Medical Practices and Corporate Photographers

In a year that is very (extremely!!!) focused on healthcare and staying well, we thought we would look at the corporate headshot photography that supports this industry.

There are a few different kinds of photography that support this industry and while there is some crossover in use, various areas of the industry require different kinds of coverage.

Medical photography is an example of one end of medical photography. This can start at the molecular and cellular level. Need an example? How about that weird circular cell with suction cup looking arms growing out of it on all sides. Covid19 is famous, or shall we say infamous, and it will be difficult to find any digitally connected person in this world that could not make an instant identification.

This cellular photography, is fascinating. It is ultra micro and it is absolutely amazing in what it allows us to see about the world and about ourselves. It helps us explain our aches and pains, it helps us understand what makes up a leaf. We learn why water is making us sick. We learn what foods contain that make us uber healthy. Also, it looks really cool.

While we very much appreciate this medical-focused industry photography, it is a very specialized craft. It is one that requires very specific tools and a degree of knowledge about the subjet to be done right. We respect it and are awed by it, but we do not do it.

We are involved in medical and healthcare photography on a far more macro level. Our focus, if you will, is on what those many cells and molecules make up. We are professional business photographers that take photos of whole people, waiting rooms, testing equipment, etc.

Medical offices.

As a category, medical practices are very much like small businesses. To cover them, they require professional business photographers. These people must understand the flow of the business but can bring a professional eye to the project. The components are the same as a business. There are offices where the doctors and support staff do their work. They serve clients. But there are also many things that are different than non-medical businesses. Instead of products, they offer care. Instead of clients, they serve patients. And instead of a typical staff, they have doctors and other practitioners.

Here is where corporate headshot photography comes in. Physician headshots are an important part of your business marketing. It is very important for a physician to include website headshots for both familiarity and to signal professionalism. Your doctors must be shown to be clean, tidy, well-put together and approachable. A clean and tidy presentation telegraphs that it will be a well-organized and safe, clean environment in which you will be seen.

There are options in how a doctor can present him or herself. We always recommend professional dress, but know that this can mean different things to different providers. If you want a strictly professional headshots for business in the medical field, you might choose a lab coat. When our professional business photographers cover a doctor in a lab coat we know that the doctor is trying to instantly telegraph their training and capability. However, not all doctors work in this uniform. They might prefer a creative corporate headshot that is professional but that evokes more personality. If a medical provider decides against a lab coat it might be more important to use some other environmental elements that suggest a medical practice.

A headshot for business in a medical practice is an opportunity to tell your patients something about who you are and how you intend to care for them. The way you stand, what you wear, what kind of environmental background you use are all elements of the creative corporate headshot that translate how the patient will feel when they are with you. Does this physician want to signal a feeling of warmth and caring? Yes, but maybe they are more focused on signaling absolute confidence. Is the work you do more clinical or research-focused? There are so many opportunities to turn these characteristics into a visual representation offering an opportunity to connect with the patient.

The results of your business headshot photography should be to make clients or patients feel comfortable and familiar with you before they walk through the door. While we all know what it is like to visit the doctor there can be some anxiety around it for patients. Help them understand who you are and get more familiar with you by strategically using a corporate headshot photographer.

Corporate Headshot Photography for Medical Practice Staff

Which of your staff should you have your professional business photographers cover? We recommend anyone who will see or treat the patient. Obviously doctors should be covered, but we recommend any practioner, including nurses and alternative care providers that will come in close contact with the patient. It is great to have an individual corporate headshot of these individuals so you can some kind of individualized bio to match.

No think about reception, billing, procurement, etc. As for the rest of your team, they make the wheels turn and having a photo of them never hurts. It is perfectly acceptable to do a group photograph for this part of the team. Including a nice photo of these people on your website can help start the patients relationship with the non-medical team on a positive note.

Photography The Office

Your office is likely designed to feel comfortable and organized for your patients. Use yoru Business photographers to show what your patients what they will see when they walk through the door. Include photos of your examination rooms. It inspires confidence to see a clean, professional space with the right kind of equipment.

A proper edit of images provided by our professional business photographers will help you share a full picture of your medical business. Using corporate photographers to cover website headshots and the physical aspects of your practice will inspire confidence and comfort in your new and existing clients.

Update: COVID-19 Safety and Our New York Corporate Headshot Photographers

Our New York corporate headshot photographers at The Booth are ready to take some photos! We have had some clients come to us over the last few months, but, in general, our workload has been pretty light.

Of course it has. Until recently the idea of working shoulder to shoulder with colleagues you have known for, potentially, years was a non-issue. Now, it seems like every living body, including those same colleagues, could present the threat of COVID-19. You imagine everyone you know, with their kids in school 2 days/week, visiting Trader Joe's, stopping by the local deli, bringing their packages in from the outside without spray disinfecting… We are no longer people to each other. We are anthropomorphized Coronavirus walking around on 2 legs.

Around here, we err on the cautious side of things. But we are also practical and very interested in knowing more about how we can serve our clients and mitigate risk. Like everyone, we have spent the last several months paying attention to new information and thinking about how to adjust ourselves for safe and successful interactions with others. Somehow, life goes on.

And, thankfully, our photography has gone on as well. We are starting to shoot more and wanted to offer an update, full of the learnings over the last few months of how we are doing this safely.

Photography, used to be a far more social and chatty experience for us and our clients. We would talk to our subjects, ask a few questions and take some time to get them comfortable. We might make a joke, play around, have some fun. We were always mindful of time in order to keep a schedule or not to keep others in the line moving. We had plenty of structure, but it was, again to make sure the wheels were spinning properly and on time.

Now everything has shifted around a central theme: COVID-19. You are still going to feel welcome and we will continue to enjoy meeting you and putting you at ease. But now, our primary focus, first and foremost, is using what we know to stay safe: We plan, we shoot, we setup our equipment and we interact with the subject with COVID-19 in mind. We are constantly taking into account how we can best mitigate risk to our subjects and to our super conscientious and talented New York business photographers.

We published a blog post several months ago about what COVID-19 precautions we are taking. It is all still very relevant, but we wanted to share how, now that we know more about the virus, we are accommodating clients.

The most important thing we our watching out for is the significant airborne spread of the virus. Yes, we will continue to clean surfaces, but our focus will be on how to create a well-ventilated environment where air circulates and plenty of distance can be maintained among participants. We open windows, we install intake and exhaust fans and free-standing fans that will keep things moving around.

We are also well-aware that risk goes down when we spend less time together. Visits should be kept to a 2hr maximum, says one recent study published in Fast Company. Good thing for you, we need way less time than that to get a fabulous headshot. Right now, for our in-studio headshots we are keeping headshot sessions to 30min or less. The same is happening when we visit offices in the city.

As for distancing, it is still a 6' minimum between you and your executive headshot photographer. We are choosing the right lights, lenses and other equipment that can allow us to shoot a photo from that distance. If any of you have had your photo taken by Ian Londin, you will know that he can get well within the 2-3 feet distance from his subject. Not anymore.

At our studio our equipment is positioned in a way that the photographer and subject will not have to cross paths at any point. We position the background in a location where the subject can easily walk in and out without sharing space with our photographer. Here is a diagram of how the setup looks in our studio.

Planning and implementation for Covid protection is a little different when we are working in a client's office. If it is an existing client we will probably know the space fairly well. We might ask the client for a more open location or we might suggest a spot that could allow for more distance and better airflow. If it is a new client, we will ask for scouting photos of the space. This is a fancy way of asking our client to click 5-10 iphone photos of the space so we can get a sense of how big it is, where the ventilation points are and how we can set up our equipment to create the least possible interaction.

Is there still a risk to how we operate? Of course. But we are trying to be smart. We are reading everything we can about being together, about how to position air purifiers, how much time we can be together and more. We are waiting for the next bit of news to come out and tell us what we should be looking out for next. We are keeping new products in mind that can help mitigate.

Would I put our team or our clients at any major risk to take a headshot photo? No. But we are willing and able to carry on and make some great photos for our clients limiting the risk and keeping everyone as safe as possible.

Robert Frank - People Photographer

Robert Frank was the legendary photography who passed away earlier this month. Most famously, he created a project called The Americans. He had a way of seeing, a raw approach to looking at subjects. He moved quietly in and out of a scene and captured the essence of that person in that moment.

He has influenced the work of many that followed, including many that work in the ranks of The Booth, and we thank him for showing us what he saw.