.:sheldon:.

Brian and I are involved with something called Interactive Theater with MU. There's a troupe that performs in all kinds of settings (mostly classroom) dealing with different social issues that plague our culture. We explore conflicts in race, sexuality, religion, science, and the innuendos of each. We've made a lot of great friends through the troupe, and Sheldon, to be honest, is one of our favorites.

Theater headshots are some of our favorite photos to do and Sheldon is one of our favoritest people, so photographing him was easy. Next up is more photos of him in the spring when things are a little warmer and his hair is a little shorter.

(We may or may not have taken a short break to possibly watch part of one of our favorite Adult Swim cartoons with Sheldon.)











Sheldon is not only dashing, but awesome. We couldn't just show headshots wherein he looked only serious. = )

.:i love headshots:.

There's something I absolutely adore about taking headshots. Maybe it was because the first time I took over the stage was when I demanded my own solo spot in our preschool Christmas concert when I was three. I've been a recovering addict of the stage ever sense. A dear friend of mine and I discussed our love for theatre a few nights ago and came to the conclusion that our addiction is in large part a combination of the adrenaline rush from connecting with the audience and the incredible feeling of being part of a group creative process with fellow actors & creatives.

Speaking of headshots, you may recognize this fellow from when we first did his headshots in May. (You can find that post here.) He said at that time that he was mourning the loss of his hair he had always had. For the play he had just come out of his hair had to be relaxed (for you white folk reading this, that's a chemical they put on hair to permanently straighten it whereby if the person wants to go back natural he has to shave it all off and start all over). His hair has returned after many months of letting it go back to it's original state so we needed to take photos of him with his gorgeous natural locks.

You may have seen Chris recently in a production called Holding Up the Sky, written by Mizzou's very own Professor Clyde Ruffin. The show was so good it was invited to compete in the regional KCACTF festival in January. If it does well enough, it will go on to nationals. The University is holding a free performance for all of you folks that live in Columbia on Friday, January 15th if you're game to attend. This young man stars in the show and it'd be a shame to miss it. Brian and I saw it a few weeks ago and it was absolutely incredible. And it takes a lot for us to say that. But remember, you saw him here first. (If you're signed in to facebook or reading this post from there, click here to get more info on the show.)

.:headshots:.

Ah... headshots. For all of my life I can remember looking up at billboards as we passed them in car trips and noticing headshots of a myriad of folks: insurance salesmen, doctors, real estate agents, reporters, funeral home directors, you name it, these men and women all had their heads plastered eight feet high. The disparity that I continued to notice was the quality of their headshots. To put it bluntly, they were pitiful photographs. Even as someone who didn't take photos at the time I could tell you that the people looked disingenuous, stuffy, and uncomfortable. Not to mention it appeared that most photographers had no idea what they were doing with lighting when they took these shots. It broke my heart that the persons being shot probably paid someone to take such an awful photo of them. I still see these unacceptable headshots plastered EVERYWHERE and, as corny as it sounds, it makes me weep inside.

When we finally started taking photos for real one thing Brian and I promised was that we'd work to try to get a shot that was not only lit absolutely beautifully (and in a flattering manner) but one in which the subject didn't look like they were in dire pain. The latter objective is much more difficult to achieve than the former when you're doing a simple headshot, but we still try. Headshots are a portion of what we've been up to lately, with our major batches being the theatre faculty and staff at MU and the dental staff at Accent Dental these last few weeks. Because I really truly do like doing headshots, I wanted to display them. So I borrowed a simple design I did for Second Baptist's Women's Day CD Promotional Poster back in September (for kicks, I added that below the headshot photos) and just stuck them all together. Much better than those stuffy mile high billboards you see along I-70 & I-63 if I do say so myself.

For safety purposes, I took off the latter half of Reverend Myra's phone number so she doesn't have everyone and their mother calling her at 4:00 a.m. wanting a CD. But I guess if anyone actually wanted to purchase one let me know and I'll give her the info. = ) Happy week after Thanksgiving! (Oh, and for kickers, which of the following faces looks familiar...?)

So if you know of anyone who needs their company's headshots updated...

.:emily's headshots:.

So Emily, a theatre doctoral student at Mizzou, contacted me several months ago in hopes of finding someone to update her headshots as the last ones she had done were from old glory days in undergrad. Always up for new things, I told her we'd take a shot at it!

Months later, we finally found a day and a location. A lazy Sunday afternoon at the old McKee Gymnasium on Mizzou campus. We took her photos in what apparently used to be the swimming pool! Emily was so patient and fun as Brian and I tweaked lighting and ran around with reflectors and had her try probably over 80 different things. Emily was so great to work with and quite the photogenic subject!

When I got home and saw the pictures I got so excited that I chose a few of my favorites, tweaked a few things, and decided I must put them up immediately!

Our first theatre headshots.