Meet the Client: Katherine at KMac Beauty | Visit Hudson, NH
When you’re the face of your beauty brand, you want to feel beautiful.
For Kathy MacDonald, this was a years-long challenge. Like many, she avoided getting photos of herself—or when she got them, she wouldn’t use them, instead favoring photos of the clients for whom she’d done bridal makeup, microblading, and other beauty services.
I think many women can relate.
Now, when someone in a position like Kathy’s reaches out to me, I always have to ask myself seriously if the project is one I’m up for. Someone who is already incredibly self-conscious can feel more insecure once in front of the camera… so if there’s any hope of me capturing the best version of them, we have to be a Perfect Match. Chemistry in these situations is incredibly important. If we as photographer and subject don’t click, the photos are destined to fail.
Kathy, however, was already aware of the precariousness of the situation. She told me that she and her brand developer had been searching high and low for a photographer who seemed like a Perfect Match—so high and low that they had even decided to try flying in a photographer they’d found after doing a national search, the only photographer they thought might be up to the task.
But then.
Then Kathy’s brand developer reached out to her and said, “Listen, I think I might have found someone right here in New Hampshire who might be just what we’re looking for. Take a look at her website and tell me what you think.”
Kathy clicked the link. And you know what? She said right away she knew AG was the photographer she wanted to hire. “Bright, simple, minimal,” she told me. “Your style was exactly what I was looking for.”
Even with her vote of confidence, I had to go through my usual list of questions.
When someone has real concerns about how they’ll come across in photos—whether that’s a fear of looking stiff, of looking heavy, of coming off older or younger than they are, of a particular feature distracting from the story they want to tell—the first thing I need to do is really listen to their concerns. Sometimes there’s something beneath the surface that is a deeper issue, the thing that actually needs to be addressed more than the thing they think needs to be addressed.
But sometimes it’s as simple as my needing to know to shoot from the left more than the right, or let the subject know when something she’s specifically concerned about is an issue, and then position her differently.
The next step happens on site. It’s discovering what the person looks like when they are happiest and/or most relaxed and “in the zone.” This is the version of themselves that the people closest to them experience, and it’s a “whole person” version of them. It’s the sum of all the parts that they, the client, see individually and tend to nit-pick, but which other people hardly notice most of the time.
Kathy did something that was so smart for this shoot, and she brought in real clients and friends that she was close to to be models. This made it easier for her to relax and be herself, and also not to focus so much on the things that make her self-conscious, but instead how she would normally interact with a client in her studio. While I was snapping away, she was authentically laughing and working and serving the people she already loved so much, and all her true passion and humor and grace shone through.
Now, I don’t believe in Photoshopping clients to look younger, thinner, or curvier than they are in real life. This is misleading to potential clients and customers, and even to my client herself.
What I do believe in, however, is capturing and editing a person to look the way I experienced them in real life. The phrase “the camera doesn’t lie” actually isn’t entirely true—the camera sees things differently than a person does, even the person operating the camera. It picks up details that the human eye passes over; it adds weight because images are two-dimensional and real-life is three. It makes shadows harsher, light brighter… and the result can be something that doesn’t look the way we remember it at all.
So although Kathy told me a series of things that she tended to feel self-conscious about in photos, I didn’t make any alterations to the way she looked in her images unless they made her look more the way I experienced her in real life—which was collected, graceful, happy, present, healthy, and pretty.
I also made sure while I was shooting to capture angles and light that showed off Kathy’s physical features that stood out in the best way—like her Rachel-Green-esque hair, her flawless makeup, and the twinkle in her eyes when she laughed.
But I also balanced out photos that showed Kathy’s face with little details, details that would set realistic client expectations for what it would be like to come to her luminous beauty studio in Hudson, New Hampshire. For example, the hints of purple throughout the room, and the precautions she had set in place for covid-19.
Although there were challenges to this session (including shooting in a tight space; shooting in a room that had two mirrors in it without capturing myself in any reflections; and working around the specific obstacles Kathy said she tended to have with herself in photos), I was happy with how the images turned out—and so was Kathy!
She first emailed me after a series of preview images, “I love what I see,” and later told me on the phone she was “singing praises” to all the other business owners in the building where she has a studio. This was music to my ears… I was particularly nervous sending out this gallery!
Have you worried about hiring the right brand photographer? It’s a common concern! My best tip is to find a photographer who’s looking out from you from the very beginning—like I try to do with the free resources right on this site!
You can learn about how to make the most of your next photo session in posts like these over on the AG Journal:
7 Ways to Get Out in Front of the Camera for the Shy & Self-Conscious
7 Reasons You Don’t Like Yourself in Photos (& How to Change That!)
Also be sure to get the FREE Profitable Photo Guide by popping in your best email below! Can’t wait to embark on this journey with you…
