How to Run a Smooth On-Location Business Portrait Session (Gear, Workflow, and What to Do When the Location Isn't What You Expected)

How to Run a Smooth On-Location Business Portrait Session (Gear, Workflow, and What to Do When the Location Isn't What You Expected)

Every corporate headshot job I take starts with the same anxiety: I have not seen the location yet, I do not know the lighting situation, and I have promised a client that every one of their 20 employees will walk away with a polished, consistent portrait. One bad background or a single blown circuit can unravel the whole day. I have been burned enough times that I now have a packing checklist that would make a pilot jealous.

Two Lighting Setups That Will Elevate Your Business Portraits (And Win You Better Clients)

Two Lighting Setups That Will Elevate Your Business Portraits (And Win You Better Clients)

Business portrait clients are not the most forgiving. They show up with a specific idea of how they want to look, a tight schedule, and zero patience for you figuring things out on the fly. Early in my studio career, I was winging my lighting more than I’d like to admit. I had one setup I felt comfortable with, and I bent every client into it whether it suited them or not.

From Freelancer Brain to CEO Moves: What Jaren Collins Taught Me About Scaling a Photography Business

From Freelancer Brain to CEO Moves: What Jaren Collins Taught Me About Scaling a Photography Business

I used to joke that my business card should read “Chief Everything Officer” because that’s exactly what being a solo portrait photographer felt like. Shooting, editing, invoicing, marketing, answering emails at midnight. For years I told myself that was just the deal, that creative freedom came with this particular kind of exhaustion. It wasn’t until I started studying how other photographers had actually broken out of that ceiling that I realized the problem wasn’t my workload.