I'd totally agree with this, but the last and final time I tried professional photos - ten years ago - was also the most expensive and by far the worst pictures of me I think I've ever seen. I'd almost finished building my new website and was heartbroken (and then fucking furious).

The last straw was that the makeup artist had covered my face in bright orange base so even if the pictures had been any good I would have had to bin them (I was told when I pointed out the makeup was too dark that it was 'for the lights'). The photographer was patronising and annoying too, and made it clear that he was only interested in doing his stock poses with the same props and backgrounds (anybody remember the white telephone/chaise longue? ) that he used for every single person even though I'd made it clear I wanted something different that represented me - that was £500 straight down the pan.

There's some middle ground too - my pictures are selfies but I put time and effort into cropping them and adjusting the saturation, lighting and so on so they look nice, and like Patricia I take hundreds just to get a few that are any good

It's a website for photographers.  I get all my photographs for free by professional photographers in the industry.  There are loads of amature hobbyist photographers on there too but i ignore them. I want only the best and I want it for free. Lol. These photographers should be paying us really. Never pay them.

Thank you so much for all your responses ladies.
I think il stick to taking them myself by the sounds of it. Il purchase a selfie stick hopefully il get correct angles 🙈 thank you all again.

It’s so daunting, yet, exciting to start back again so much has changed so it seems.

Apart from AW where is good to advertise now please? I am offering in call (hotels) and out calls different areas (touring).

Thanks again xxx