Photography Culture

Peter Hurley on Why Good Headshots Need to Have SHABANG!

Chris Gampat
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03/03/2015
1 Min read

Last Updated on 03/03/2015 by Chris Gampat

Screenshot taken from the video
Screenshot taken from the video

Photographer Peter Hurley needs no introduction as a headshot and portrait photographer; and it’s always interesting to listen to his stories. For example, why does he say SHABANG during portrait sessions? Peter talks about it in the video after the jump and explains that it’s in reaction to a feeling that you get when you capture the perfect headshot from someone.

On a deeper level, he talks about not settling for mediocre images and instead getting the ones that elicit an emotion out of someone and creating images that move people. That’s what we should aspire to create.

“My inner artist wants to look at my screen and see a killer picture.” says Hurley.

#BehindtheGlass | Peter Hurley: Why Killer Headshots Gotta Have SHABANG! from a.a. productions on Vimeo.

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.