If you are like me, you love seeing the behind the scenes clips at the end of a movie. It’s just something about seeing what’s going on behind the scenes that peaks the interest of the viewers.

As a full time professional commercial photographer, I have learned that behind the scenes pictures gets the attention of my social media audience. It also gives me an opportunity to get in front of the brand like hash tagging #profoto when I tweet or use Instagram to post a picture like you see in the header.

Even if you are working solo, see if the client will snap a quick phone shot using your phone of you behind the camera. Ideally, it is best for your assistant to do that, but I’m simply tossing out a way to get the shot without making excuses. If posting behind the scenes images on social media will get attention why not do it?

Oh, you may be thinking that you’ve got this big set up secret that you don’t want the world to see how you work or that you are not shooting with Profoto gear, so you cannot show your gear off. Stop making excuses and find ways to show some behind the scenes pictures. It’s all part of brand building and also gives you something to write a post about if you are not consistently blogging.

Here’s an idea of how to get some quality behind the scenes images:

1) As I’ve already mentioned, have your assistant shoot some shots but many photographers work solo. In my case, I rarely work solo on location and need to do a better job of having Lindsay and John shoot some behind the scenes pictures.

2) You likely know another photographer, so see if you can trade off. You can shoot some behind the scenes shots for the other photographer and the other photographer can do the same for you.

Bonus Tip: If you a photographer and are not consistently blogging, this post is about 350 words and only took a few minutes to write. I also wrote it several days in advance.

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Black & White Headshot Portrait (UNEDITED) of Photo Assistant John While On A Cold Assignment In Downtown Raleigh NC

The black and white portrait above is of my assistant John (UNEDITED) on a 25 degree day (1/5/16) in downtown Raleigh NC. John was actually holding the Profoto B2 light setup pictured on the left above with a 24 inch Profoto octabox attached to it. I had the idea of John letting the monopod rest on the floor pointing slightly up at his face creating the shot that you see above. It was shot with a Canon 5D Mark III and a 70-200mm Canon lens set at f/2.8.

This is an example of a behind the scenes shot that’s not the usual style of seeing gear or the photographer in action. John and I were staying warm in the lobby of a building in downtown Raleigh waiting for our subjects to come down to be photographed outside on a 25 degree morning. John was holding the Profoto B2 setup, so that he could act as my human light stand which definitely saves time.

It’s a dramatic portrait with the lighting style use, John’s expression and being in black & white. It was simply me killing some time waiting on our subjects for the actual photo-shoot that we showed up for which goes to show that you should always be ready with your camera to grab a shot that you may have not originally planned on.

Being a professional photographer is very rewarding, but getting shots like this that were not part of the plan is even more rewarding. Happy Shooting!

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Up High In A Warehouse Using The Mirror Near The Ceiling

People seem to love behind the scenes shots of various photography projects that I do. So as the lift operator was moving me around this warehouse, I decided to take advantage of the mirror near the ceiling and snap a creative selfie shot. Hint: The shutter release for the camera is in my left hand.

This was an Industrial Photography shoot on Saturday, January 2nd that lasted nearly 10 hours. It’s nice to have a full day of work on the 2nd day of a new year, but John (pictured back by the bright light) and I were wore out by the end of the day. However, I had rather be busy and tired than not having the work, so I am very appreciative of being hired for this project and being able to be a full time photographer.

Industrial and architectural photography are just two of the areas that I focus on as a commercial photographer. In this particular case, it was a massive warehouse with very large machines that needed to be photographed for various types of advertising. Editorial use photography helps add editorial photographer to my list of various styles of photography that I consider all under the commercial photography heading.

If you are looking for an industrial or architectural, I can definitely help in that area. You will not find everything that I shoot on my website. There are cases like DuPont that you will not see any images that I took for them because the DuPont logo can be seen on the product and none of it is pictured on my website. You can call me at 919.723.8453 or use the online web form to start the conversation about your industrial or architectural photography needs.

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