Who's in the Crew? - Spotlight on Sonja Blietschau

NAME: Sonja Blietschau - https://sonjab-photography.com/home

WHERE DO YOU LIVE? Falkirk, Scotland


HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN SHOOTING HEADSHOTS? I shot my first headshot session about 5 years ago. I was working as Unit Stills Photographer on a independent feature film called Cleek. I overheard one of the main actors talking about travelling to London (which is a 6hr drive from where he lives) to get new headshots done. I mustered up some courage and asked him how much he’s paying for his headshots and if he’d give me a chance to take his headshots. It would save him money and hours of travel. I had to hire a studio and pretty much had no idea about studio lighting or what headshots should really be like. Luckily Simon knew exactly what kind of shots wanted and luckily I pulled it off. He said that no other photographer was able to get the expressions he wanted. Maybe it was because I completely trusted his experience and input of what he wanted his images to be like. At this point I was hooked but still wasn’t sure how much I hated studio lighting. ;) However, this completely changed during my time at college where I got to play with light, understand it better and made it my friend.

WHAT ELSE DO YOU LIKE TO SHOOT? I absolutely love photographing people. I love interacting with them or just observing and capturing them doing something they’re passionate about... dancing, acting, performing...
That’s why I also love shooting unit stills and live performances. Every now and then I love me some quiet work and solitude...that’s why I also do product shots.


WHAT'S YOUR LIGHTING SETUP FOR HEADSHOTS? My preferred set up is a parallel set up with 2 Bowens 400RX and 30x90cm strip boxes. I love the light falloff I can achieve with it even though shooting clients with glasses is a slight challenge. To also offer my clients a slightly different look, I sometimes swap over to a clam shell setup with a 90x90cm soft box on top and a silver reflector below.

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT THE SPACE YOU SHOOT IN. DO YOU OWN IT? RENT IT? OR LIVE IN IT? I rent a little studio in the town I live in. My first little room was sub-let from a illustrator and comic book artist. We have a room each and share a kitchen. I would consider us friends now. Paul makes tremendously good tea, always brings cake and is happy to volunteer to sit for me. Last December I got the chance to also rent an adjoining room, basically more than doubling the size of my previous space. Now I have a reception area with a space for editing and a dedicated room for shooting. I’m also very lucky that this new expansion lets me shoot while socially distancing.

WHEN DID YOU FIRST DISCOVER PH AND THE HSC? Before shooting Simon’s headshots, I did some research into genre and it is probably impossible to not come across Peter. I instantly loved his clean style and look and I bought his book even before joining the Crew. After my first couple of headshot sessions, I started looking more into his work and discovered there was a whole crew of awesome people. 


HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO JOIN THE CREW AFTER YOU FOUND IT? A bit over 6 months, maybe. I can’t quite remember how we got in touch but I chatted to Jon Meadows about HSC and he highly recommended joining, which I eventually did. He really sold the crew to me. So here I am, 2.5 years later, Scotland’s first and only HSC Associate. 

WHAT IS ONE THING ABOUT YOU PEOPLE WOULD NEVER GUESS? My age? Well, they usually get it wrong.

WHAT IS ONE THING YOU WISH PEOPLE KNEW ABOUT YOU?  That I’m really good at shooting Unit Stills/BTS work and that they should absolutely hire me if they need a ninja on set ;)

EDITORS NOTES:

Photo #2 Kevin Guthrie (Fantastic Beasts) in the Zone on the busy set of Killing Me Softly With Her Love.
Photo #3 Film Poster
Photo #4 Simon Weir “snap” during my first headshot session (2015)
Photo #5 John Gaffney, my first outdoor headshot (2015)
Photo #6 First studio headshot session with Simon Weir (2015) Over edited and very cringeworthy hahaha but he loved his shots.
Photo # 7 One of my all time favourite Unit Stills (Mark Barrett on set of “Cleek”)