The contact and planning

Jennifer called me mid 2017 because their portraits needed updating. Jennifer is an “associate wealth advisor” with Denholm Wealth Management Group.

I created portraits for Ken Denholm and his team in the past and was looking forward to working with them again.

The consultation and advice for clothing etcetera were all done on line.

The session

The day of the session we talked briefly before the photography began. Where and how are the portraits to be used was my main question. The Denholm Group was launching a new website and the portraits would be used there in the “About Us” section.  Additionally they were hoping to have the portraits used in a banner across the top of the new website.  They were able to show me samples of other sites to illustrate what they had in mind.

Armed with this knowledge I began creating the portraits, first the individual and then a set of images of Ken and Jennifer together. In the next few days I prepared the “proofs” for an on line gallery they could view and use to make the selection of the final image.

Decisions

If you’ve had a professional portrait, you know the challenge of narrowing and selecting your final images. Forty-six years of professional photography has taught me in most cases the client’s initial response is going to either love them all or like none of them.  A few years ago I had a gentleman who was photographed by the famous Yousuf Karsh tell me how Karsh had his clients select their portraits.  I shared this technique with Ken and Jennifer and waited for the decision.

Now one of the other truths about portrait photography; for every additional person in the portrait the likelihood of everyone liking an image exponentially decreases. Add to that the constraints of the banner proportions and I was further challenged to have Ken and Jennifer spaced so they would appear natural in the banner (not squished together with a lot of negative space on either or both sides, not separated and spaced out so much that it appeared they didn’t like each other’s company.)

Using my recommended procedure they selected their favourite individual portraits, but as expected there were some challenges in selecting the image for the banner.

After due consideration of a couple of images I put forward the idea of a composite image. I’m not a big fan of virtual composites but felt this was the perfect place for creating a real image using 3 different captures to tell the desired story. Their business is based here in Cambridge, Ontario and I recommended taking their individual portraits, stripping the background out and replacing that with one of my cityscapes of downtown Galt. This allowed me to use the best portrait of each of them, space them exactly right for the ratio of the banner and adjust the background image to fill the entire banner.

The Result:

You can also see the banner on their website here.

If you are in need of some financial or investment advice I am very comfortable recommending the services of Denholm Wealth Management Group. I am not recommending them because they are clients of mine, but because through the process of working with them I have witnessed their integrity and attention to detail.

I’m John Mitchell, Storyteller, Artist, Photographer and I create images. How could your portrait enhance your business’ image?  Let’s talk. You can reach me my telephone at 519-624-8460 or by email.