Lindsay Stafford, the owner of Prickly Dame, mama to two adorable kiddos & wife to the original guitarist of the band Train, makes some dang cool jewelry. She started woodworking in 2015 and now makes jewelry out of reclaimed wood.

She recently launched her business online and wanted some photos for a “creator card” that she’d be putting with each purchase as well as having some new personal branding photos for her website.

In our current online consumer world, potential customers and clients want to see your face. They want to feel like they have a general idea of who you are, and having a variety of photos on your website - especially where you are looking directly into the camera (basically, virtually making eye contact with your customer) - can help achieve that. If you’re not a recognizable giant brand like Target or you don’t have that personal connection point, people are simply not as likely to purchase from you as they are from someone willing to share a bit about themselves.

Now Lindsay, like most women and business owners I’ve worked with, came to me going, “I HATE getting my photo taken.” She’s obviously very photogenic, so it’s not about whether or not “the camera loves you.” For anyone who is camera shy, it’s about feeling awkward, feeling like you don’t know what to do and like you don’t know how to relax and be natural so that the camera can capture the real you. So, how do we overcome this?

It’s all about your photographer, truly. You’ve got to make sure that whoever you choose to do your branding photography is someone that you feel comfortable with. It helps if you can laugh with them and even feel like the two of you are friends. A photographer doesn’t just hold up a camera and snap photos. A photographer’s job is to help you shake off your camera anxiety and have some fun. For this shoot, Lindsay even asked if my neighbor - a friend of hers - could stop by to help her loosen up! OF COURSE I said that’s fine! I’m always game for anything that can make my clients feel less self-conscious!

We blasted some music that she loves, had her friend there, laughed a lot and maybe poured a small glass of champagne (not me, ladies, I need to keep my wit’s about me when shooting)! And we did the whole shoot in about 30 minutes.

The result? Photos that she LOVED and that are getting tons of Instagram love and that are now all over her website. Why? Because they accurately represent who she is and also show off her awesome jewelry!

Lisa had contacted me a few times about a portrait session before actually booking. I didn’t mind. It’s one thing to say, “I’d love to have beautiful photos of myself,” and it’s quite another to say, “Yes, here’s my money, let’s do it.” Why? Well, first, we tend to feel pretty vulnerable saying, “I’m missing something in the way I feel about myself, the way I take care of myself,” which is often how women start these conversations with me. And, it takes trust (which means being vulnerable again) in looking at another person (me) and saying CAN YOU HELP? I never take this question lightly, and my immediate response is almost always, “You just watch.” Haha!

I truly can look at every women and see beauty. And it has to be up to that woman to be WILLING to see it in herself. They need to want to see it. I could take a physically stunning woman, get her done up and looking even more stunning, take amazing photos and, if she’s not willing, then it’ll fall flat.

BUT, I don’t need someone to see it NOW…just, a dusting of possibility.

Now, I don’t want you to think that everyone who comes to me thinks they’re ugly! haha! NOT. AT. ALL. It’s usually women who, like many of us, have pushed aside self-care in favor of all kinds of things - family, work, friends - until one day we go, “hey. HEY! I forgot about me!” And we need to turn around and call loudly to our feeling of womanness, cupping our hands to our mouths saying, “Hey! Sorry! I forgot you were back there! I’m gonna grab a smoothie and sit on this rock here while you catch up!” Some of us might just turn around and run, full-speed, arms outstretched to that woman we left behind us. We might not even recognize her face anymore, but we know she is ours for we know her heart.

Lisa was one of those women, telling me, “I want to see something different than what I see in the mirror.” I can’t type the sound I make when I hear that sentence. It’s a deep drop into my gut that kind of sound like a sigh meets a WHOA. So many of us have been there.

So, we took Lisa, Brittany and I did, and Brittany made her look on the outside as all those who love her see her. And I took photos and we showed Lisa her beauty. And she was able to look at the photos and go, “THAT’S ME. That’s my power. My womanness.”

Lisa knew she needed to turn around, as do all the women who seek portraits with me. So, what do I do? I turn them around and help them start calling.