Who's in the Crew? - Spotlight on Barry Braunstein

NAME: Barry Braunstein
WEBSITE : www.barrybraunteinphotography.com
CREW PORTFOLIO: https://headshotcrew.com/barrybraunstein
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/barrybraunsteinphotography
INSTAGRAM: www.instagram.com/barrybraunsteinphotography
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barrybraunstein

WHERE ARE YOU FROM AND WHERE DO YOU LIVE NOW?

I was born and raised in Great Neck, NY now living in Wellesley, MA just outside of Boston.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN SHOOTING HEADSHOTS?

About 3-4 years.

WHAT IS YOUR LIGHTING SETUP FOR HEADSHOTS?

I started out with umbrellas, then Photek softlighters, and now Westcott strip boxes, triangle, and PH men’s lighting, all with Einstein strobes. I just purchased some Godox 300W LEDs to have a constant light option for headshots, as well as for some short-form videos I’m working on. I may wind up being ambi-luminous.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR STUDIO. DO YOU OWN IT? RENT IT? OR LIVE IN IT?

It’s a home studio as well as on-location. For Covid safety I’ve been shooting in my garage – I’m considering either renting a studio or building one in our backyard sometime in the future.

WHAT ELSE DO YOU LIKE TO SHOOT?

Animals in their natural habitat, zoos, travel, live theatrical performances, and our family dogs – oh, and our kids.

WHEN DID YOU FIRST DISCOVER PH AND THE HSC?

I discovered Peter on a live broadcast of his on Creative Live several years ago – I bought his book and then was hooked, and joined the Crew shortly thereafter as I was deciding to leave my 40+ year career in high tech sales/marketing and start my “2nd career”.

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO JOIN THE CREW ONCE YOU FOUND IT?

As long as it took to process a credit card. OK, maybe a few weeks longer.....

WHAT IS ONE THING PEOPLE WOULD NEVER GUESS ABOUT YOU?

I was born at a very young age and deep down inside am a pretty private/shy person and had poor social skills. In my teens I wound up working a part time job in high school (to help pay for college and other things) as a sales person in a high end stereo store. At the time I didn’t realize how much that job would influence the rest of my life – I developed interpersonal skills, my fascination/love for electronics (I wound up getting an Electrical Engineering degree and yes, I’m a geek and proud of it!), the foundation for my management style (for when I eventually managed sales teams) and developing a strong foundation of ethics while being in sales.

WHAT IS ONE THING YOU WISH PEOPLE KNEW ABOUT YOU?

I love helping people, problem solving for people – it’s one of the things I love about my work – so many of my clients have never had a good headshot, don’t like the way they look in photographs, hate having their picture taken, etc.. They leave my sessions having had fun, learned a whole bunch of things, and really happy with their images – many say they’ve shown them to their family, parents, etc. and get great feedback saying they’ve never seen them look so great in an image. I don’t care how many images they purchased – that makes my day! That, and I’m a very proud papa of 2 great girls (not that I haven’t lost hair raising them with my wife!).