I love using props in my photo’s! I love the photo I recently created for my amazing client Tonya Harris hugging Lucky, the bear. Lucky was Tonya’s childhood companion while she underwent treatment for leukemia. Ever since her recovery years ago, Tonya brings Lucky on all of her travels. When I saw Lucky’s ear peeking out from her suitcase in the hotel where we began our photo shoot, I was practically squealing with delight and jumping out of my boots to include him as a prop in a couple of portraits. She wasn’t planning on it, but she obliged (and I was so grateful! :).

Props can be fascinating! Beautiful objects, tools of the trade, sentimental objects, quirky tshotskes. Remember that page in one of the high fashion mags (I think it was Vogue), that showed stuff on people’s desks or in their bedrooms? I was always fascinated with personal/meaningful things people surround themselves with.

Why bother with bringing props, you might ask?

A few reasons I love including props in my photo shoots:

For starters, it gives you something to do with your hands and encourages interactive, dynamic images.

It illustrates what and how you work in your business.

It creates a mood- of playfulness, of nostalgia, of whimsy.

It can create visual contrast (for example beautiful and gentle Merel Kriegsman, resting on an axe, or playing with a giant saw).

Still lives, built of props (or held in your hands, for example) are fantastic for creating ’stock’ images; these you can use on your site, blog entries and anytime when you don’t need to use your actual portrait.

You can use the objects in their literal sense, or as a symbol for something (like for example a vintage scale can be representing balance). They don’t even have to ‘make any sense’- be ’surreal’ or just provide a pop of color.

Here’s some ideas of possible props for different folks- to get your creativity flowing:

Travel Agent/Retreat Guru – vintage maps, luggage, fun passport cover, straw sunhat, vintage postcard, souvenirs from faraway places

Copywriter – pens, inkwell, journals, books, scrolls, desk accessories, modern and vintage

Health coach – beautiful fruits, colorful juices with fun straws, fresh herbs, flowers, holistic magazines, yoga blocks

Fashion stylist – accessories, vintage hangers, model form, a movable rack, beautiful fabrics, jewelry, books on fashion and style, artificial costume flowers

Tarot cards, crystals, feathers, An old book, dream board, a postcard, old handwritten letter, any ‘tools’ you use in your work, glass crystals, minerals, figurine, Your Pet!, picnic blanket, fruit, musical instrument, plants, plant bulbs, flowers, vintage jewelry, painting, a sentimental treasure, candles, lavender, locket, book of poems, vintage toy, cool car, cool bicycle, a trophy, cool candy, ice cream, cotton candy, garden tools, smudging sage, champagne, camera, hat, silver, china, fur, antlers, boat, lace, leather, perfume bottles, miniatures, home baked pie, tea set, vintage packaging, pillows, feathers, souvenir from far away, lingerie, passport, tea, paintbrushes…..

The list of props could go on and on, but just remember, props bring a portrait session to life, they add a piece of you that can’t be conveyed through just a head shot to your audience.

Props are the magic that set your photo’s apart from everyone else out there.