Tear Sheet: PharmVoice
Back in May, I received an internal email asking if I could help out with some executive headshots.
The pharma industry magazine, PharmaVOICE, would be publishing their PharmaVOICE100 in a few months, and one of our executives was on it.
According to the magazine, the PharmaVoice 100, which honors the most motivational and transformative individuals of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. These individuals demonstrate inspired leadership; collaborate across the life-sciences ecosystem; create transformative and innovative new tools, products, and services; disrupt the status quo; and build relationships to position the industry in the best way possible to serve our ultimate stakeholders—patients.
The executive, Jennifer De Camara, is in our Legal group, and is someone I’ve worked with in the past, so we knew each other pretty well. She was named a PharmaVOICE 100 honoree for her leadership in advancing social media communication strategies that enhance patient and healthcare professional online engagement with our company and their understanding of our products. Jennifer is also committed to providing guidance to help the next generation of leaders achieve their goals.
However, they were nearly at the deadline to get headshots in. That’s where I came in.
I had some brief guidelines that PharmaVoice sent over to Jennifer but, frankly, I knew what they were looking for. I see this magazine on a regular basis, and knew what the images they published.
So, my goal in shooting Jennifer was to get a couple solids locked in, and then try some other ideas just in case the magazine wanted variations.
One fine day in May, I headed to the office complex Jennifer works in, one I knew very well since I worked there at one time to. Frankly, it’s a dream office building to shoot in – cool lines, a lot of available light thank to a skylight in the atrium, great colors and visuals on the walls. The challenge would be in narrowing it down.
I had an hour set with Jennifer. I got there early to scout.
(scout photos are unretouched)
This might work.
Or this spot.
Or a spot like this.
At the assigned time, I met Jennifer. After catching up for a bit, she hit me with what I knew was probably coming.
“Will we really need an hour? I have a meeting in 30 minutes.”
Never fails.
“Nope, I’ll have you done in 30,” I said. Luckily, the locations weren’t far from each other.
So, I got the solids first, like the one that leads off this post. Then a few others, making use of the walls as natural, non-portable backdrops.
Once I got those in the bag, I made sure to get some extras, just in case. Nothing crazy, just options. I like to give art directors options.
In the end, I sent Jennifer 12 finals (including a couple of black & white options) for her to decide on, and send on to the editor of PharmaVoice. In the end, here’s what the magazine ran (screengrab of the on-line edition, not sure I’ll see hard copy)
Yep, they went steady eddie. Oh well, like I said, always good to give options!
While I like the photo, the one thing with all that bright backlighting is it highlights the flyaway hairs. Hard to really clean that up without the subject looking like a helmet head, at least when I do it. But, it’s the best we could do.
I did pack some lighting gear – shoot through umbrellas and LEDs – but in the end with with just natural light.
Oh, the shot made the cover, too. Can you find Jennifer?
A fun aside to this story: The editor that had been in contact with Jennifer is named Taren Grom. Back in the mid-1990s, when I was still a journalist covering the healthcare industry for the magazine MedAdNews, Taren was my editor. We bump into each other every now and then, but as per Jennifer, she was pretty surprised to hear that Mark Krajnak – “The guy that used to write articles for me?” – was the one doing the photography.
As a further aside: A few weeks after the shoot, I made 5×7 prints of all of the “finals” and sent them to Jennifer. She sent me a super nice note thanking me for a) doing the headshots up against the deadline like that b) the gorgeous prints I had sent.
I had them printed by AdoramaPix, as usual. It didn’t cost me much to do but certainly leaves the client with a nice impression. Consider making prints the next time you finish a shoot – for yourself and for your client!
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2018
JerseyStyle Photography 