Just A Note About Translations...

I hear this a lot in meetings with people prior to shoots......."My (fill in the blank) says I look much prettier (handsome) in person than I do in photographs."  This person then proceeds to hand me anywhere from two to twelve photographs, that span the time of anywhere from a few months to a few years, and the talents from sometimes the equivalent number of photographers.  Then they look at me as if I am the second coming of you know who, and will deliver onto them nothing short of astonishing beauty of themselves.  And I often times do deliver astonishing beauty in my shots; but usually not the typical type.  (The beauty I go for is the raw, unaltered, straight forward kind...but that is a different posting altogether).

Here is what this person fails to grasp, comprehend, notice, or accept.

Yes, some people (like maybe you and maybe me) do look better in person than they do on camera.  I mean we all know it works the other way, right?  Especially those of us living in cities like LA and NYC who frequently bump into movie stars and celebrities at the grocery store, coffee shop, plastic surgeon's office, and group therapy sessions....I mean we have all seen at least one well known person and thought, "My god they look so ordinary in person.  So, boring."  That is because for some people, you put a camera on them and "Poof" they transform into this other being.  They have this "X Factor".  The ordinary becomes mesmerizing somehow.

Now those of us not possessing this "X Factor", well do not despair, we too get to have careers and be beautiful in our own way (I will not name examples, but there are plenty of well known ones), we just need to accept that the camera sees us a little differently.  But the important thing to remember is that "it sees us", so the more of you, "the real you", that it sees, the more beautiful your image, and your work will be.  Because there is nothing more beautiful than the truth, at least in my opinion.