A strong professional headshot isn’t just pretty—it’s strategic. It boosts credibility, drives more inquiries, and helps you stand out in a competitive local scene. For realtors especially, one great shot works across Zillow profiles, business cards, yard signs, social posts, and marketing collateral.

At Shipman Photography, we’ve been the trusted choice for professional headshots in Tulsa since 2003. We deliver high-end results with pro techniques that feel authentic and brand-aligned—no shortcuts, no AI slop.

FREE TRANSPARENCIES WITH EVERY ORDER

Best part for multi-use pros like realtors: Every studio headshot includes free transparent PNG extraction—with perfect hair selections that don’t look like they were cut out with scissors!   Creating these highly detailed selections is part of our basic retouching process, and as such are simply made available to our clients upon request with no extra fees. Drop your perfectly retouched image seamlessly onto signage, flyers, websites, social graphics, or email templates. One session covers all your needs without reshooting or paying for cutouts elsewhere.

Professional Lighting, Custom Backgrounds

We use expert, flattering lighting that looks natural and professional—soft, even, and confidence-boosting. Backgrounds? Limitless and fully customizable. Need a clean neutral for corporate sites? Branded colors matching your logo? Subtle textures tying into your Tulsa office aesthetic? We customize to any level of detail, in-studio or digitally perfected.   Even our on-location shots can be matched and blended into customized backgrounds.

Fast, Flexible Sessions Tailored to the schedules of busy tulsa professionals

We respect your time. Individual professional headshot sessions don’t have to take up your productive time.  Wherever we are shooting we operate with speed, precision and professionalism. Choose the setup that fits:

• Our Tulsa headshot studio — controlled lighting, endless customizable backgrounds.
• On-location shoots — we travel to your preferred Tulsa spot (downtown rooftops, scenic parks, or anywhere your brand shines).
• Mobile studio at your office — our portable pro setup brings full lighting and digital background options right to you. minimal disruption for you and your team.  Fast setup and load out.   Fast set up, no wasted time, no disruption.

Human-Edited, Satisfaction Guaranteed—Every Time

All retouching is done by hand in-house by skilled artists. We edit to taste—subtle, natural edits that highlight your best features without overdoing it. Never too much, always enough.  No overcooked,  AI-generated slop here; real human craftsmanship for authentic magazine-quality results.

We’re so confident you’ll love it that we offer a satisfaction guarantee.  And we will accommodate all custom editing requests and revisions —no questions, no hassle.

Perfect for Realtors and Anyone with Multiple Marketing Needs

Tulsa realtors keep coming back because our headshots deliver versatility. Use the same pro image for your profile, listings, business cards, website bios, and even overlaid on property photos—thanks to that free PNG transparency. The same applies to attorneys, executives, and small businesses juggling comms, signage, and digital assets.

We’ve shot some of Tulsa’s top realtors, plus law firms, corporate teams, and healthcare pros who need consistent, approachable-yet-authoritative looks.

Ready to get your professional headshots Tulsa sorted? It’s quick, low-commitment, and pays off in stronger branding and more client calls.

Call (918) 261-4064 or email support@shipmanphotos.com to book or get a quote. See more examples and details at https://shipmanphotos.com/professional-headshots-tulsa/.

Let me know if you’d like to tweak the title for even more punch, add specific long-tail phrases, or include client quotes for extra trust signals!

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headshot branding is your first impression, make it good, make it consistent

In today’s competitive business landscape, your brand’s visual identity is more important than ever.  For Tulsa area companies, from corporate giants to local firms, professional headshots are a cornerstone of that identity. Consistent, high-quality headshots across your team platforms not only project professionalism but also strengthen your brand’s credibility and cohesion. At Shipman Photography, we specialize in delivering tailored corporate headshot sessions that align with your brand’s vision, ensuring every team member’s photo reflects the same polish and purpose.  Continuity in design, color grading, composition, background settings and poses all contribute to a purposeful visual impression.    It’s very common today for potential clients, employees and business contacts to do their due diligence and look up bios and photos of who they are doing business with.   There’s only one opportunity to make that impression count. 

The Power of a Unified Visual Identity

When a potential client visits your website or sees your marketing materials, they’re forming an impression of your business within seconds. Inconsistent headshots—varying in lighting, background, or style—can create a disjointed, unprofessional look that subconsciously undermines trust. Consistent headshots, on the other hand, signal reliability, unity, and attention to detail. They tell your audience: “This is a team that’s aligned, professional, and ready to deliver.”

For Tulsa area businesses, where industries like energy, casinos, hospitality, law firms, professional offices and medical teams thrive, a unified visual “team” focused presence can set you apart in a crowded market. Whether it’s for your website, LinkedIn profiles, or a billboard campaign, cohesive headshots ensure your team looks like a single, trusted unit.

Case Study: Matching ConocoPhillips’ Brand Standards

Recently, Shipman Photography was entrusted with an on-site headshot project for ConocoPhillips executives at their corporate headquarters in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. The challenge? Seamlessly match their existing content, including background, lighting scheme, color grading, and overall look and feel, to maintain brand consistency across their executive team’s existing imagery.

Our process began with a detailed video conference consultation to understand ConocoPhillips’ brand guidelines. We analyzed their existing headshots to replicate the soft, even lighting, blue/grey gradient background, and subtle “cool light” blue-centric color grading that defined their corporate aesthetic. By bringing our mobile studio to their Bartlesville office, we ensured minimal disruption to their team’s schedule while delivering studio-quality results. Each executive was guided through through posing and shot angles to project their own genuine personality, authenticity, confidence and approachability, while aligning with ConocoPhillips’ professional yet relatable brand voice.

Each executive was then shown their proofs in real-time and was able to make their selections and any specific retouching requests they might have, on site.  Each was in and out of the project within 10 minutes and back to their busy day with minimal disruption.     

The result? All 7 lightly (but expertly) retouched digital master files were delivered to full satisfaction-guaranteed approval within 48 hours – a set of headshots that blended flawlessly with their existing visuals, reinforcing their polished corporate identity. The project showcased our ability to adapt to specific brand standards while delivering high-resolution, retouched images easily within our signature 5–7 day turnaround. ConocoPhillips’ leadership was thrilled with the seamless integration, and their updated website and marketing materials will continue to project a unified, professional image. 

And, by the way…  it was fun,  We had a good time and visited with our clients about music and sports and did our best to put them at ease, because we know headshots, while essential branding, aren’t always something business professionals actively look forward to experiencing.   And while we can’t speak for them, everyone was lovely and thanked us for our time.   Truly though, it was we who were thankful for theirs. 

Take a look below at the gallery of images we delivered from this shoot.  Individual authenticity within corporate branding uniformity.  Mission accomplished. 

Why Consistency in Headshots Matters for Tulsa Businesses

1. Brand Recognition: Consistent headshots reinforce your brand’s visual identity, making it instantly recognizable across platforms like websites, business cards, and social media.
2. Team Cohesion: Uniform headshots signal that your team is aligned, fostering trust among clients and partners in Tulsa’s tight-knit business community.
3. Scalability: As your team grows, consistent headshots make it easy to integrate new members without disrupting your brand’s look. Our Photoshop composites, for example, allow businesses to update team photos effortlessly.
4. Professionalism: High-quality, cohesive headshots elevate your brand’s perceived value, whether you’re a law firm, medical office, or energy company in Tulsa.
5. Logo Reinforcement:  The tones in the backgrounds, wardrobes and even the color grading in the highlights and shadows of the images themselves can convey brand cohesion.  

How Shipman Photography Ensures Consistency

At Shipman Photography, we’ve spent over 20 years perfecting the art of corporate headshots for Tulsa’s top brands, from Hard Rock Tulsa to ConocoPhillips and hundreds of small businesses, practices and firms in between. Here’s how we ensure your team’s headshots are consistent and impactful:

• Customized Planning: We collaborate with you to understand your brand’s aesthetic, from lighting to background choices, ensuring every headshot aligns with your vision.
• On-Location or In Studio: Our mobile studio brings professional-grade equipment to your Tulsa office, saving time while delivering studio-quality results – or just visit our studio!
• Expert Retouching: Every image is meticulously retouched to maintain a uniform look, with attention to skin tones, lighting, and color grading.   And while we routinely perform a minimalistic approach, we can accommodate any request at the level of a professional graphic art studio.  Background changes are no problem.  Changing the color of clothing is no problem.  Even some of the images in this blog post required neckties to be added digitally later.   They aren’t easy to spot, because they shouldn’t be.    Our retouching and post production are absolutely second to none.   It is is 100% custom, in-house work with satisfaction guaranteed.
• Scalable Solutions: Our Photoshop composites make it easy to add or update team members, keeping your visuals consistent as your business grows.

This is a studio composite of Tulsa’s own Zac White band.   Each member is shot individually, for maximum customization potential and minimal disruption to update.  Great for professional teams of any kind from musicians to law firms. 

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Headshots sure, but not “boring”

Recently, we booked a headshot project for the team at The People Perspective in Tulsa Oklahoma. Our only direction was that they didn’t want stiff, stuffy, boring corporate headshots. Authenticity, vibe and personality were our directive. Rather than shooting this project in our dedicated headshot studio or in their office, the decision was made to do the shoot at the “WOMPA Creative Compound” – housed in and around a 100 year old manufacturing park. The shoot offered an incredible variety of renovated and reclaimed spaces along with the natural charm and age of the brick structures. Just an incredible facility with an endless assortment of locations.

The client wanted the images to be fun, candid and unstructured but of course also to be professionally lit and composed. In fact, this was more of a branding project than a headshot project – although of course we needed to fulfill images to fill the role of the traditional headshot. Fortunately branding is our specialty.

We encouraged the team to have fun and interact with each other off camera as we documented them laughing and joking with each other throughout a variety of locations at WOMPA. The resulting images speak for themselves – a variety of candid vibes and beaming natural smiles provided this client with a variety of branding material for their website, social media and printed materials.

This is just a sampling from that shoot. We delivered over 400 images in a proof gallery to this client. We had a great time with them and spent the time working with them to help people relax and just be themselves. Authenticity sells and it’s hard to be your authentic self if you are nervous about headshots. This session was the ideal example of using an out of the box idea to capture and deliver visual content that showed genuine personality.

While this isn’t the model to use for every client and headshot project, it was the right way for The People Perspective team and it was our job to adapt to their branding philosophy. The final images shown here do include a moderate amount of retouching, but it’s always enough and never too much. Our post production processing is second to none and is always satisfaction guaranteed.

Check out our headshot portfolio for more examples of in-studio and on location images. Visit our website for more information on our commercial photography and branding services.

And be sure to check out The People Perspective for HR consulting & talent acquisition services. And if you are in the Tulsa area, we highly recommend WOMPA for events, and photo sessions. The creative vibe there is incredible.

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Let me just be honest with you.    Excellent, professional band photography and artist branding is important for your band or your solo project.   But musicians have their priorities and money is usually tight.   I mean, you totally have enough to buy a guitar with the right brand on the headstock and run it through the right pedals into the correctly branded tube amp because, tone.   But everything else after gear is a distant (usually far distant)  extravagance.   Certainly any photo the drummers girlfriend takes on her cell phone is going to be good enough right?  I mean, she’s got a good eye.  But mainly she’s free bro.    

Let me ask you though, if someone handed you a free off-brand guitar, would you trust it to stay in tune and sound good for a full set?    Well, of course not.   So why do you think your visual aesthetic is any less important to branding your music than the tools you use to make it?  Your band promo photos are going to say something about you, and generally, you do get what you pay for.  

The good news is don’t need to go broke chasing professional photography and video production, AND you don’t have to settle for amateur hour “pics” that make you look like you aren’t serious about what you do.  

What you need is value – the right balance between cost and quality.    Just like with guitars, at some point you stop paying for quality, and start paying for brand value.   Unless you are made of money, the goal is to find the point at which you are spending the optimum amount for quality before you get into paying for the headstock logo or the custom shop tag.    Something that looks professional, plays great, sounds like a more expensive guitar and stays in tune all night.    That’s us.    We love the drummer’s girlfriend, but let her move to the merch table and let us  work on your image.

Travis Bond, of Travis Bond & the Rebel Souls

Band Photography & Promo

This is where it starts.    You need a band photo  for cover images on social media, gig posters, event promotion on social media and so on.   The opportunities for good band photography usage are endless.  Heck, give the drummer’s girlfriend a stack of them for the merch table with your autographs on them.   Good band photography needs to be eye catching and cool, without being over cooked or cliche.     It needs to reflect your on-stage aesthetic.   Serious artist, or Steel Panther self satire?    That is where we start – discussing your brand, your music, your vibe and getting you  to find some existing band photos (ours or someone else’s) that have something you are drawn to.   Or maybe you’ve already got an idea so cool that nobody’s ever done it before.   Either way, we work with you and build a shoot plan that reflects your look, your sound and your personalities. 

There are a few ways to do this.   One is shooting in studio.   When we do this, we really like shooting each band member in a variety of individual poses and then choosing from those to create cool band photos.   Did I mention, we are really good at photoshop here.    Creating cool digital backgrounds for bands is kind of baked in to the studio projects.   It can have a simple studio vibe on a plain white background or it can be a full digital replacement putting the band backstage, on stage, downtown etc.  Pretty cool and endlessly customizable.

One other aspect of this is if you add members or lose members, we can always just shoot the new person or delete files of people that leave without having to redo the whole shoot.    Not that you want to think in terms of replacing people, but it’s nice to know it doesn’t have mean a whole new shoot unless you want it to. 

Another option is shooting on location of course.   If you want  to interact with an environment, there really is no substitute for just going into that environment and building the right shot through careful posing and lighting.     There’s still some photoshop work to be done (removing light stands, blending layers etc) to get the finished look, but when it’s done it’s polished and professional.

Here are the recent band photography promo images we shot, edited and licensed for promotional use to our friend Josey Scott of Saliva for his current “Josey Scott’s Saliva” tour.

So these are all on location, but only the stairwell shot was actually just a simple in camera shot. The rest were stacked layers where we shot on a tripod, individually lighting each band member and then blending several files together. Point is, there is a lot more to creating a branding shot, than having a good eye and taking a picture, but it’s supposed to look like that’s all you had to do. There is a coolness and authenticity in an image that looks like it was organic and shot editorially but that’s rarely the reality.

headshots & artist branding photography

As a commercial photographer, I do headshots every week if not most days. Usually, it’s for attorneys, real estate agents and other 9-5 professionals, but we get a lot of artists too. Sometimes when people talk about headshots, they really mean personal branding, which is cooler. Really you need both, but they are two different things. Headshots are what they are, but we don’t shoot creative people the same way we shoot suit wearing people. Different lighting, different setting, different vibes. It’s really good for solo singers and artists to have a couple of solid headshots for various bios, promos, interviews, icons and yes, merch tables.

headshots

Headshots can be cool, but at the end of the day – they are pretty much just a chance to see the artist’s face. That’s got it’s place but when you think of a cool Rolling Stone article kind of magazine editorial style image that you want for your press kit and bio pages, you want something with more context as to who the artist is and what they are about. You want a picture to tell a thousand words about you, and to do that you have to give it a little more space.

Like with band photography and promo, artist branding can be done on location or in studio. The advantage of studio of course is perfect lighting and customized digital composite backgrounds. But there’s always an authenticity to the on-location interaction with a wall or ambient lighting of a cool place. Either way, branding images need to move your story further down the line than just showing your face. Here’s some samples of that.

Artist branding

Compositionally, branding images are more of a portrait than a headshot, but they are part of the same mission – to brand an artist and provide cool, attractive, interesting images that tell you what this person and the art they create are about.

concert photography

But what about their live show? What’s cooler than a great concert photo of an artist doing his or her thing on a well lit venue stage with a great high energy crowd? Nothing gives a better sense of authenticity than seeing the raw blood, sweat and tears that an artist is pouring out on stage. And believe it or not, good concert photography is hard to capture.

The closest thing to concert photography is sports photography, and I’ve done a lot of both. When shooting live music, as in sports photography, you are usually shooting a moving target in a poorly lit environment. It takes good timing and situational awareness to anticipate and frame the cool shots, and knowing the right way to use the ambient light (which always looks better than a flash) and set your gear up to work in it. There’s a very fine line between pics that are too dark, too grainy, or have too much motion blur. And don’t get me started on the awful, overcooked post-production “photoshop” that your drummer’s girlfriend does to try to maker her crappy, blurry, underexposed pictures look cool. We all know there are people who shoot live music because they love it and they like hanging out with musicians. That’s cool, but you can’t count on that for intentional branding. They may get a usable shot of you now and then but you aren’t going to get a consistent catalog of promotional content from that. We shoot live music – usually as a value added feature of branding and band photography packages that we put together for musician clients. And yeah, that’s snoop. Also, my band opened for REO Speedwagon, just before I shot that picture below…

Occasionally there is a need when shooting branding photos for an artist, to create in studio an on stage look via photoshop composite. This is especially helpful for the gigging musician who has played for crowds but just didn’t wind up with any good usable live concert images from the gig! Fortunately we can recreate the atmosphere, ambiance and vibe of a live performance with a studio composite. Here are some samples from a recent shoot with a very talented young songwriter/singer from Tulsa named Ty Smith. Be sure to check him out at @TySmithMusic on Facebook.

music videos, full service production

A big part of our commercial photography gig is video production. We’ve shot multiple events and promo videos for clients like Hard Rock Tulsa among many others. The most satisfying video production we do though is music videos for original recording and performing artists. Our video services cover everything; Pre-production planning, location scouting, talent acquisition, script writing, set design, sound design, animation, videographers, sound engineers, drone pilots, final editing and anything else your song needs for us to help you tell it’s story. Some videos have a lot of moving parts, and some are simple performance videos. Either way, a professionally produced music video can give a huge boost to a single or album.

Our first music video production “PBR” for the Gypsy Store Troubadours won Music Video of the Year at the 2019 Tulsa Music Awards. A short song, but with a lot going on. The artist had several specific characters and interactions in mind and the end result is that you see something new going on every time you watch it. True story – I even wrote and recorded a demo song myself specifically to be playing on the jukebox in the opening scene of this video. This video is a great example of serving the story and we are very proud of it.

“pbr” – gypsy store troubadours

Our second video is a much simpler concept, a performance video – shot entirely on location and exclusively constructed from clips of the band (my band) Riverside Rebellion, playing our first single, “Blood Moon.” For this video, all we needed was one videographer, an assistant for lighting, and the video editor (me). No extras, no extra scenes, just the band playing the song. We shot each member of the band through multiple takes of each song, which in the end gave us multiple clips to choose from for just the right moments – cutting to the guitar on a solo. Cutting to the vocalists on a particularly moving lyric. Cutting to drum fills and bass turnarounds and so on.

The result takes a basic performance video concept but makes it look like it was shot live with 6 different cameras, and gives it a very professional upscale vibe, given the relatively scaled back production budget. And it must have been effective, because with otherwise minimal marketing efforts, the video has been viewed nearly 45,000 times.

“Blood Moon” – riverside rebellion

Another example of a music video style we can produce even cheaper than shooting it ourselves, is through available video clips from a stock service like MotionArray.com which you can sign up for yourself at the link. Or we can simply discuss your vision for the song and shop for the clips ourselves while building the video and setting it’s key transitions to musical cues and rhythms.

For what we think is a really cool example of this, here’s another video released by my band Riverside Rebellion, called Broken Lines. The entire video is made from stock – all licensed and legal for use, but none of it is original video or animation – strictly an editing project, which can be an inexpensive yet creative way to tell a more abstract story in a really visually captivating way. Check it out.

“Broken lines” – riverside rebellion

Baton Rouge – Ty Smith

LOST AND FOUND – TY SMITH

DRESSED TO KILL (KISS TRIBUTE) LIVE CONCERT PROMOTIONAL HIGHLIGHT VIDEO

So those are the dedicated music videos we’ve done, but for a better idea of our full video production capabilities, check out our video services page and our YouTube channel. Music videos are fun. You know what goes GREAT with music videos and new single releases? Cover art.

Cover art for singles, albums, videos & promo

So, you might have noticed, photoshop and graphic design is one of the coolest, most unique things about our photography business. I don’t have to send anything out to a graphic artist to create logos or album art because it’s all done in-house. This is where I really have fun creating cool branding graphics for bands. One of the things I personally love to do for my OWN original music is design cover art for each release that teases the story the song tells, in a single photo or graphic image. Lots of Easter Eggs and integrated meaning. Good cover art should mean something and say something. If you are taking the time to record and release a song or even do a music video for it, professional cover art is a fantastic way to catch attention visually.

Here are some of ours and other related recent design work.

celebrity meet & greets, events

Meet and greet events are a lot of fun to shoot, and we’ve worked dozens with various casino venues. One of my bands is a well known KISS tribute band and I play Gene Simmons in it. We are anything but famous ourselves, but the shows are often a big deal and we’ve had the opportunity to be in a lot of meet and greet lines in front of and behind the camera over the years. Behind the camera, we’ve shot the Oak Ridge Boys, Rick Nielsen, Brett Michaels, Shaq, Snoop Dog, Tanya Tucker and many more artists, actors and athletes.

Coordinating these kind of events and keeping the lines moving while delivering the photos in real time to fans via a downloadable file they can access via a scan on their smartphone. It’s a natural service to add to event photography when you are expecting a big crowd and want to engage with the people who came to see you. We can work with tour managers or venue management to coordinate services as needed. Here are some selfies we’ve shot with some of our favorite celebs.

We are musicians

Final thought… my day job is photography and visual art. But I am also a gigging musician and so is my studio partner Jen, who also happens to be my wife. I’ve played guitar and bass in cover bands and tribute bands for 30 years, and now play originals in a band with Jen – writing, recording and playing our own music.

I’ve played for big crowds and small crowds. I’ve fought with venue owners, booking agents and promoters and I’ve felt that magic that you only get on stage in front of a powerful air-moving backline, giving and receiving energy from a crowd and embracing push-pull of the feel, playing tight in the pocket live with my bandmates. All of my closest friends are musicians, as was my dad and my uncles. We could trade gig stories all day, but my point is, I’ve been there and so has Jen.

We get the brotherhood of being in a band. We understand the aesthetics of band photography, stage presence and branding images. I think a photographer who is a musician has a unique perspective when it comes to helping other musicians craft their images and promote their music with visual content. It is a personal passion and I am an absolute sucker for helping out bands and musicians that I believe in.

So get in touch with us and lets talk about your band photography & branding project. if you are cool and fun to work with, you will get a good deal. Simple as that. I want to help musicians build their brand, because I know it is a grind. I have the absolute utmost respect for anyone who tries to take their love of music and their passion to tell a story to the next level.

CONTACT INFORMATION

SHIPMAN PHOTOGRAPHY LLC

By Appointment
Tulsa, OK

(918) 947-9601

support@shipmanphotos.com

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professional Personal & Business Branding

Headshots are more than a necessary evil

Need to book headshots in Tulsa, but keep putting it off?   I don’t blame you.  Nobody in their right mind really enjoys the idea of getting headshots done, so let’s just go ahead and acknowledge that OK?   I don’t even like getting them done for myself.     It’s stressful, it targets all your insecurities, and it takes business time away from whatever it is that you do to put food on your family’s table.    I get it.  

But here’s the thing.   Your potential clients, customers and patients all have choices of who to call first.    Most of them have asked their facebook friends for referrals for something and have received dozens of replies.    Or maybe they googled “headshots in Tulsa,” or searched social media for it, or just remembered a few people they’ve met who do the thing they need done.   Unless what you do is so exclusive and in-demand that you don’t have to care about first impressions, you need a good headshot, at the very least because they will visit your website and social media, looking for a gut feeling on who to call – and chances are, that first call will get their business.   

So,  with that said…  it’s OK to acknowledge that the concept of headshots isn’t fun as long as we can agree they serve a purpose.   Like many other things in life that you need to do, you might as well book your headshots with someone who adds value to them, which not coincidentally, is exactly what we do here at Shipman Photography.

We are Fun to work with

People like us!  Jen and I are friendly, fun, interesting people who enjoy working with our clients.   We get to know you and visit with you while we are setting up and conducting your shoot.   It relaxes our clients and takes away a lot of the anxiety of getting headshots done, simply being able to interact with people who are interested in them, rather than just sticking a camera in their face and demanding they smile.  

Speaking of smiling…   few things are worse in headshot photography than an inauthentic smile.   Few people can turn on a camera ready smile at the drop of the hat.  Sure, some can.   Most can’t.  To that end, it’s incredibly helpful to get our clients relaxed and in a friendly, low pressure, conversational state of mind.    That’s when smiles can just happen without being forced.    

Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa Emcee extraordinaire, Kimberly Jones. One of Oklahoma’s best smiles!

in our studio, on location, or at your office

Headshots in Tulsa or anywhere else can be pretty straight forward, but there are a lot of variables involved with the production of them. Is it just you, or does your whole team need them? Does it make more sense to schedule an appointment at our studio, or should we come set up at your office for the afternoon? Is it more on brand to shoot headshots on location in downtown Tulsa, or maybe a more natural park kind of setting? Is there some kind of truck, office frontage or physical plant branding that should be part of your background composition?

We can help you determine all these things and put together a plan that fits you, rather than some one size fits all “you get what you get” paint by numbers headshot service.

Most importantly however, all this customization doesn’t mean it has to take longer to set up, shoot, get out of your way and get you back to work. A minimum amount of disruption in your schedule is one of the big factors involved in putting off headshots. “I just don’t have the time,” is the most common reason given. We make that easy on you and work around your schedule. Our schedule is pretty unorthodox to say the least, and it’s not unusual to schedule headshots in the evening or even on a weekend if that is easier for you.

cover shot quality lighting & retouching

When you are looking for a headshot service, price might be a consideration… but if it is the only consideration, you are almost certainly getting bad headshots that won’t advance your brand and won’t help you be the one who gets the call from that stack of referrals on a potential client’s desk.

There’s a certain level of expertise and experience that factor in to the value of high quality headshots. It starts with lighting. Headshot lighting can be done a few different ways, and part of our service is asking our clients to look at our work – or even the work of other photographers – to share with us styles that they like. After that its pretty easy to deconstruct the light design, background and aesthetic of the image. We can light headshots in a variety of complimentary ways, which combined with a good variety of poses to choose from will get the shot right in camera. But that’s just when the work begins.

Retouching specifically, and photoshop in general are the secret sauce at Shipman Photography. With countless magazine covers, billboards and national level ad campaigns under our belts, we always get hired to do our own retouching. What that means, is that after viewing our portfolio, advertising agencies pay us – instead of their own professional retouchers – to do the retouching on our photos. That’s unusual, in a good way for our clients. This is a post-production service that is as high as any studio in America, and it is baked in to your order.

When it comes to retouching headshots, few things are worse than bad photoshop. Trusting your face to just any retoucher is risky. Be sure to carefully review the portfolio of anyone you are considering working with because too much or too little both have the same effect on quality.

That same skillset extends to custom backgrounds for headshots in Tulsa and the surrounding communities. Occasionally, clients will want a digital background as part of their headshot or personal branding plan. And that too is baked into our basic level service.

expanded services, beyond headshots

So yes, headshots are important. Next to your company logo, it’s probably the single most important piece of visual content you can put out there for public consumption if you are a solo entrepreneur. However, even as a small business you may have expanded needs for visual content. And that’s exactly why working with us for headshots makes so much sense. We can help you grow your visibility as your brand expands.

It starts with headshots, but then it may make sense to shoot content that lets your clients see more of your personality on a bio page, or interactions with other clients, or your new delivery trucks, or the new office in Broken Arrow, and so on. It’s a symbiotic relationship that we grow for the long haul. If we help you grow your brand, you’ll eventually need more visual content and so the cycle goes. The vast majority of our commercial clients started with headshots and have been repeat service clients with us for years.

• headshots
• personal branding
• product photography
• updatable team composite photos
• drone stills & video
• staged advertising photography (clients, patients, office staff)
• physical plant (office, branded vehicles)
• video production (interviews, testimonials, product demonstration, commercials, promotions, music videos)

variety of styles

So with the variability of location, lighting styles, elite level post production and expanse of services, one of the key differences is simply the variety of different branded looks, vibes and styles we can professionally accomplish. Be sure to visit our full portfolio gallery for a better look at what we can do, but here’s a small sample. Editorial styles, branding styles, single light, natural light, multiple light, high angle, low angle, camera unaware, smiling, serious…. Let us help you dial in your brand.

Customer service, guarantee of satisfaction

Customer service of course should be the primary selling point for any of us who are in business. All too often though, you’ll hear stories about people who didn’t get their headshots they paid for, or they aren’t happy with them. Virtually every client we book has already had bad headshots done by someone else and wound up just having to start over. We understand that frustration and part of our mission here at Shipman Photography is to remove those concerns and take away the anxiety of booking headshots in Tulsa.

The process here is simple. We consult on the shoot. We conduct the shoot. By the next business day (sometimes same day), you will have an online proof gallery from your shoot, from which you will select your order. Those images you select for your order receive a “satisfaction guaranteed” level of retouching and post production final tuning. Never too much, always enough. If for any reason, you want them to receive additional editing or a revision to the original, it is done at no charge until you are satisfied with the result.

The final edited digital master files are delivered to you via a downloadable order gallery. The files are all full sized master files, with sizing for social media or web optimization available.

Our goal is to serve you well enough to be your one stop shop for future visual content as your brand grows, and to earn your referral when someone says to you, “Wow! Who did your headshots?”

headshot CONTACT INFORMATION

SHIPMAN PHOTOGRAPHY LLC

By Appointment
Tulsa, OK

(918) 947-9601

support@shipmanphotos.com

Visit us on YouTube to see more video production

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The first organization they click on (be it on social media, or a website) has a huge statistical advantage over it’s competition already. If that customer, patient or client has their questions answered, needs met, and gets a good “feeling” from the content on that first contact, they may not even look at other options before making contact.

Obviously your search engine optimization and high placement is a critical factor, but even if you are a high first page search result, you may lose the opportunity to be that first contact if your site isn’t engaging, attractive and fully predictive (at a glance) of being a high level customer experience.

For our commercial clients, Shipman Photography’s simple goal is to give that client all the visual tools they need to: 1. Capture the attention of the searcher. 2. SHOW the searcher the answers to their unasked questions 3. Engage the searcher and keep them on site to read and consume positive impressions. 4. Firmly establish in the mind of the searcher that our client as the first call to make. And for us that means ALL of your marketable branding content from headshots to TV commercials.

While we also work with large brands through advertising agencies, in this article we will specifically focus on the very unique visual content services we provide directly to small and medium sized businesses.

Headshots

The basic headshot is still the cornerstone of branding content for many small businesses – especially the independent contractor. The smaller your organization, the more important you and your team become as a living brand. Anyone who directly interacts with clients and patients, needs to be able to present a personal image that is professional, approachable and most of all – authentic. What that means for you and your business may be different than what it mean for someone else. It’s our job to represent your individual or corporate brand, and in some cases, help you find and define it. Headshots can be shot in studio, at your office, or on location outdoors. The studio headshots can be simple or can have a photorealistic digital setting (composite photography). The options are endless, and we can discuss the best fit for you and your brand ahead of time, or at the shoot itself.

Personal branding & lifestyle

Similar to the headshot, a personal branding image conveys a sense of “who” a client may be doing business with. While headshots are more focused on the initial first impression of being professional, trustworthy and approachable – the personal branding image goes a little deeper into personality, style and purpose. They show a subject in a little more creative and artistic presentation that goes a little deeper than the headshot. Great for social media, “about us” pages, blog posts and other marketing materials which help a searcher “get to know” you and what makes you interesting. It may help to have them see you working , laughing or simply look cool and fun. These help present our clients as someone fun or interesting, and again this is a valuable branding tool that enhances the likelihood of being a first call for our client.

Product photography

The visual presentation of your products is incredibly important. It’s a great example of why you shouldn’t take shortcuts on how you display them. Packaging, websites, social media, sales platforms like Ebay & Amazon, print ads and even billboards… However you choose to let the world know what you sell, you are leaving money on the table if you don’t show that product in it’s best possible light (literally). Lighting, setting, lens choice, color grading and staging are all elements that go into good product photography. These are choices that brand your product and say things about it – who uses it, how it’s used, build quality and more.

STAGED INTERACTIONS

Depictions of customer service interactions create a relatable image for clients and customers to imagine themselves eating a great meal, winning at the roulette table, receiving empathetic quality medical care or simply making a purchase from a trustworthy sales staff. Depictions of professional staff interactions and team members enjoying their job send clear messages to a searcher that those team members are not only competent and authoritative experts, but that they are fun and nice and probably would be that way on the phone or in person. Again, it is about creating an anticipation in a potential client’s mind that what they see in staged images is what they will experience. That’s a powerful motivator to go ahead and make that first contact with your organization.

team composites (updatable)

When part of what you are selling is the customer service experience, its popular to include in your marketing materials and website a staff photo. Your office staff, your sales teams, your physician group, your law firm senior partners and associates… whatever your business, if it is large enough to have a team but small enough that your team consists of people a potential customer would interact with, a team image can be a good idea for generating trust by a searcher who is looking for a reason to make that point of contact.

It’s important to remember especially in some industries that clients aren’t looking forward to doing business with ANYONE, but they need something are looking for people that look trustworthy. Nobody shops for a dentist, divorce lawyer or funeral home for the same reasons they search for a travel office or a gym, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still create a positive connection with a searcher through their being able to see the people they would interact with. It removes some of the distance and facelessness of an initial email or phone call.

There are challenges however… Gathering everyone up for a physical team photo either disrupts productivity or eats up time before work, after work or during lunch – all are impositions on your company time or the time of your staff. And then there is the matter of turnover. Any midsize business will experience periodic positive or negative turnover and the result is that your team photos are rarely up to date for very long.

The solution is one of our most unique and popular services – the team composite. These are created by shooting your team members individually at our studio and then creating a team photo from several individual images. The benefits to this are that we can put them into any kind of digital background that fits your brand and even change that background if your branding changes. We are also able to work with one staff member at a time – greatly reducing loss of productivity. And lastly, adding or losing people is simply a matter of sending the new hire down for their photo and removing any files of team members who’ve moved on.

Custom studio creations

When the power of the group composites is unleashed to create truly custom digital art, the sky isn’t even the limit. There are no limits. Any concept you have for branding, mission statements, themed events etc. can be created from scratch as eye catching content. In today’s world, we are bombarded daily with thousands and thousands of branding impressions. The vast majority we simply tune out.

For a impression to avoid that mental filter and grab someone’s attention – from billboards you drive past to and from the office to social media content you scroll through on facebook and instagram, it takes something that really stands out to grab someone’s attention. That’s where photography meets graphic design and becomes true digital cinematic art. It is a creative service option, the quality of which few commercial photography studios can offer. We can.

video production

We have written, directed and produced award winning videos for a wide variety of clients. TV commercials, Interview style, testimonials, drone, tours, music videos, client & patient interactions and more.

We offer a full scale production staff for every video production. A typical production would include writer, producer, director, videographer(s) and video editor. Professional television quality gear.

Tulsa music awards 2020 video of the year, “pbr”

TV Commercial – Wilson Cadillac

Hard Rock Hotel & Casino New Years Party ’22

S force watch commercial video (full length)

Metro Tulsa foot & ankle physician interview

Riverside Rebellion ‘blood moon’ music video

This video received nearly 44,000 views within two weeks of publication.

For more information on visual content

Visit our dedicated Commercial Photography site here: GreggShipman.com

Read more about our basic commercial photography services here and portfolio here on ShipmanPhotos.com
See more headshot and Personal Branding samples here on ShipmanPhotos.com

Visit some of our multiple project small business clients:

Holden Litigation

Metro Tulsa Foot & Ankle

Nowlin Orthodontics

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You can read more about our highly customized and unique senior portrait process here, and see a more comprehensive portfolio gallery of our senior portrait work here.  We highly recommend you visit both links because they will answer a lot of questions you may have.

Briefly,   Shipman Photography is an award winning senior portrait studio from Tulsa that specializes in athletes.   The majority of our senior portrait clients are athletes, and that’s become our niche over the last 12 years.    We are also a well known commercial photography company who has worked with NFL players, entertainment industry professionals,  Fortune 500 companies and more – with magazine covers, billboards, album covers etc. to show for our work.    We bring this same level of lifestyle photography and personal branding to the senior projects we work with.  We are not a volume senior portrait company, we book 40 to 50 kids a year, and typically they are clients who come to us specifically because of the work we do for athletes.    Since our subsidiary company (scoreboard productions) works with senior student athletes in the shooting and production of banners and team posters, we felt it would be a helpful costumer service effort to let those students and families know about our senior portrait services, because frankly – it’s a perfect fit.  We are not the cheapest option and do not compete on being “cheap.”   For the quality, customization, uniqueness and level of service we provide however, we deliver the highest value in the market.

We fully realize that by now (February at the time of this posting), you may have already concluded senior portrait sessions as early as last spring, but we also realize a sizable number of students still need good senior pics later in the school year.   For clients who don’t need a full senior session but do want a sports-focused mini session in our studio or at your home field/court, we offer those as well.

First, let’s take a look at some athlete specific samples.

Guys:

Ladies:  (FYI- we partner with a professional hair and makeup artist who is available for senior clients.  If interested, inquire for details and availability)

Our spring senior special for athletes has two options, Full session or Mini session.  Below are the details for both:

A.  Full session $150 (plus custom portrait packages starting at $500, with most popular package being $950).
In addition to the full senior portrait process laid out in the link above, as a part of our spring senior portrait special for athletes, we are offering the following.

1.  Two sessions for the price of one ($150).     Typically, our session fee covers 90 minutes of shooting which is typically one evening.    We are offering two sessions at no additional charge.  So it could be split up for example this way:  downtown Tulsa and our studio one evening, your home town stadium or other location (park, family property, etc.) another evening.    No limit on clothing changes.  No charge for additional local locations during your sessions.

2.  Free 8×8 leather-bound photo book or 16×20 canvas with any package you purchase.

3.  Two bonus images to any package you select at no additional charge.  So if a package has 12 images (our most popular one) you get 14.

If interested – please contact us for package pricing and we will send it to you directly and arrange an in person or phone consultation.

Mini Session $450 (all inclusive)
Again, this is specifically targeted towards clients who’ve already worked with a photographer on a portrait package but want something more sport-focused as well without committing to a full session.   It can also be a stand alone all inclusive package however.

Includes:  30 minute session (approx), one location (our studio, or another local location), 4 fully retouched and edited digital masters.

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Senior portraits that are different

This blog is about senior portraits for football players, but let’s start with what Shipman photograph is not. We aren’t a volume senior photography studio that rushes through multiple clients a day, taking the same photos of everyone at the same places. Our projects are all highly personalized and custom.

Primarily I am a commercial photographer who works with corporate brands on advertising campaigns. My work has been seen on billboards all across the Tulsa area, television commercials, magazine covers and more. We work with professional athletes, recording artists and actors on their branding photography, headshots, album covers and promotional content. If you visit our homepage, you’ll see a lot of examples of what I am talking about. The point is, I do a lot of creative stuff for very picky professional clients, and they rate me 5 stars on social media, google etc. because the work we do at Shipman Photography is in demand. This is not a hobbyist photography company.

I open with that because if you as an athlete or parent of an athlete have met me, it probably is in connection with a senior poster/banner project and you may not be aware of our portrait work. I’ve been doing senior portrait photography for 20 years (long before commercial photography notoriety), and over time our speciality became senior pictures for football players.

For me, portrait work is a heavy crossover discipline with our commercial branding work. The same attention to detail, vibe and “different” that goes into shooting a touring band’s promo or a fitness athlete’s magazine cover goes into highly customized, original and creative senior portrait projects. Simply put, we might not be for everyone, but the clients who book with us do so because they love our distinctive work and know that’s exactly what they want.

Click here for the full Senior Portrait Portfolio page. And click here for more details on our Senior Portraits Services.

But please read on for how we specifically produce senior pictures for football players and other athletes.

Magazine branding art for fitness athlete, actor, fitness coach and writer Michael Wittig. The theme was the “Terminator” and the article was called “terminate your excuses.” It’s a good example of production that works great for senior portrait ideas too.

We are not your girlfriend’s senior portrait photographer

Guys don’t want a “senior portrait experience,” and they don’t want to work with the photographers who offer that. In fact, often they don’t even want senior pictures at all! Sometimes it’s a chore for moms to even get these guys on board with doing pictures. To those guys, I say this….

We aren’t your girlfriend’s senior portrait photographer. We aren’t going to give you a spa day at the studio, and we aren’t going to pose you lying on your stomach in a field of sunflowers. We are going to do three things:

1. Take killer pics of you that will make you look cool for the rest of your life

2. Take up as little of your prime summer time as possible

3. Tell you terrible dad jokes that you will hate yourself for laughing at (but laugh, you will).

looking cool downtown

I always get the question – “Gregg, what should my senior wear for his downtown session?” Well, I used to say “I would just encourage him to be true to himself and his personality and wear something that is clean and fits right. Well… nowadays I am a big believer in dudes looking sharp for their downtown session. A sports coat is a great prop for downtown. It’s a good look and gives you more stuff to do with your hands. Plus, when a guy knows he’s looking sharp, you just see the confidence build. They may be awkward at first, but but by the time we get to the second or third stop on our downtown circuit, they are already giving me their best Blue Steele squinch.

Looking cool at the stadium

A big part of our “Senior Pictures for Football Players” plan is a short session at their stadium. Getting the home field in the shot can really create some magic that you’ll appreciate the further into life and away from your high school football career you go. It will always remind you of teammates, playing days, wins, losses and coaches who made an impact on your life.

For that reason, I always recommend a stadium session and never (as in…. never) charge extra for this. It’s just part of the project as far as I’m concerned. Totally optional, but it’s a great football-centric “casual” shoot. I always have a good time at these, talking to the player about his favorite memories from playing there.

Looking cool in studio

Our studio session are famous for creating anything from simple edgy black and whites to extreme composite scenes that look like they are out of a movie. Photorealistic or purposely surreal, in uniform or not – we really tailor a plan for whatever you think is a cool idea. These sessions are also optional but are also done at no additional charge for our football senior clients.

We can do these on the same day we do another on location shoot. Pretty common for us to wind up back at our climate controlled home studio after a downtown or stadium session to get some cool ideas shot for our football player seniors.

The studio stuff is where we can really have some fun. The options are endless and can really involve themes that have nothing to do with football, or everything. Each client is different and that’s how we like to approach these projects. Studio work is great for serious portraits and also crazy photoshop creations.

looking cool somewhere else

Downtown isn’t for everyone. Some of you country boys out there know what I’m talking about. Some of you guys would rather be fishing at the lake, hunting or hanging out on family property somewhere. Maybe hit one of the beautiful area parks and get some nature goin on! We’ve shot it all. Happy to travel, and happy to work with any ideas our clients have. These are custom session for custom photos that nobody else can deliver. We are happy to shoot things like this as a replacement for any of our other built in sessions (downtown, stadium, studio), or add it on if you want it all!

Our senior portrait process

If you’re a parent reading this, you might have several questions by this point. It sounds great, but how does it work? How much is it? How booked up are you? Excellent questions! For us, “Senior Pictures for Football Players” means we do custom work for clients who don’t want “good enough” or ordinary. It means we really specialize not only in terms of the content we create, but in terms of how we relate to your senior guys and perhaps even more importantly, to you – the parents. The first thing we tell our guys is “do it for your mom.”

1. Free consultation. We do this in studio or over the phone, and it’s a chance to get to know more about your senior’s personality. It helps us build a shooting plan and schedule, and helps you feel comfortable with your choice of Shipman Photography for your senior portraits.

2. No obligation to book, but if you do, the booking fee is $175. This covers holding the date(s) for: location, stadium and studio. My time to conduct those shoots and prepare a proof gallery is also covered. If traveling outside the Tulsa Metro area, mileage may be charged, but we would discuss that beforehand.

3. Photography. Generally we shoot outside in the hour before sunset. I don’t clock watch and try to shoot every good idea we have. Once all the shooting has been done, we schedule a gallery review.

4. The gallery review typically takes place in your home, and while it is a sales meeting, it’s a very low pressure one. For starters, you will not be asked to pick out your selections that night, because chances are we’ll show you over 100 proofs that you’ll love and have a hard time choosing between them. We do look at packages and discuss your budget and try to build you a custom package you can fill out with selections at your leisure. Package average is $1200. We can send more specific package and pricing information to you upon request, including information on budget focused mini-sessions.

5. Once you have made your selections, we fully retouch and edit as much or as little as needed and post the full sized digital master files to a downloadable gallery for you. We also set up an online print-ordering system for your selections from an excellent online print vendor at our own wholesale cost with no mark up ($2.40 for an 8×10 for example), and you can order prints this way as needed with no time limits.

6. The images in your order are satisfaction guaranteed! Rarely do we need to do a re-edit or additional work once we post an image in an order gallery, but if we ever do, we always accommodate our client’s requests and make sure they love each and every image like the family heirlooms they are.

Contact us today for more info! Senior Pictures for Football Players aren’t “all” we do, but they are absolutely a speciality!

(918) 947-9601

support@shipmanphotos.com

And if you are interested in senior posters, banners or booking team picture day event, please check out our sports photography company, Scoreboard Productions.

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Over the years, our senior portrait speciality is clearly “guys who are athletes.”    And that has shaped our senior picture business, not only in Bixby but beyond the Tulsa metro area.  We are in fact, not just your local Spartan photographer.  We are a nationally known, award winning studio with clients from all over the country who travel in from out of state for our unique style and scope of services.

However – we consider Bixby Football to be our cornerstone client base for senior portraits, and as such we offer a bit extra to all of our Spartan clients.    I’m a Bixby alum, and have had 3 kids go through this school, with the last one being a Bixby senior this year too!

Here is a link to our Senior Portrait services page which will tell you a bit more about our highly customized and client focused process.

Senior Portrait Services Page

Our senior sessions typically include a combination of Studio, Stadium and on location (usually but not always Downtown Tulsa) all at no additional fee. 

Downtown Senior Pictures

Below are the details of our 2021 senior special for Bixby football players.

Bixby Spartan Football Senior Portrait Promotion – Class of 2021 Our standard Shipman Photography LLC senior portrait services include:


• Free consultation, in studio or via phone.
• Custom shooting plan – tailored to fit your student’s interests, personality and schedule.
• Sessions can cover multiple dates & locations at no additional charge.
• Multiple custom package options starting at $500
• Personalized in-studio gallery review, where we review edited samples and 100+ proofs.
• You are not required to select your images at the gallery review. No pressure!
• You receive custom premium print order products at NO CHARGE when paying for your package or making a payment on your package at your gallery review. (canvasses, photobooks, portrait albums, additional edited files etc. – for example)
• When you make your selections for your portrait order package, we do a full magazine coverquality retouch on each individual image – no matter how simple or complex.
• Each and every image in your order package is satisfaction guaranteed.
• Each edited image from your package order is made available (along with a full zero-restriction print release) for a full sized, high res, digital download directly from your onlineorder gallery.
• Your order gallery is also set up so that you can order unlimited prints of any size through ourprofessional online print vendor – at our wholesale cost with no mark-up. For example… an8x10 print is currently $2.29 each.
• dad jokes – terrible, terrible jokes but they WORK and they are provided at no charge.  
• Additionally, our Bixby Spartan Football 2021 senior portrait clients will receive:
  1. Professional sideline & live action game photographs of your senior. I shoot the majority of home Bixby games and travel to those that I can get away for. As part of our give-back program with Bixby athletics, we make our game photos available to the coaches and athletic department at no charge. While covering Bixby games, I absolutely make sure I am also shooting lots of content of my senior portrait clients. Our clients receive the digitals of their senior from these games at no charge, and can order prints wholesale with no markup.
  2. Action photos from Night of Champions of your senior. Again – I cover this for coach Montgomery and in doing so, I also make sure to keep an eye out for my senior portrait clients. Our senior clients receive access to all their digital images from this event.
  3. Digital files from picture days, team photos, gold ball sessions, senior night and any other digital files I have shot of your senior throughout their Bixby Spartan career.
  4. A custom 20 page football book commemorating either their senior season or their entire career – featuring your favorite images from their games, activities and sessions.
  5. If your senior has championship rings, we offer a free ring session to our Bixby football clients, with up to 3 selections from this session being added at no charge to your portrait package.
  6. Free Club 225 poster 16×24
  7. Free digital file of individual senior banner image with print release.

Studio Sessions

To fully qualify for all of the above bonus material, clients need to book with us prior to the 2019 Night of Champions. Their sessions don’t need to be completed before then, they simply need to be scheduled so I know who to look for.

Your senior will have a better time than he thinks he will! I always tell my guys their senior portraits are not for their 18 year old selves. They are for their moms and their future selves – because their senior portraits are going to be on their parents’ walls, coffee tables and book cases for the next 50 years or so. So they might as well be awesome instead of good enough.

We get to know our clients and joke around with them during the session. We keep it fun and light and we never ever put them in goofy or awkward poses that they’ll hate. The goal is always to make them look cool and create genuine reaction smiles to go along with some serious Zoolander Blue Steel stuff.

Parks, Lakes, Family Property etc.

Good luck this year to you and your players! It is our hope and prayer that this season, we not only have continued success, but also that our players experience good health, earn new athletic opportunities and learn life lessons that only competition and playing your heart out for your coaches and teammates can provide.

One last thing…     We would be remiss if we did not mention the fact that we do pay attention to safety measures when it comes to being Covid safe.    When shooting or meeting in studio, we observe all reasonable social distancing and sanitation precautions, including masks if a client so requests.     Here is a funny “re-opening” video we made on that very topic recently.   (Seriously, it’s hilarious and worth a watch!)

Shipman Studio Re-Opening video, featuring Ollie the wonder dog.

Stadium & locker room sessions

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When we first started out, we tried to avoid strong opinions or suggesting wardrobe direction because the focus has always been on having our clients “be authentic” during their shoots – meaning, wear what you would normally wear.    Well…  sometime’s that’s a good plan, and sometimes you guys could use a little help.   So here we are.   Your future you will thank us some day.

Being yourself actually is great advice, because who knows your style better than you?  Still…  As we’ve seen our portfolio evolve and our client list grow, we’ve developed some opinions on what direction to go with style and wardrobe depending on not only your personality, but where we are shooting, what time of day etc.   This is an important component of our free consultation that we conduct with every senior portrait client before we even book their sessions.   

These consultations are all about helping us get to know you (or your senior).   Location is going to make a big difference in style choices, so as we get to know a client and their personality and preferences, it becomes clearer how to plan their session(s).  Different themes, time of the year, personalities etc. all can be factors in figuring out your style for your shoot.  We will work through all that with you and with your parents so you know what to wear and we know how to shoot it.

Once we have a plan and it’s time for your session, the first thing to do is pay attention to personal grooming.  These images are going to be on your family’s wall for the rest of their lives, so the first piece of advice would be to avoid any look that’s too trendy, temporary and tied to something that isn’t going to age well.   I mean… be you, but be the you that your own kids won’t be making fun of in 20 years.      Fellas, that includes facial hair.  If you can grow it and it looks good, go for it.  If it is thin, scraggly and looks like you are trying too hard, it won’t age well.  Shave that bad boy off.   If your mom hates it, shave it off.  I’m not gonna make you shave it, but these pics are for her, so keep that in mind.

Next, get to your favorite hair stylist or barbershop and get that do dialed in the way you like it.     Again, think long term.  Some of you guys may play sports on teams that have a team “look.”  For example, every year when Bixby football makes the playoffs, more than half the guys get blonde mohawks.    Now, while that may actually be a GREAT look for your football themed stadium session, maybe not the best look for your downtown Tulsa session.  Plan ahead.  Do the GQ stuff early on, and the sports stuff later in the year if that’s a concern.  We will work with you.   

Things to consider (wardrobe):

1. Dress for the season and weather.   Few things are more miserable than being stuck on a 90 minute photoshoot freezing to death or sweating through your clothes because you didn’t check the forecast when you left the house.      

2. If you want to bring a change of clothes, keep two things in mind.   First, you’ll have to change in your car (or my truck if that’s easier), or a bathroom along the way depending on where we are for your session work.   Second, I schedule all of my on-location shoots in the “golden hour” 60-90 minute window before sunset.  When the light’s gone, it’s gone so any time you spend changing clothes is less time we can spend taking killer shots of you.   I usually recommend a guy either stick with one look for one session location, or at most, bring one change of clothes.  Plan accordingly! 

3. Seems obvious but make sure your clothes fit.   Guys at this age have gone through all kinds of physical growth over the last couple of years most of the time, so just because that suit fit last summer at your cousin’s wedding doesn’t mean it still does.   Try it on and make sure.  If you need alterations, consider getting those done ahead of your senior portraits.  Same goes for anything else you are planning to wear.

4. This seems obvious but it’s happened far more often than you might believe…  if you are wearing slacks, DO NOT WEAR WHITE SOCKS.   Seriously…   Yes, I can fix them in post production.  No, I do not want to.   Please wear dress socks that go with your slacks.   

5. Last thing.    Shoes and Belts, match them.  I’ve had to change a lot of those in post production too and it’s just better if you make sure they match.   

Things not to worry about:

1. Acne outbreaks.   This is the best retouching (photoshop) studio in Oklahoma.  There’s no blemish, we can’t fix.   It happens.  Go with it.  

2. Extreme weather.   I don’t want to shoot in 114 degree or 20 degree weather any more than you do.    Same goes for rain, extreme wind and so on.  We always factor a plan B into our schedule and finding a new date is always OK. 

A typical senior for us will have two to three distinctly different settings to work with.  A common example would be 1) Athletic facility, 2) Downtown Tulsa, 3) Studio session.  In our case, we do not charge extra for these split sessions.  Our goal is to shoot everything you might like to see and not nickel and dime you along the way.   

Let’s take a look at styling each of these types of sessions.   

Since we work with so many athletes, on campus athletic facilities like football fields, basketball arenas etc. wind up being part of the plan.   During these sessions, the idea is usually a more casual homage to their sport.   T-shirt and jeans with a ball or letter jacket is a classic look that never goes out of style.   Full uniform shoots or logo practice gear are also options for these shoots, but sometimes that’s best saved for the studio.

Downtown Tulsa is a very popular option for a primary portrait session.   And this is really what this article is about.   Suit or no suit?  That’s a super common question, and since I don’t like wearing suits myself, I usually advised my seniors to wear whatever they would normally wear if they were going to a nice event downtown.   That can still be good advice, but to be honest – I think mixing in at least a sports coat is a must for a downtown session.    Weather that means a full suit and tie, or a simple button down shirt with jeans – the sports coat is a good look when shooting downtown.

Now, maybe you aren’t a downtown kind of guy.    Shooting on family property, at a lake, out in the country, you name it – we’ve done it.   And as far as style goes for stuff like that?  Definitely be yourself.    Even if that means a backwards hat and a fishing pole.    There’s a time and a place to dress up in a suit, and the fishing hole is not that place.    

For one thing it gives you a stylish urban look to match the environment.   It also gives you a fantastic styling prop that opens up a bunch of really cool posing options. 

In fact, we’ve had a couple of guys opt for tuxedos.

As far as ties go,  only if you are wearing a full suit.   

Lastly, the studio sessions are a wild card.   The magic we can make with our studio options is absolutely limitless and can be utilized to create sports themed cinematic scenes that would look at home in a Nike ad, or we can drop you in another city with your suit.    That really is a very customizable part of our session work, and what you wear really depends on what we are shooting for. 

Bottom line guys, we want you to look your best.  If you look good, we look good.  I always take a photo assistant on shoots with me to keep an eye out for good posing ideas.   Along the way we get to know you and joke around with you.   We keep it light and fun, and make sure you have a good time.   We never put you in weird, awkward poses that aren’t you.  My goal is to make you look cool, and feel like you look cool.     

There aren’t many senior portrait studios who specialize in guys, but we are one who does.   Come see the difference!

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