the ground before too much longer.

Thanks Jeff, on all counts!

[jukeboxs]

I would gladly offer my services as subject, but too far sadly. I hope it’s a success for you, Tony.


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[snowman]

Can I nominate Donald Trump to receive a free head-shot?

M

[learningtofly]

I would gladly offer my services as subject, but too far sadly. I hope it’s a success for you, Tony.

Thank you.

Can I nominate Donald Trump to receive a free head-shot?

M

Yes.

[bootneck]

Sadly too far for me but best of luck with the venture and a cracking gesture to the forum

[learningtofly]

A couple of examples - just to prove that there'll be something visible aside from a black square

[learningtofly]

Any more for any more?

[Saint-Just]

A few words if I may:

First the good points:
The site has been well optimised for mobile. It is important both because chances are that is how the majority will visit it, and because this is how Google prioritise it.
It is quite clear as to what you do, and is very informative.
The design is a bit bland to my taste but you could very legitimately claim a Bauhaus look where function leads form. Certainly nothing wrong with it.

The not so good:
First and foremost the site is slow. Both in desktop and mobile version. It is probably 100% HTML; consider CSS, and minimising your images.
Secondly it is very wordy. Completely understandable as you want it to be informative. But what you sell are images. This is all your homepage should be about. And a link to different pages, say covering headshots, portraits and fine arts. As it is, headshots and portraits, and homepage are identical.
Your about me at the bottom is good, but the header should be your mugshot and your signature rather than a logo (the same signature you’d use on the prints you send, maybe?), and the about me deserves a page.

Then you have to think about why you want a website.
As it is, it’s a sort of business card. Again, nothing wrong with this if that is how you want to use it.
But if you want future clients to find you with the site you will need to think a little more about it. Happy to discuss it with you, if I can be of some assistance, of course.

[learningtofly]

A few words if I may:

First the good points:
The site has been well optimised for mobile. It is important both because chances are that is how the majority will visit it, and because this is how Google prioritise it.
It is quite clear as to what you do, and is very informative.
The design is a bit bland to my taste but you could very legitimately claim a Bauhaus look where function leads form. Certainly nothing wrong with it.

The not so good:
First and foremost the site is slow. Both in desktop and mobile version. It is probably 100% HTML; consider CSS, and minimising your images.
Secondly it is very wordy. Completely understandable as you want it to be informative. But what you sell are images. This is all your homepage should be about. And a link to different pages, say covering headshots, portraits and fine arts. As it is, headshots and portraits, and homepage are identical.
Your about me at the bottom is good, but the header should be your mugshot and your signature rather than a logo (the same signature you’d use on the prints you send, maybe?), and the about me deserves a page.

Then you have to think about why you want a website.
As it is, it’s a sort of business card. Again, nothing wrong with this if that is how you want to use it.
But if you want future clients to find you with the site you will need to think a little more about it. Happy to discuss it with you, if I can be of some assistance, of course.

Marc, I genuinely accept the spirit in which you've offered your thoughts, and I appreciate them very much. Again, though, I suspect that there are some sector specifics at play here, and I'm happy that I've done the necessary research.

I've spent literally WEEKS taking advice, looking at competitor websites and discussing these issues with headshot photography communities. I'm therefore happy with the structure as it is (yes, headshots & portraits is indeed the landing page, quite intentionally), and I'm also happy with the wordy nature of the landing page, as it's good these days for Google ranking (lots of headings, subheadings and key words in support of the images). Possibly most importantly, it works beautifully on mobile platforms and, as you say, this is probably the key issue nowadays.

There is, in fact, an About page, and the link is up there on the nav bar. Not sure why you're finding it slow to load though, as i've done multiple page load tests on it and it appears to perform very well. The images are all low res/small file sizes too.

Edit: Just tested the site again and got the following result. Performance has gone down a bit since I've added new elements, but a full load speed of 2 seconds could be worse. I'll see if there's anything i can do to improve it, but at least the other elements of the test scored highly.

[Justin Case]

Landing page is too long and rambling.

Good luck with the new venture, though.

[learningtofly]

Landing page is too long and rambling.

Good luck with the new venture, though.

Not if you're a potential headshot customer it isn't - this is the trouble with asking such a broad range of people for a view, much as I appreciate the input.

Thank you.

[learningtofly]

Thanks for all the input yesterday, everyone. I've slept on it and made a few changes (navigation, terms, footer, etc) that I think have improved the site.

All the views expressed are much appreciated.

[sundial]

Wish you success with your venture Tony. May I ask what camera(s) you'll be using?

BW

dunk

[Saint-Just]

Edit: Just tested the site again and got the following result. Performance has gone down a bit since I've added new elements, but a full load speed of 2 seconds could be worse. I'll see if there's anything i can do to improve it, but at least the other elements of the test scored highly.

I just sent you an email with a pdf.
Please bear in mind that there is a lot of good about your site that neither my post or others will mention: we are indeed trying to bring whatever little knowledge/expertise we have in our respective domains to view your site with a critical eye, so we miss out on what you know about competition in your field and whatever we say is just meant to bring your attention to some points

[learningtofly]

I just sent you an email with a pdf...

Not received, Marc

[Saint-Just]

Not again

Gave it another try on the mail to.

[alfat33]

You did great Tony and thanks for making it so enjoyable and painless for us. It must have been a very long and hard day’s work.

Looking forward to seeing the end results.

[100thmonkey]

No doubt this will be a successful venture for you Tony and I’m sure we can drum up some business for you too.

[learningtofly]

You did great Tony and thanks for making it so enjoyable and painless for us. It must have been a very long and hard day’s work.

Looking forward to seeing the end results.

Thanks Simon. You have a lovely family.

No doubt this will be a successful venture for you Tony and I’m sure we can drum up some business for you too.

Thanks mate.Your shots were really good.

[learningtofly]

Just a quick example from yesterday, with Kerry's kind permission. Everyone else will just have to wait patiently

[tobywatches]

Really enjoyed meeting you and having my photos taken, Tony.
I was full of the joys of spring when you told me I had a lovely smile until you then told me part of the job is making the "models" feel comfortable!
Thanks for having me and I can't wait to see what you've done with my mug.
Hopefully a bit of social media promotion will drum up some business for you too.
Cheers.

[learningtofly]

Really enjoyed meeting you and having my photos taken, Tony.
I was full of the joys of spring when you told me I had a lovely smile until you then told me part of the job is making the "models" feel comfortable!
Thanks for having me and I can't wait to see what you've done with my mug.
Hopefully a bit of social media promotion will drum up some business for you too.
Cheers.

Haha - thanks so much for giving up your time, Toby, you gorgeous hunk!

[Saint-Just]

It was great to meet you and Mark, Tony. Thank you for doing your best to make me look like Brad Pitt, and thank you for putting up with my teenager.

[learningtofly]

It was great to meet you and Mark, Tony. Thank you for doing your best to make me look like Brad Pitt, and thank you for putting up with my teenager.

Ditto, Marc. Taina was lovely.

[jukeboxs]

If your kind offer includes you making day-trips to Scotland, I’ll be up for it. I wish you well.

P.S. if you need any tips on how to frame your shots, just let me know, none of the above are centred.


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[learningtofly]

If your kind offer includes you making day-trips to Scotland, I’ll be up for it. I wish you well.

P.S. if you need any tips on how to frame your shots, just let me know, none of the above are centred.


Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app

Thanks for the kind offer - I'd never have realised

[PJdB]

Pleasure to meet you Tony. I'm not one to enjoy having my photo taken, but Tony made for a very relaxed and enjoyable session. Wishing you all the best of the best with the new venture.

[learningtofly]

Pleasure to meet you Tony. I'm not one to enjoy having my photo taken, but Tony made for a very relaxed and enjoyable session. Wishing you all the best of the best with the new venture.

The pleasure was mutual, Phil, and thanks very much for the kind words.