Feeling awkward or nervous during a photoshoot? You are not alone

The single most common thing said to me at the start of a session is some version of I am terrible at this. It is said by teachers, surgeons, people who speak in public for a living, and people who have been married thirty years. It is close to universal, which should tell you it is not really about you.

What is happening is that you are being asked to do nothing, on purpose, while being watched. There is no task. Almost every awkward photograph is a picture of somebody who has not been given anything to do.

So I give people something to do. Walk to that wall. Sit down properly, not the way you think you should sit. Tell me about the drive over. Somewhere in the middle of an ordinary sentence the shoulders drop, and that is the frame.