Last night I had the pleasure of shooting professional head shots for long-time friend and colleague Alton Dillard. Alton will be honored on Saturday, October 10, 2009, as a Distinguished African American Alumni from the University of Northern Colorado. My amazing client Cheryl Carter is publicizing the event and hired me to take some updated shots of Alton.
The session with Alton was fun and quick, just as he requested. Alton's mother, Sandra Dillard, is a former Denver Post theater critic, and I worked with her for many years at the newspaper before she retired. I've also worked with Alton on several projects, including nominating winners for Colorado Association of Black Journalists college scholarships. Plus, Alton was almost always a shoe-in for attending my annual "Soul Food/Game Nights." His homestyle chili was dabomb.
For these shots, I used a very simple set up, including two Westcott Spiderlite TD5s, and a background light shining on some gray seamless paper to help separate Alton from the background. Even though Alton brought several changes of clothing, we both agreed that he looked amazing in his pinstriped suit. So we kept him in that and just had fun with different poses to accentuate his physique.
I never get tired of hearing clients say "Wow!" when I give them a sneak peak of my camera's LCD screen so they can view their shots. Since one of the first things he showed me when we started shooting was his class ring, you just know I had to have some fun with it.
