A good headshot does something subtle. It makes a stranger trust you a little faster. That matters more in Ladue than most places realize, because so much of the work happening there, wealth management, legal counsel, family-run businesses passed down a generation or two, runs on relationships that start with someone looking you up before they ever shake your hand.
I get calls from Ladue often enough that it has become a regular part of my week, and the ask is almost always the same. Not "take my picture," but "make our team look like we belong together, and make it painless." That second part is the whole job.
Why the office is the right location
I used to think clients wanted a studio experience, white seamless background, controlled light, the works. Some still do, and that's fine. But most Ladue teams would rather I come to them. Partners and principals are busy, support staff can't all take an afternoon off to drive somewhere, and dragging twelve to forty people across town for a ten-minute photo is a logistics problem nobody wants to own.
So I set up in a conference room, a lobby, sometimes just a clean stretch of hallway with good window light. Full lighting kit, seamless or a neutral wall, same setup for every single person. From the office's front desk to the managing partner, everyone gets the same quality and the same look, because the goal is a team page that reads as one firm, not a collage of whoever happened to have a nice photo on hand.
It's a short drive over from my University City studio, fifteen minutes most days with no traffic to speak of, so setup and teardown don't eat into anyone's day. I'm usually in and shooting within thirty minutes of arriving.
What actually makes a headshot LinkedIn-ready
People assume this means polished or retouched within an inch of recognition. It doesn't. The photos that perform best, the ones that get comments and connection requests, look like a real person having a decent day. A few things I pay attention to on every single subject:
- Eyes doing the work, not a forced smile that reads as tense by the fourth frame
- Light that's flattering but not flat, enough shadow to keep a face from looking like a passport photo
- A crop tight enough to feel personal, loose enough to not feel cropped by accident
That's it. No heavy retouching, no plastic skin. Just a photo that looks like the best five minutes of someone's week, because that's genuinely what it should capture.
The team day itself
On a typical corporate headshots day, I block time in ten or fifteen minute increments per person, longer for anyone who wants a few different poses or an extra outfit change. Most firms build a simple sign-up sheet and let people pick their slot. I keep a monitor nearby so each person can glance at a shot or two before they head back to their desk, which cuts down on the "do I look okay" anxiety almost entirely.
By the end of the day I've usually photographed everyone from the newest hire to the founding partner, and the whole thing has interrupted maybe twenty minutes of any one person's schedule. Turnaround on the final retouched images is usually about a week, delivered as a shared gallery so HR or marketing can pull whatever size and crop they need for the website, LinkedIn, or that internal directory nobody updates until there's a new photo to force the issue.
If you're nearby
I've worked with enough firms in the area now that I've put together some specifics on what that looks like locally, scheduling, pricing, the kind of office setups I run into most. You can find that on my Ladue page if you want the details before reaching out.
If your team's photos are five years old, mismatched, or just don't look like the firm you've actually become, let's fix that. Reach out through my contact page and we'll find a day that works for everyone's calendar, not just mine.