It's Not the Camera. It's the Chair.
I bring a wooden chair to every portrait sitting. Same chair, fifteen years old, folds flat, fits in the boot of any car I've ever owned. It travels everywhere with me.
People assume it's a composition thing. It isn't.
When somebody arrives for a sitting, they've usually spent the morning rehearsing. Their smile. The angle. The jacket. The version of themselves they think the camera wants. And that version, almost without exception, is the version that doesn't make for a good portrait.
So I put the chair down and ask them to sit.
Three things happen every single time.
The shoulders drop. You can't hold a posture sitting down.
The eye level shifts. I'm above them, which inverts the usual dynamic of being looked at, and, most importantly, they have nowhere to go. No window to drift toward.
No phone to check. They have to be in the room with me, and with themselves.
It's not a magic chair.
But it's not far off.
There's always a little nervousness, slightly wary, occasionally apologetic about how they look. Ten minutes later, they're telling me about the colleague they nearly throttled in 2017, the holiday that saved their marriage, or the moment they realised they were in the wrong job. I haven't asked. The chair did.
Now, to be honest, it isn't only the chair. I've got a bit of skin in the game too. I'm quite good at relaxing people, quite good at quietly directing a sitting without making it feel directed, and I can usually land a decent joke at the right moment. Between the chair and me, we get on with it.
What lands in your inbox a few days later is a set of pictures that look like you. The real you. Pictures you can actually use, for your business, your marketing, your website, your speaking, whatever you need them for, without wincing every time you see them.
Same face. Different chair.
This work is not about perfection. It is about presence. It is about being taken seriously when you're not in the room.
If you are waiting to feel ready, you will wait forever. If you are ready to be seen properly, now is the time.
Find out more below:
https://johnfergusonphotography.carrd.co/
