Who's in the Crew? - Spotlight on Norm Jaillet

NAME: Norm Jaillet - https://www.normanjailletphotography.com/
https://headshotcrew.com/njaillet

WHERE DO YOU LIVE? I live in the small town of Lynnfield, just north of Boston. Been a lemming most of my life, never venturing outside a 30 mi radius. That changed in 2012 when I went on a 2-year ex-pat assignment 10,000 miles away in Singapore.



HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN SHOOTING HEADSHOTS? I picked up a camera in 2012, my daughter’s hand me down, as she needed a new camera for college. Been to so many places while accumulating 2M air miles during my business career and have nothing to show for it. Been to China alone about 60x and on the Great Wall 6 times! Missed a bunch of great opportunities for solid memories. Did a very cool private photo tour in Cambodia, shooting landscapes but then photographing people in daily life. People are interesting! I love being in different cultures. More portrait than anything, I guess. Headshots came about in 2015 after I attended Peter’s Headshot Intensive – I just wanted to know how to light a face – it was that weekend when we started playing with the Flex prototype – Also the weekend when the Intensified idea was hatched. I got a small studio for myself and my daughter to play and started to do headshots as a side gig.



WHAT ELSE DO YOU LIKE TO SHOOT? It started with sports and landscapes. The first event I shot for a friend was a Crossfit thing in 2012. Kept at it and ending up shooting for Crossfit Media (‘13, ’14 in Seoul, South Korea) while living in Singapore 2012 - 2014. During our time in Singapore, we traveled a bit; Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Italy, etc. When we returned I continued to shoot more Crossfit and added semi-pro football. Now? Shooting headshots and portraits. I was fortunate to do a 1:1 portrait class with Mike Schacht in 2017 (learn from the best right?) who also did a seminar out of my studio in 2018. The seminar was a lot of fun that day with other HSC peeps. The next day, Mike and I took the opportunity to build portfolios. Very cool!



WHAT’S YOUR LIGHTING SETUP FOR HEADSHOTS? Started with Profoto’s and strips and then invested in the original Flex-kit! I was the second one to buy it but have recently purchased the bi-color flex as my primary.



WHEN DID YOU FIRST DISCOVER PH AND THE HSC? During my business travels and having some downtime; I think I was in Japan. I was getting interested in studio photography and searching for some lights and gear and saw this crazy dude hawking ProFoto B1’s. It was funny stuff. First time I heard “Shabang!” Eventually got curious and looked Peter up and found the Crew. About four weeks later I was at an Intensive.



HOW LONG DID IT TAKE TO JOIN THE CREW AFTER YOU FOUND IT? About an hour! ;)


WHAT IS ONE THING PEOPLE WOULD NEVER GUESS ABOUT YOU? Got a lot of them but here’s 3:

1. I’m an operaphile! I own lots of operas. I’ve been to a bunch of operas.

2. Best actor in High School. Minored in theater in college.

3. I studied Chinese! And now I’m studying Italian during this downtime.



WHAT IS ONE THING YOU WISH PEOPLE KNEW ABOUT YOU? There’s a lot I wish people “didn’t “ know about me! However …..I’m more approachable and sensitive than I let on!! Most of the local HSC folks have been to my studio - I’m an open book! And (moment of disclosure) ….. I went through some serious medical stuff just 6 months after I retired from my corporate job in Feb/Mar ‘18 and went Full-Time Headshot Photog. Put the business on temp hold for quite a while (Sept ’18 – May ’19) … (I’m good now but got some more fixing up to take care of – thank God I had my partner Catie, and my kids – Brian and Brooke) … but I digress, that’s a story for another day! All good!

Enjoy your day!