My goal with the "99 Portraits" project is to reinvent myself as a portrait photographer. Gradually moving away from the "glamour-ish" style where I'm framing tight and using skin-softening and blemish-removal, I want to go the opposite. I want to make wider, "environmental portraits" where the level of detail is extremely high, and the image tells something about the person. This could be what they like to do for a hobby, what their profession is, or just something that suites the personality of the subject. The photos will be framed wider, will be clearer and more colorful (maybe the occasional b&w or sepia though), and have an amazing level of detail than ANY other photos I've shot before. All photos will be taken using careful lighting setups, and edited to perfection. With 99 Portraits, my goal is to take a portrait a day. This is rather unrealistic, so if you figure there are about 30 days to a month, and that would take just over 3 months.. I'm going to give myself 4 months to complete this project. All subjects will be given model-releases, and most of these photos will be for free. My hope is that those subjects who are impressed with their photo will refer me even just ONE client. At about $100 a client (my price would probably be almost double that, but I'm thinking worst-case-scenario), those 99 referrals would generate about $9,900 (for portrait work ONLY!). I will start with the lenses and camera bodies I have, and hope that the business I generate will allow me to upgrade eventually to a full-frame body.


Does anyone have any comments (positive or negative) for this line-of-thought and any ways I could improve the photography I'm trying to go for here, or perhaps streamline my plan? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!





- Jordan


www.freshphotography.us