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.

Political Photographers Inspire New York Corporate Headshot Photographers!

Can one get political without being political? We think it is possible if it's in service and admiration of 3 very talented photographers. It's 8 days out from the presidential election, so what better time to highlight those photographers that have aimed their camera at the political circus as a serious and, often amusing subject. Like all good photographers, these three offer us distinct windows into a world that is not always accessible to us.

All three of these photographers embrace something of the photojournalistic approach. They cover live action events and are trying to tell a story. The goal is to come back with something that can be published, that stands on its own or enhances a written piece. It somehow expresses an idea that is part of a larger project.

Photojournalists are some of the most committed and dogged professionals in the photography industry. While we New York executive portrait photographers can glean techniques, our challenges pale in comparison to a good photojournalist. They use patience, perseverance and skill to show us what is happening. They hit the road, they goto where the action is and they take pictures of how they see it. A good one operates with the same ethics and unbiased point of view as his/her writer/journalist colleagues.

David Burnett one of our featured photographers is very much a photojournalist. He embraces the tough job of finding the image, making excellent content and making it look easy. But we know that so much work goes into each iconic photo. He must know where his subject will be and find a way to get access. While our New York corporate headshot photographers walk into a space with a scheduled appointment, a journalist might have to hustle his/her way to the front line of a red carpet as a president is disembarking from Air Force One. Or be prepared with the right gear so he/she can shoot behind a chain link fence half a football field away. A journalist might attend a rally thinking that there will be supporters or protestors or something interesting to cover and the event could be a dud.

There's the waiting. The photojournalist could learn about a meeting or something less public that is meant to happen and then sit on a corner for hours until the subject shows up. Or maybe there is a small town that represents a certain population and topic that a newspaper wants to cover. The photographer will go there and just keep looking for the shots that tell the visual story. Instead of waiting, this photographer must learn his/her surroundings, build trust with those who live there and try to gain access in a respectful way.

And then, of course there is the hundreds of photos a photographer might have to take to get the right frame. While our New York business photographers are tethered to a computer, studying the images as they come up, the pace is less forgiving for a photojournalist. Sometimes they get lucky with a promised 5 minutes of access and the perfect shot presents itself. More typically he/she will shoot frame after frame, looking for the right shot.

Three Great Photographers that Influence our Corporate Headshot Photography

3 photographers that we admire who tell such interesting stories with their cameras are David Burnett, Pete Souza and Mark Peterson. They are completely different and fill different roles inside of photojournalism but they all do something unique and admirable.

David Burnett

David Burnett has been an enduring favorite of ours. Burnett has been everywhere, photographing stories for over 6 decades. He has worked with different types of cameras and covered a wide range of subjects. An early photographer, he covered the Vietnam war for Time and Life Magazines. One of his most famous series is 44 Days: The Iranian Revolution from 1978. While he is decidedly a photojournalist, his images blur the line between hard facts and artistic presentation.

While he has covered many famous people, his focus has always been on telling the real life story in real time. He says. 'shoot shoot shoot!' but not without purpose. Find your subject, look for the right shot. Take plenty of frames, but don't use a motorized trigger. When you get the shot a few times, but then move on and look for the next angle.

As a photojournalist, Burnett has photographed presidents and veterans. He has witnessed the ritual of Vietnam Vets monthly cleaning of the Wall in Washington DC. There is the very formal meeting between Reagan and Gorbachev and a casual shot of President Clinton and VP Gore in hair and makeup with Larry King in advance of an interview.

Pete Souza and Covering the White House

When it comes to recognizable names in political photojournalism right now you cannot avoid Pete Souza. He is best known for being President Obama's White House photographer, but his projects are cast wider than just this one subject. Souza also covered the Reagan White House, a story about first year Plebes at the Naval Academy and images from the fall of Kabul. He was part of a Pulitzer Prize winning team covering the airline industry in 2001.

It is hard not to love the images Pete Souza took during his tenure as White House Photographer with President Obama. The images tell the story of our enormously popular first Black president, a handsome first couple and their children, a public figure working with his staff celebrating good news and struggling with terrible information. Here he was covering and open and social media-savvy first president. While he maintains journalistic integrity, we, as corporate headshot photographers, can relate to being pulled in, emotionally to the moments he captures. The pictures are better for it.

In his role as white house photographer, Souza had somewhat easy access. There is tremendous skill in what he did, which was tell the behind the scenes stories of two presidents, but his challenges were in finding those intimate and telling moments.

It is very interesting to contrast Souza's images of Obama with President Reagan. With Reagan there is a greater overall formality: men in suits looking at documents and maps or swarming the oval office. Even more playful images illustrate the more formal personality of this president. In a social moment with Nancy Reagan and Michael Jackson at the White House even Mr. Jackson, in his full regalia, stands properly, hands clasped in front of him, looking off to the side. Out horseback riding we see the president 'at play'. But still, it is picture of a handsome, preppy cowboy with good posture and perfect hair.

Mark Peterson, Political Theater in Photographs

But photographers who cover politics are not all so strictly bound by the rules of journalism. Some are purely there to capture events from their own point of view. Perhaps they are more interested in colors, emotions, shapes, perspective, etc.

The last photographer is someone that is much more confrontational. He is in the room, looking for the shot, shooting from a reportage/documentary perspective. But he asserts a point of view.

Mark Peterson is not out to flatter anyone. He takes the images he see, but uses different camera angles, vibrant colors and action to reveal the drama. He does a raw-feeling story about a basketball at the famous 4th Street court in New York City. He also covers his fair share of celebrities and entertainment industry subjects.

When Peterson points his lens at a political subject he pulls no punches. His collection, Political Theater covers much of the 2016 election. He uses his photography techniques to amp up the theatricality of the presidential race, covering candidates and supporters. He includes super tight portraits of an expression and equally tight portraits of a patriotic accessory.

We think about this in relation to our corporate headshot photography. Our takeaway is how we can use technique to amp up the flattering qualities of a shot. The goal is not to lie, but to take a photo that best serves the purpose of the shoot.

There are no lies in what he is delivering through his photography, but there is a clear perspective. The story is Political Theater and his images deliver on that theme.

There are so many ways to cover politics, but these three photographers cover an interesting range of what exists. During a time that is so fraught with extreme feelings, it is nice to appreciate the field of political photography for creative art that it is.

As we enter into an election, we are thankful to have these photographers out there reporting back to us. We appreciate that the work they put into bringing us stories that are not available to us. We can tune out of our news channels droning on and recycling the same material and turn to photographers who bring us closer together to a depth of experience that is hard to see elsewhere.

On-Site Image Selection

With on-site image selection, subjects can work with their New York corporate headshot Photographer to email their image to themselves directly from the session.  It is a rewarding experience for the subject and a huge time-saver for the planner.

The on-site image selection process is tremendously useful for staff and conference photography.  It works the same in both scenarios:

Guest takes a photo

Guests steps over to the  iPad kiosk to review their photos.

Guests select the image(s) that they like and enter their email. (screenshots of sm tool)

Photos are immediately sent to the subject.

On-Site Image Selection – Conferences

If you have been to a conference anytime in the last decade you know the biggest challenges are to stand out and to create good connections.

Place us near your booth, or assign us a few brand ambassadors and you can make focus on raising brand awareness with those waiting in line.

Add signage and use our many branding opportunities (on iPad kiosk screens, in custom text, etc.) to keep your brand on their mind.

Extend your brand awareness after the event – this new photo will be a valuable and widely used tool in each of those contact's professional profile.  You are extending your brand's touch as long as that contact uses their new photo!

On-site Image Selection – Editing Made Easy.

Here's another speed bump when updating your staff's headshot photography.  Getting everyone to select an image.

Our on-site selection tool is perfect for those companies that need a quick turnaround.

After each team member takes a photo, they step over to our iPad kiosk.  Right there and then they select the image they want. We send you a spreadsheet and a gallery with those selections.

Done and done.