I always enjoy meeting new people and this project allowed me to meet 25 new people from all over the US. Tiny Horse employees came together for the first time after months of emails and zoom calls for a team meeting and headshot creation. Tiny Horse wanted to showcase their team in a slightly different way. Forget about the traditional headshot on white. This was more of an individual branding session for each employee. The Creative Director wanted the values and culture of Tiny Horse to be expressed in the images. Tiny Horse is an authentic and engaging brand. Work hard, play hard is an old adage but it is definitely appropriate for this group. I met with the Creative Directer after our zoom call became a tech scout at the Tiny Horse office, an historic home in Charlotte built in 1905. He showed me the room available and wanted to add an environmental lifestyle shot if time allowed. The room they had available in their office was 13x13 feet with 9ft ceilings. Not Ideal but definitely possible. I end up shooting through the door frame for full length images. After we built out the studio, tested our lighting and two focal lengths. I had the Creative Director give me his thoughts on the results. We both agreed the 50mm lens looked the best. Now with the look approved, we started with our first subject at 9am. We had a subject every 15 minutes most of the day. The office was packed! Everyone was working up until their time slot plus many came from other states. The office is not a huge place.. remember it is a house from 1905. I, for the day considered myself a new hire at Tiny Horse, ready to meet all my new coworkers. I used a mix of questions and direction to help my subjects release any tension they might have while getting their portrait made. I asked a lot of people if they picked up a new hobby during the pandemic and inquired into small parts of their lives. I learned about people’s favorite restaurants and some interesting bar antics. Apparently throwing limes with your number on it at guys has a zero percent success rate in a call or text. One subject turned their garage into in a guest house/Air BNB. A whole lot of them learn how to bake bread.
