There are some people I’ve photographed many times over the years who are almost always standing beside someone else.
Their team.
Their clients.
Their students.
The people they serve.
So there’s something especially fun about finally turning the camera around and saying:
Okay. This time, this one’s about YOU.
That’s how I felt photographing Kim Golliday, owner of Taneytown Dance Center, during our most recent session together.
And Kim showed up wearing a shirt that couldn’t have been more perfect:
SUPPORT LOCAL ARTISTS.
Very intentional.
And, as it turns out, pretty much the theme of the whole shoot.
The Woman Behind Taneytown Dance Center
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Kim and the Taneytown Dance Center team over the years, creating professional portraits and photography for the studio.
Kim has built a business around the arts and created a place where local dancers can learn, perform, create, and grow. She’s also one of those people who understands that the personality behind a business matters.
So when it was time to create portraits specifically of Kim, I didn’t want to make another perfectly pleasant business headshot.
I wanted something with a little more personality.
Something artistic.
Something that felt like her.
And that SUPPORT LOCAL ARTISTS shirt?
It wasn’t just a cute wardrobe choice.
Kim has built her career supporting the arts in our community. And for these photographs, she was doing exactly what the shirt said—hiring another local artist to create something for her.
I love that.
When a Business Portrait Gets to Be Personal
We kept everything wonderfully simple.
Black tights. Those fantastic lace-up boots. Statement earrings. And that shirt.
Then we played.
We created a series of black-and-white portraits throughout the dance studio that feel polished without feeling overly polished. Strong, but still soft. Professional, but personal.
Some are clean and classic.
In another, Kim stands in front of the studio windows with TANEYTOWN DANCE filling the space behind her.
And then there’s one of my favorites from the entire series.
For that one, I backed up.
Way up.
Instead of carefully keeping my photography equipment outside the frame like I’m normally supposed to do, I intentionally photographed right through it.
Light stands.
Softbox.
Backdrop.
C-stands.
The whole setup.
And there sits Kim, right in the middle of it all, wearing:
SUPPORT LOCAL ARTISTS.
Come on.
How could I not make that photograph?
An Artist, Framed by Another Artist’s Tools
Usually, all of that photography equipment exists outside the finished frame.
It’s the behind-the-scenes stuff.
It’s there to make the photograph, not be the photograph.
But this time, including it felt like part of the story.
Kim is an artist and business owner who has spent years creating a space where other people get to make art.
I’m a local artist standing inside that space, using my own tools to create something about her.
And right there in the middle of the frame is this wonderfully unsubtle little reminder:
SUPPORT LOCAL ARTISTS.
So I left the tools in.
And I think that photograph says something a perfectly clean portrait couldn’t.
We’re not pretending this moment just happened.
We’re making something together.
Two different kinds of artists, on opposite sides of the camera.
Your Professional Portrait Doesn’t Always Have to Be a Headshot
That’s something I wish more business owners knew.
Yes, you need the smiling headshot.
Please have a great smiling headshot.
But once we have it?
Let’s play.
Sit on the floor.
Change the expression.
Use the architecture.
Move away from the backdrop.
Let me photograph through something.
Wear the boots.
Wear the shirt that actually says something about you.
Let’s make the photograph that might not belong beside your employee bio, but does belong in an interview, an About page, an anniversary post, an editorial feature, a speaking announcement—or simply in your collection because it feels like you.
Personal branding photography doesn’t have to turn you into a brand.
Done well, I think it should do the opposite.
It should give us room to show more of the person behind it.
Supporting Local Comes Full Circle
There’s another reason this particular relationship feels especially sweet to me now.
This fall, my own two little ones are stepping through the doors of Taneytown Dance Center as dancers.
There’s something wonderfully full-circle about that.
I’ve gotten to know the studio from one side—as Kim’s photographer and friend, working with her team and seeing some of the care and personality behind the business.
Now I get to experience a little piece of what she’s built as a mom, too.
That’s one of my favorite things about owning a small business in the community where I live.
“Supporting local” isn’t really an abstract idea here.
Our worlds overlap.
We hire each other.
We recommend each other.
We celebrate each other’s milestones.
We bump into each other around town.
Our kids grow up in the businesses and organizations our neighbors have poured years of themselves into building.
And sometimes, one of those business owners sits down in the middle of my photography lights wearing a shirt that manages to sum the whole thing up better than I ever could:
SUPPORT LOCAL ARTISTS.
Support them with your words.
Support them with your referrals.
Support them by showing up.
And when you can, support them by hiring them to do what they do best.
Kim certainly does.
And I’m grateful that, for all these years, one of the local artists she’s chosen to support has been me.
Support local artists, indeed.
