We recently connected with Adriane Robinson and have shared our conversation below.

Adriane, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

When I met Marco in 2012, he was taking headshots for our classmates and professors for only $40. His work was far superior to that of any student I had ever seen, and I knew he had the makings of something much bigger. I expressed to him that I didn’t believe he was charging anywhere near what he was worth, and he seemed to agree. Over the course of the next month, I had built him a website and an instagram to reflect his natural talent, and increase the amount of clients coming in. Once I started taking over scheduling and client contact, our business started to grow in a major way. Not only were we catering to the university’s population, but we started branching out to actors and professionals all over Colorado. Since then, we have been able to support ourselves full time with our photography. Having the confidence to branch out to different styles of photography also helped increase our revenue. It was only a matter of time before I decided to pick up a camera and teach myself the ropes as well so we could capture weddings and events as a team. Our climb to financial stability was pretty steady once I set up our online presence – after all, photography is a visual medium, and clients will only find you if they can see your portfolio.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Marco and myself are both professional actors, and so naturally we understood from the beginning that a good headshot can open a lot of doors for an individual. Having met going to college for musical theatre at The University of Northern Colorado, we had access to a ton of folks in need of an affordable, high quality, headshot. This overflow of clients allowed us to practice on a constant basis and grow our craft while providing a much needed service in the community. Being actors ourselves is a massive advantage when it comes to communicating with our clients, and understanding how it feels to be in front of the lens, as opposed to photographers who strictly stay behind it. Posing and expressions come easily to us, which truly sets us apart as a photography team. We know what our clients need out of their photos, because we need the same thing to successfully pursue the other side of our careers.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

2020 and the years following Covid’s appearance were rough on most artists and creatives. At first, Marco and I completely shut down our services for fear of being around people, let alone strangers. However, once we realized our acting jobs would not be returning for the foreseeable future, we knew we had to get back out there. Marco and I purchased high quality, filtered masks (honestly, they were like gas masks, we looked super apocalyptic) and started taking appointments again. With all submissions and auditions becoming electronic, actors were investing in themselves more than ever, and business was booming! We even started taking photos out of our tiny apartment rather than spending extra money on renting studios for about a year – it was a constant game of shifting our furniture around and stashing our two dogs in our bedroom while we worked.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Stay away from A.I. portraiture! With the recent release of so many sophisticated artificial intelligence programs, we have seen artists in the community try to pass off A.I. images of themselves as actual headshots. Of course, these photos never truly look like the person – they’re impossibly smoothed out, chiseled, and yikes, don’t even get me started on the crazy looking hands. Not only do these images take away job opportunities from artists like us, but they leave a weird impression on casting agents and creative teams.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.marcorobinsonphoto.net
• Instagram: @marcorobinsonphoto
• Facebook: Marco Robinson Photo
• Other: Our sister business for all portraiture not related to headshots: www.adrianeleighphoto.com

Image Credits
Shot by Gabriela (Only one image, Adriane on couch with camera)