When I’m getting paid for being a photographer, 90% of the work is headshots. Being an actor and being a part of the Seattle theatre/film scene, it’s easy for me to find clientele with little to no advertisement or self promotion. I like headshot work. It’s straight forward, quick, and I get to give back to artist in my community.
Left: Actor Megan Cooper, Right: Actor Sara Falaro
However, I sure do miss shooting portraits. As embarrassing as it sounds, I miss being 17. I miss not working two jobs, having the free time to go out with my camera, a friend wanting to model, and making my hometown suburbs not look like the suburbs. I miss willingly being able to give my time away to shoot and be adventurous with my editing for hours on end. I still believe some of my strongest portrait work was when I was a teenager—but that’s only because I have to go that far back to see when I was actively shooting portraits. The self portrait challenge of 2018 was in response to this. I wanted to rebuild my love for portrait photography.
Ya’ll ain’t ready for 2019 portrait challenge, there is already too many photos of me laying on the floor.
Then here comes Arika. She sees my self portraits and says, “I want to hire you to shoot portrait work of me as an actor for up-incoming patron project”. I was so incredibly honored that someone saw my very personal work and wanted to hire me because of it.
Re-entering portrait work as a professional photographer is still very much a whirlwind time for me. For those who haven’t booked a session with me, I don’t give much direction on posing. I love candids and I enjoy having conversations while shooting. I like encouraging people to fake laugh at something until it becomes funny.
If you want to book a session with me for the summer, please feel free to email me or use the contact page. A huge thanks to Arika for booking this session. If you live in the Seattle area, go make it out to her theatre performances or even better, become a patron for her! You certainly won’t regret it.
Best,
Laura
Full on Mitski’s ‘Washing Machine Heart’ vibes.