Who's in the Crew? - Spotlight on Beth Madison

NAME: Beth Madison - http://www.bethmadisonphotography.com/#!/page/182…

WHERE DO YOU LIVE? Stamford, CT. It's about 45 minutes from NYC. It's a diverse, fairly big city adjacent to several quite wealthy towns in Fairfield Country, CT. It used to be a commuter town for NYC and still is, but has grown a lot and become a business hub itself. I grew up here. After college, I moved to NYC/Manhattan where I lived for 16 years before meeting a Stamford guy. We got married and moved back.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN SHOOTING HEADSHOTS? 10 years shooting headshots. 12 years in business.

WHAT ELSE DO YOU LIKE TO SHOOT? Children, babies, newborns, families, dogs. I've also done both family life events, corporate events, and product shoots. Children and dogs are my favorites after headshots. They have no self-consciousness! All you have to do it catch them being themselves!

WHAT IS YOUR LIGHTING SETUP FOR HEADSHOTS? I now use Peter's flex kit in either the triangle, parallel or men's lighting set-up. I saw the flex kit one year, wanted it the second year and bought it the third year.

WHEN DID YOU FIRST DISCOVER PH AND THE HSC? I discovered Peter first and PhotoPlus Expo held each October in NYC. I saw him both demo'ing on the exhibition floor, and also I took a seminar that he gave.

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE TO JOIN THE CREW AFTER YOU FOUND IT? The first year I saw him, I bought his book. The second-year I saw him, I joined the Crew (October 2017) but did little with it. I just set up a rudimentary profile and did nothing else. They had just ended the Wingman program and I didn't understand what to do. The third-year I saw him, I spoke to Alaina and asked her how to use the site. She was wonderful and just told me to start posting and get involved. That's when I really started to be a full and active crew member. I couldn't believe how much I got out of it once I started to be active and involved! Being a member of the crew has been the biggest factor in helping my skill level grow. I look back on my old work and can't believe how much I've progressed. I now notice details I never paid attention to before. It's trained my eye and helped raise my photography to a whole new level. It's the best investment I ever made.

WHAT IS ONE THING PEOPLE WOULD NEVER GUESS ABOUT YOU? I can't wink! I have to use a finger to hold one eye shut when I shoot.

WHAT'S ONE THING YOU WISH PEOPLE KNEW ABOUT YOU? Well, I don't know if this is something I wish people knew about me, but I think it's an interesting bit about how photography has influenced my life...

After my mom died years ago, when I was just transitioning from being an amateur photographer to starting a business, I used photography to help me heal. I was doing fine art photography back then. I spent a full year finding small mundane, beautiful things and photographing them. I was focused on the kind of things that we pass by every day but are usually too busy to notice. We had a dog (a black lab named Bounder) who I would walk in the woods with twice a day. I used photography to prompt me to notice and appreciate all the everyday beauty around me. It helped me be mindful, in-the-moment, and grateful. I collected all my images into two self-published photography books that I called "A Closer Look" and "Days Above Ground: Noticing Life". I also wrote poetry during that time. I self-published a poetry book called "A Walk in the Woods".