Headshots with the Marin Professional Photographer Collective

Being a self employed photographer can be an isolating job at times, so I’m incredibly grateful to be a part of a wonderful group of professional photographers here in Marin. This all female group is in regular contact about local events and changes that impact our work, we share ideas to inspire each other, and the best part is that we meet periodically in person.

Our most recent retreat was hosted at The Hivery in Mill Valley. It’s a gorgeous, light filled co-working space founded and run by Grace Kraaijvanger to foster community and support women in business. Every last detail of this beautiful space was so thoughtfully designed. The retreat was a huge success, so big thanks to the lovely women in our group who put in lots of effort to plan and execute it!

…and of course when a group of photographers gathers in a space with great light, you know there will be photos taken! We did a “headshot swap” which was a wonderful opportunity to collaborate and create images. This group is the definition of “community over competition”.

I brought along my Pentax 67ii, a new to me camera that weighs a whopping 10+ lbs. The Pentax 67ii is a 6x7 medium format film camera introduced around 1998. Is this thing portable and convenient? Absolutely not. At ten frames per roll, this camera is high maintenance to say the least, but the results are WORTH IT.

The Pentax 67ii absolutely shines for portraits. These images were shot using the Pentax 105mm 2.4 lens and I am blown away by the tack sharp images produced with this setup. While I can’t see myself lugging this camera along to family shoots or other fast paced sessions, it’s quickly becoming my go to camera and lens for headshots and brand marketing images. Bonus points that the instagram static post ratio was changed to 6x7 ratio in the most recent app update so no cropping required for these images 🙌

These headshots were taken on Kodak Portra 400 film and developed by The Find Lab. If you’d like to see more of my work, come say hi on Instagram.