Executive Portraits

Executive Head Shots | Project for Windstream | Arkansas Head Shot Photographer

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I’ve proudly been working with Arkansas Business, and their parent company, Arkansas Business Publishing Group, for several years. Arkansas Business is Arkansas’ leading and most well-respect magazine and newspaper focusing on all things business.

I received an assignment from one of their reporters to photograph Tony Thomas, the CEO of Windstream for an upcoming article. Windstream, is a provider of voice and data network communications to businesses in the United States. It is the ninth largest residential telephone provider in the country with service covering more than 8 million people in 21 states.

I always ask for a brief synopsis of what the feature is about so I can take an appropriate photo to accompany what is written. I coordinated the photo shoot with their director of media relations, David Avery, and a date and time was set. He was also kind enough to send me a few iPhone photos of a location he recommended. It was a tech-y room with several rows of servers. I knew Tony Thomas had a limited amount of time for the photo shoot so I arrived early — which I do for all photo shoots, especially with CEO’s since their time is limited.

I set up lights, tested… and tested again…. We were done in under 30 minutes.

I used a simple, three light setup: The key light was a Profoto B10 with a Westcott Beauty Dish and a honeycomb grid. Directly behind Thomas at waist height is a Profoto B2 with a party green gel and a 20-degree grid facing away from him and reflecting off of steel metal cabinet doors. Out of frame at camera right is another Profoto B2 with party gel blue and barn doors.

Tony Thomas, CEO of Windstream. Photographed for Arkansas Business.

Tony Thomas, CEO of Windstream. Photographed for Arkansas Business.

To my surprise, before the photo shoot even happened, David disclosed to me that he and the CEO, had visited my website and liked what they saw. So they asked me if I would be interested in taking a series of photos for their executive leadership team. After a few text and e-mail exchanges with David, we coordinated another meeting to tour location options for the photo shoot and to discuss the look and plan for their executive head shots. David showed me their current executive photos and I was told quickly they we ready for a fresh, new and different look compared to their last photo shoot which was nearly five years ago. I made a few recommendations on the direction I was thinking and showed him a few inspiration photos for reference.

Less than two weeks later, we were shooting.

I always recommend to anyone who wants basic executive head shots to considering doing a more casual portrait on the same day. There is a definite need for formal, executive photos, but there is also need for something a little less buttoned up. I like to call them Casual Friday portraits. Something more relaxed and a little softer. Instead of the location being their corporate headquarters, we went back to the lab (where I took the Arkansas Business photo) and we used the offices as a background. I like the contemporary mix of wood doors, steel framing and glass walls. That was my choice for the Casual Friday photos For the head shots: white seamless paper.

We did a two light setup at once. At one end of the hallway, was the Casual Friday with a simple two light setup: The key light was a Profoto B10, at camera left, and a deep white umbrella with a diffusion panel. The kicker light at camera right was a Profoto B1X and a shoot through umbrella to light the hallway with a slight bit of light on their (camera) right shoulder, cheek and hair.

Way in the back against a wall, I set up a 10-foot roll of seamless paper in Arctic White. Lighting the background were two Profoto B2s, each with a silver umbrella with a black backing. The key light directly behind me and over my head was a Profoto B10 and a deep white umbrella with a diffusion panel. Side lights were another Profoto B2 set with gridded strip boxes. In full disclosure: one of the strip boxes was bent and would not lock down so I used my Westcott Beauty Dish and a grid and it worked perfectly. Underneath and in front of each person was a Westcott Eyelighter with white fabric.

Per my recommendation, I brought in hair and makeup to polish off everyone’s look. Each person brought a few suits, ties choices and Casual Friday options so we mixed and matched wardrobe.

Here are some of my favorites from the photo shoot. You can see each person’s executive head shot on the Windstream website.


Commissioned Photo Shoot for Cathy Owen: Arkansas Portrait Photographer

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On April 3, 2018, Cathy Owen, chairman of Eagle Bank & Trust, and chairman, president and CEO of State Holding Co. in Little Rock, was installed as the Chairman of the Arkansas Bankers Association. She is also the first female in the 128 year history of the organization to serve as its Chairman. Cathy was featured on a recent cover of Arkansas Banker magazine with an accompanying profile.

Cathy Owen, 2018-2019 Chariman of the Arkansas Bankers Association.

Cathy Owen, 2018-2019 Chariman of the Arkansas Bankers Association.

I first met Cathy Owen a few years prior when I photographed her for a profile for Arkansas Business. Since then, Cathy has been receiving my quarterly e-mailers I send to all my clients. She contacted me back in January to discuss her ideas and desires for the photo shoot. Cathy wanted a clean, contemporary and modern setting for the photos. In addition to photos for the magazine, Cathy requested other photos for various professional needs and we updated her executive head shot.

We chose a glass stairwell located at a privately owned business. The business also had an old banking vault door dating back to the late 1800s. It was a perfect location for the secondary artwork needing for the project.

I scouted the location the week before with Cathy to determine angles, lighting placement and to discuss wardrobe. With the transparent glass that had a slight blue-green tint, Cathy brought numerous clothing choices in varying colors so we could determine which ones worked best against the glass.

Cathy changed outfits four times throughout our half day photo shoot and each one complimented her and the location perfectly. We chose the vibrant red, Eagle Bank red, as the final outfit for the photo against the brass vault door. She is pictured with her husband Steve.

Cathy Owen spread.jpg

“I was very impressed with the originality and quality of her professional photography on the 2017 photos she emailed. I couldn’t have been any more impressed with the professionalism and end results of the photography work of Karen and her husband.” -- Cathy Owen.

The glass stairwell had a ton of natural light but I knew that was not going to be nearly enough. I kept the lighting clean and simple: For the stairwell portraits, I used one Profoto B1x with and my modifier was a three-foot Octabox with a simple white bounce. We needed a double arm on the C-stand to safely hang it over the top railing to give the lighting angle I needed.

The headshot was the same setup with an added smaller softbox as a hair light. For the vault, we turned off all the overhead florescent lights (it was in an office) and the key was the same B1x combo plus another B2 bounced into the white reflector to light up the vault door. 

I also used the CamRanger system to proof photos directly to my iPad so Cathy could see her photos and make requests and any adjustments as the day progressed.

Check out a few BTS below.

Recent Executive Portraits | Arkansas Portrait Photographer

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I was recently contacted by the senior designer for e.Republic | Smart Media for Public Sector Innovation for a photo shoot for the annual Heath and Human Services special report. It is a research report from the Governing Institute and Center for Digital Government.

This year they featured Arkansas own Dr. William Golden, Medical Director for Arkansas Medicaid.

I photographed Dr. Golden at the Arkansas Department of Human Services building in downtown Little Rock. My client e-mailed me a few PDFs of what they used in past issues so I wanted to keep with a consistent look. Many of the sample she sent me were pretty conservative.

After looking around the DHS building, I opted for three locations. I took a chance and used DHS' bright orange stairwell. You don't see things like this too often in a state-run building. I also asked Dr. Golden to wear favorite suit and bring a clean and pressed lab coat.

This is the feedback I received from my client,

"I love the orange! It's not something that you are used to seeing and I think it is a nice change. I also love that you had Dr. Golden wear different clothes."

Below is the original photo, plus the "safe" option they used in their table of contents. I thought for sure they'd use the literal shot, but I am so glad they opted for something different.