Bill Bernstein – ChatterClient Profile July 2013

I decided to do something different in the ChatterClient section featuring a client born under the sign for that month along with a quick profile and sampling of their images. Plus I also wanted to share a little bit with my readers about how I work with each client. For instance, I always ask a new client when their birthday is, simply because by knowing their Astrological sign it already gives me a lot of information and helps me determine how to best to communicate and work with them. So for this month, I am featuring a recent client I have really enjoyed working with, portrait-photographer Bill Bernstein.

Knowing Bill was a Cancer, I knew I could talk as much as I liked and tell him this, that, or the other, but the bottom line was unless he “felt”good about the work, the process and the edits, it didn’t matter. Simple. We knew we were making progress when it simply felt right, the “flow” of the edits worked (very important for a Water sign!) and if there was a problem image, we worked on the edit until it was either fixed or eliminated.

Now, if this client had been an Air sign, for example, then I would have approached things differently. For Air signs it’s all about intellectual communication, so I would use my words to appeal to his/her mental thought process. What also became apparent as we narrowed his image library down was a recurring theme, a magical gift that Bill possesses to make his subjects “feel” good so they in turn are relaxed and take a better picture! Bill is also a devoted father and husband, so “family” is important to him, another trait of the Cancer,and why we see great emotional moments in his Healthcare work, for instance.

ChatterClient Baker’s Dozen Profile:

1. Name: Bill Bernstein

2. Location: Brooklyn, NY.

3. Birthday: June 28 – A Cancer

4. Photographic genres or specialty: Portraiture for Healthcare, Business, and Editorial.

5. Number of years in business: 30

6. How or where did you find Chatterbox? I first met Louisa at an art opening in NYC.

7. What was your initial reason for contacting me? I was re-branding and focusing on different areas and needed a good set of eyes, and ears.

8. What was accomplished by our working together? Louisa listened to my whole life’s story and saw all of my work and helped me prune my work down and focus my brand.

9. Would you recommend working w/a Consultant to another photographer, and if so, why? Absolutely! It is essential to have another trusting, professional and experienced person on your team to help you see yourself more clearly.

10. Give me 3 words that describe your creative style of photography: Immediate – Deliberate – Honest.

11. Tell us one of the defining moments in your career? Early on I started shooting many of the portraits at the front of the book for Elle Magazine and learned how to establish a rapport with lots of different types of people very quickly.

12. What is your most essential piece of photographic gear? Must be my 5D.

13. What is your must-have non-photographic item that you take on every shoot? My iPhone.