Why do people want portraits of themselves?
Want being the operative word here.
Not “need”. Like when you need an updated professional headshot for work, though this is of course a very valid reason to get photographed by a professional, and you should probably get one done sooner, rather than later.
So why does anyone want to have a photo of themselves?
I mean, we live with ourselves everyday and if we wanted to be reminded what we looked like, all we’d need to do is look in a mirror! So why do we as humans for example, never fail to try and catch a glimpse of ourselves when we randomly walk past a mirror or some sort of reflective surface?
Why are our phones filled with our selfies (or the half-nose-selfies of our 4 year old for that matter)?
These are interesting questions, no? I don’t have the answers hahaha.
But as far as getting professional portraits done, these are some of the reason’s I’ve heard, either from my own clients, friends or from fellow photographers’ accounts of what their clients have said to them:
- “I really just want a nice photo or two of me that I actually like to look at. You know?” Yes, love. I know exactly what you mean.
- “I wish I found you before we lost our dog last year. I always wanted a nice portrait of him, something small we could have in our living room. But we never got around to it, and I guess we’ll never have that now.”
- “It’s nearly impossible for me to get a good photo of my 3 year old looking at the camera. She so active, energetic and full of life. I have a lot of photos of her on my phone, but I would really love a nice well done portrait of her that I can look at and see her smiling back at me.”
- “I just want my daughters to have a good photo or two of me, something that is really nicely done.”
- “I have this really beautiful photo of my grandma. It was taken when she was about my age in her early 30s”, *shows me a black and white portrait of her* “and I’ve been thinking, how nice it would be for my grandchildren to have one of me like this, a portrait of me as a young woman. They’ll probably meet me when I’m much older. I’d like for them to also have memories of this version of me.”
- “I really just want to do something for myself, you know? Spoil myself a little.” Yes ma’am, I sure do.
- “It’s our rainbow baby. My wife has been through so much. I want to do something special for her, and we want to remember this moment in a special way.”
- “She’s our first girl, and will be our last kid. We waited so long for her and I’ve never had maternity pictures before. I really want to experience this.”
- “I just turned 40. I want to celebrate. I want to dress up, and I want it to be fun. I want to have nice pictures of myself to have and treasure.”
Have you ever thought about getting beautiful portraits of yourself or of your loved ones? Now is as good a time as ever. Give me a call, I’d love to chat with you and show you how we give our clients such a great time.