Through the years, Bernie and I have met a lot of people who went through our headshot process. In fact, we learn a lot from our clients. It is because we treat our clients as friends. We have good banter during the shoot and share stories with one another - from places we travelled, the food we like to eat, to our clients' specialisations. This "Growing With Our Clients" series of blogs will focus on our experiences with our clients and the things we learned from them.

I am going to kick this off with our recent client, magician Jimmy Marvel.

We met Jimmy through his wife, who had a headshot session a week prior to his. It is quite an exciting feeling, especially for me, since this is the first time I will be photographing a magician. I was thinking of ways how to present him, but not in a cliche manner. 

We kicked off the session with a headshot. The headshot session is the foundation of the whole shoot. Once the foundation is established. it will be smooth sailing moving forward.

Normally, we would not show our headshot clients this way. But he is no ordinary client. We had him do a little lean to the side and have a smart-alec grin. He normally smiles showing his teeth, but the grin worked. This is a case of sussing out what a person can and can't do in terms of smiling.  The bunny in the pocket was a last-moment addition, which complemented his look as he always has bunnies as part of his acts. 

Once the head angles were established by the headshot session, we moved to the "action" shots.

The rings were also part of his act. In order for me to get the proper angle to shoot him, he did a bit of a private show for us, which was quite fun. He also did two acts which did not up in the final set of photos. Regarding "action" shots, it was important for us to show him not as a cliche, but as classy as we can. Think Cirque du Soleil. 

Next up were the stars of the show - his rabbits.

When he entered the studio, we were greeted by two of the cutest rabbits we have ever seen. So cute that both Bernie and I could not concentrate on the shoot as every now and then, they would do something cute in their open cage. The three of us have discussed that we have to be careful about the photos with the rabbits. The rabbits were not just props for Jimmy's performances, they are family. We don't want to upset anybody, especially animal-rights people, and show a stressed-out animal in the photo. So we tested where the rabbit was most comfortable, and we got that shot shown above. 

Lastly, we need a play on the classic rabbit out of the hat. Again, we don't want another cliche photo. So we got the photo below. 

In a way, we see Jimmy as we see ourselves - a person who is dedicated to his craft and takes pride in it thus knows his worth. That is why it was important to portray him as he is, not how his viewers want him to be. As he was about to enter his car after the shoot, he showed us a final magic trick. :) It was an amusing, informative, and fun shoot, but now I'm thinking of getting a rabbit as a pet. 

If you need a magician for your kid's birthday party or for your company's Family Day, you may contact Jimmy through his website.