Vickie Gray Images

07/23/2026

Love using color for my actor headshot clients!

07/18/2026

A little review of this week. I left out wildfire smoke, acupuncture and a new camera bag. Happy weekend, everyone!

07/06/2026

Preparing for tonight's online workshop for Washington Photo Safari. Interested in learning more about headshot photography? I present these workshops every month via Zoom. DM for details!

06/29/2026

What do you think? Would Layla make the cut for Disney? She sure hit a home run at her first professional headshot session. I'm looking forward to hearing more about her acting career and also giving a shout out to Sidney Allen for sending Layla and countless other talent my way. Thanks Layla and Sid for a great photo session!

06/15/2026

Model or actor portfolio photos?

Yasmina is auditioning for both. She has a set of traditional headshots but wanted a few full body poses for the modeling side of her career. Though you may not be asked for the full body images very often, it's great to have them on hand if the need arises.

06/08/2026

FUN photo session with on her first set of actor headshots. She has a great range of expressions and takes direction beautifully. I know we'll be seeing a lot of her very soon!

HMUA:
Studio assistant:

04/09/2026

Cruising through the Pacific on our way through the Panama Canal. The change to tropical weather took a little adjusting but we're totally acclimated now. On the Cunard Queen Anne, lots of Australian guests, they are friendly and casual. We have afternoon tea on the sun deck :). Here's a little peek so far. See you in two weeks!

03/23/2026

03/10/2026

When should you use an AI generated background?

One of the most important, and often nerve-wracking, parts of portrait photography is deciding on a backdrop, or background.

In the studio I have multiple backdrops, in over a dozen colors. Seamless paper (the kind that comes on large rolls) is what I mostly use for actors and business headshots. Lately I’ve been a little obsessed with textured backdrops from Clotstudio. I have a half-dozen of them in different colors and styles.

I do a fair amount of photos throughout my building at Meadow Mill, which means I get to use features like industrial windows, aged brick walls, beautiful woodwork and stairwells and tons of architectural features like railings and exposed ceilings.

But when you go to a client’s location it can be a bit of a crapshoot. Like the recent session I did for a classical musician who wanted a headshot taken with a piano. She arranged to use a friend’s apartment, since she didn’t have her own instrument. The unit was small and the piano pretty much took up the entire living room. Because of space limitations and lighting, I didn’t have much room to maneuver, plus the unit’s owner was nervous about our moving anything around too much. So you can see the open kitchen in the background, along with that lighting and a chair we forgot to move. It was a challenging session.

Happily I have a lot of options with AI generated backgrounds. I was able to find a suitable environmental scene pretty quickly and replace the original background.

Not all background replacements are successful. Some are clearly artificial. Others have lighting or colors that don’t align with the subject. But the ability to make these adjustments is another way to offer the client alternatives. (Interestingly, the client preferred the original background, chair and all.)