Photo Shoot
Originally published at Cheryl's Mewsings. Please leave any comments there.
I spent the morning in Bath pretending to be a fashion model.
Of course I’m not one. What was actually going on is that I have discovered that I need a professionally done head shot for publicity purposes. This is what happens when you do radio, public speaking and so on. Doing this is beyond scary, because cameras hate me. I have a couple of pictures that I can just about tolerate, but mostly seeing photos of me makes me want to curl up and die. (Please remember this, especially if you are about to post photos of me to Facebook.)
Thankfully I happen to know a very good photographer who lives nearby. Joe Abercrombie’s wife, Lou, has done publicity shots for many of my author friends, including Paul Cornell, Gareth Powell, Emma Newman and Sarah Pinborough; not to mention Joe himself, of course. I really like her work, so I arranged to go and get snapped.
I found the process of being photographed both fun and educational. As long as I could forget the fact that there will be actual photographs at the end of the process I could just enjoy the process and learn how to pose for a camera. It isn’t easy to do well, and I have a great deal of respect for professional models who manage to look happy and sexy to order for hours on end. Striking a pose is also a skill that I probably don’t have, but enjoyed trying to learn.
Eventually I will have to choose a picture or two to use, and I’ll put them up here for you to laugh at. Please don’t judge Lou’s work by this. Check out her website instead. She’s really great at putting her subjects at ease too.