Let me introduce you to Butler the Don. I had the pleasure of photographing Torrey Butler for his upcoming book release, “Where Do I Go From Here?” I actually know Torrey from my 9-to-5. I was so honored that he asked to photograph these photos because releasing his book has been a goal of his for a while. Make sure to go support his goal by signing up here.

So I consider this session to be a bit of a personal branding session. Torrey was actually my first male personal brand client. We toyed with a few different ideas on how we wanted his images to look for his book cover. We discussed doing a composite image, but settled on keeping the image simple and focused on him.

We had the session at Hendo Studios here in San Diego. I ended up choosing a gray background for this session because I wanted to ensure he would be easy to cut out if we decided to go to the composite route. Torrey had two suit looks and he killed both of them. What I loved about Torrey’s look is that he kept it him by including sneakers (he’s a bit of a sneaker head lol).

Because this book is about Torrey’s life, I decided to add the prop of a suitcase to represent traveling and journey. For posing, I decided to go for a more reflective feel. Since we were going to use at least one of the images for his book cover, I wanted to keep the lighting relatively simple and uniform.

I absolutely love the simplicity of Torrey’s photos. These aren’t all of them of course, but I didn’t want to share all the photos until he had a chance to share them as well. I can’t wait to get my hands on his book! Don’t forget to sign up to be notified of its release here.