Earlier this year, Congressmen Dave Camp and Jim Matheson received the 2011 Trade and Leadership Investment Award at an awards reception at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC.  Here are a few of my favorite images from this corporate event.

Entry hallway of the Folger Shakespeare Library by DC photographer Irene Abdou.

Corporate event photography - table settings/room shot of an awards reception at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC by DC photographer Irene Abdou.

Corporate event photography by DC photographer Irene Abdou - Congressman Dave Camp attends a dinner in his honor, where he and Congressman Jim Matheson receive a Trade and Leadership Investment Award.

Corporate event photography by DC photographer Irene Abdou - at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC, Congressman Jim Matheson addresses the audience after receiving the Emergency Committee for American Trade (ECAT) Trade and Leadership Investment Award.

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You might remember my post about 4 months ago on how Every Photograph Tells a Story.  Well, I was recently back again creating executive portraits for two more of the same company’s senior staff.  Just love how the spiral staircase background lends such a unique effect to the images, and really makes these execs stand out from the crowd.  Now how many executive portraits can you say that about?

REMEMBER, EVERY PHOTOGRAPH TELLS A STORY.  WHAT’S YOUR STORY?  I CAN HELP YOU TELL IT.

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I am 100% an on location photographer.  That means that I don’t photograph in controlled studio settings.  Rather, I make my own studio wherever I go!  Why do I do that?  Well, for weddings and special events, I can’t control the location.  And on the family portraiture side, I like to photograph people in places that are meaningful and/or  familiar to them, so that they feel more comfortable and relaxed in front of the camera.  And on the executive portrait side, it’s just one more benefit that I offer to a busy clientele that doesn’t have time to visit a studio.  So since I’m not photographing in a controlled, ordered setting, I have yet ANOTHER advantage!  Depending on the client’s objective and desired look of the images, I can often incorporate backgrounds and textures in my corporate clients’ offices for: (a) uniqueness – making their portraits stand apart from others; (b) an environmental element that helps to tell the story of that person and company.

Here are some examples to show you what I mean.  In this first set of three portraits of a high-powered sales executive at an event management company in Maryland, I photographed the executive on a suspended spiral staircase located in the middle of the office.  The metal bars of the staircase added a very unique texture and look to the images that could not be repeated elsewhere.  The client benefits because viewers are more likely to remember THEIR sales executive over their competitors.  And that, in fact, is the objective of these photographs – to tell viewers that this particular event management company is unique and stands out from the crowd.

One of the first things that I ask my clients is: What do you want your executive portrait to portray?  What do you want it to say?  If your firm provides financial advisory services, you probably want the photographs to inspire trust and instill confidence, and to show your clients that you are like them.  Whereas for a start-up tech company in Gaithersburg, Maryland that designs gaming engines, you might want to show a fun, youthful attitude (below).

And in the examples below, I photographed at a wider angle to show context, using environmental portraiture to tell the story of busy aid workers at a non-profit advocacy organization in Washington, DC.

Remember – every photograph tells a story.  What’s your story?  I can help you to tell it.  Learn more here.

IRENE ABDOU PHOTOGRAPHY

Award-Winning Corporate Photographer Serving Maryland, Washington, DC, Virginia, and Destinations Worldwide

Fusing fine art & photojournalism to create images that are simply…unforgettable.

I did several executive portrait/corporate headshot assignments this past week. For one of them, I was over at the offices of a tech start-up in Gaithersburg, Maryland creating executive portraits of four members of the leadership team for their new corporate website.  The company’s Marketing Director wanted fun images with personality on a standard white background.  They weren’t sure if they would be using color or black & white images, so I prepared both for them.  Check out some of their favorites here.

I recently did a headshot job for an NGO that wanted photographs of their CEO for the annual report, as well as their staff for their website.  Working with their Senior Communications Director, we decided that a location shoot would best capture the personality of the organization, which focuses on raising public awareness and promoting an end to the violence in Darfur, Sudan. 

So I spent two half-days photographing 25 different people, using a combination of flash, light modifiers, and window light where there were windows.  Much of the office was bathed in a green fluorescent light, which I needed to keep on, as otherwise, much of the office was too dark.  So I had to make sure that my flashes adequately overpowered the fluorescent.  (I did try gels, but there was just a little too much daylight mixed in for it to work well.)  So in most cases (if there wasn’t a window), I used a combination of one off-camera flash (a Canon Speedlight 430EX) bounced into a silver umbrella and one on-camera flash (Canon Speedlight 580EX II), with the 580EX II controlling the 430EX.  I also had a Stofen Omni-Bounce diffuser on my 580EX II.  For the most part, there wasn’t a lot of empty space in the office, so I was limited to a simple light setup, but it worked out just fine.  Also, I used a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro for all of the shots below except for the last two, where I used the  Canon EF 50mm f/1.4.

I lived in South Sudan for two years (though it was like a different country from Darfur) and have lived and worked in Africa since 1995, so I loved the posters and large mounted prints that they had around the office of people in Darfur.  Ending violence against civilians and facilitating humanitarian aid and sustainable development are what this organization lives and breathes, so I thought it fitting to include some of their advocacy materials in the backgrounds of some of the shots.  So I was mostly shooting wide open to get the blurry backgrounds, but I did close up a notch for the few where I needed a bit more depth of field for their advocacy materials.  Here are a few of my favorites (not necessarily the ones they picked, but the ones I like best).  (Click “View with PicLens” for slideshow mode.)

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Guys, it was great to meet and work with all of you – I look forward to working with you again!  Great job – be proud of what you do!  You’re making a difference!

p.s. Speaking of Sudan, I’ve added in a few shots of my own from my South Sudan days, when I worked for the NGO, Population Services International-Sudan, and lived in a tent in Rumbek!  If you’re interested in Africa, international development, humanitarian assistance, or travel photography, you might want to check out my travel-lifestyle-documentary photography website too.

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