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When 4D Molecular Therapeutics, a late-stage biotech developing genetic medicines, needed new portraits for its C-suite, the brief was the one I hear most often: the whole leadership team needs consistent, current images, and the CEO needs more than a headshot. 4DMT co-founder, President and CEO David Kirn at the company's headquarters. (Photo by Josh Edelson for 4DMT) The setup: simple, fast, flattering For the leadership team, I chose an outdoor location directly outside their offices. Open shade, greenery falling away into a soft blur, and one professional light shaped through an umbrella for each subject. That single-light outdoor recipe does three things at once: it flatters every face, it keeps each session to minutes per person so executives get back to work, and it produces a set where every portrait matches, which is what makes a leadership page look intentional instead of assembled. Executive portrait session for 4DMT leadership, photographed outdoors with a single umbrella-softened light. (Photo by Josh Edelson for 4DMT) Executive portrait for 4DMT leadership. (Photo by Josh Edelson for 4DMT) Why the CEO gets a bigger session For President and CEO David Kirn, we built out five distinct scenes instead of one. That is deliberate, and it is something I recommend to almost every company I photograph: a CEO’s images simply work harder. They appear on conference stages, in investor materials, in press coverage, in annual reports. One look gets stale fast when the same photo runs everywhere. Five scenes means the communications team can match the image to the moment for the next couple of years. Executive portrait for 4DMT leadership. (Photo by Josh Edelson for 4DMT) How a session like this works If your team needs this, here is the shape of it. We pick a date and I come to your office, anywhere in the Bay Area or nationwide. I scout a spot on site, indoors or out, and bring all lighting and backdrops. Each person takes five to ten minutes; a leadership team of ten is comfortably done in a half day, and I have photographed up to 100 people in a single day. Executives who need the fuller treatment get multiple scenes, like the five we built for 4DMT’s CEO. Selects arrive in a private online gallery within a few business days, professionally retouched. I have been a professional photographer for more than 15 years, shooting for AFP and Getty Images on the editorial side and for companies including Google, Amazon, Meta, and Salesforce on the corporate side. Biotech and life sciences teams are a regular part of that work. About executive portrait sessions Companies searching for an executive headshot photographer in San Francisco or planning corporate team headshots can see more of this work throughout the site. For budget planning, see what professional headshots cost in San Francisco. Half-day team sessions start from $2,000 and full days from $3,500; executive portrait sessions with multiple scenes are quoted to scope. Need headshots or executive portraits for your team? Reach out for a quote. Tell me your headcount and timeline and I will send a straightforward estimate the same day.

I was given 15 minutes with David Byrne. The former Talking Heads frontman was backstage at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley before a show on his Who Is The Sky? tour, and the Los Angeles Times sent me to make portraits for its feature by pop music critic Mikael Wood. Read the story on the LA Times. An in-camera triple exposure of David Byrne, photographed backstage at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. (Josh Edelson / LA Times) Fifteen minutes is its own kind of brief. You walk in with a plan, light it fast, and if things are moving, you leave room for exactly one experiment. Mine was the frame above: an in-camera triple exposure, one straight look and two lit profiles, red and blue, built in the camera rather than in Photoshop. Would I have pushed further creatively with an hour? Absolutely. But constraints have a way of sharpening choices. David Byrne photographed backstage at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley before a performance on his Who Is The Sky? tour. (Josh Edelson / LA Times) David Byrne photographed backstage at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley before a performance on his Who Is The Sky? tour. (Josh Edelson / LA Times) David Byrne photographed backstage at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley before a performance on his Who Is The Sky? tour. (Josh Edelson / LA Times) Byrne himself made it easy. Super nice guy in person, game for direction, and genuinely fun to work with. At one point he picked up my camera and started shooting back. David Byrne photographed backstage at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley before a performance on his Who Is The Sky? tour. (Josh Edelson / LA Times) David Byrne photographed backstage at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley before a performance on his Who Is The Sky? tour. (Josh Edelson / LA Times) David Byrne photographed backstage at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley before a performance on his Who Is The Sky? tour. (Josh Edelson / LA Times) David Byrne photographed backstage at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley before a performance on his Who Is The Sky? tour. (Josh Edelson / LA Times) David Byrne turns the tables with the photographer's camera backstage at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. (Josh Edelson / LA Times) Tight windows are the job Backstage celebrity portraits and executive portraits have more in common than people think. In both cases the subject is busy, the clock is running, and the photographs still have to carry a story. The same playbook that produced these frames, scouting fast, pre-lighting, and directing efficiently, is what I bring to executive portrait sessions and corporate headshot days: if your CEO has 15 minutes between meetings, that is enough time to make something worth using. More of my editorial work for AFP, Getty Images, and the LA Times is on the press page. Reach out if your team needs portraits that look like more than 15 minutes went into them.

See the full set: my complete Hawk Fire take on Getty Images. Update, August 26: one of these photographs, the statue of two figures embracing in the ashes, is the lead image on the front page of today’s Los Angeles Times, anchoring their story on Reno’s wildland-urban growth. The Los Angeles Times, August 26, 2026. Photo credit: Josh Edelson, AFP via Getty Images. Nine hours of driving for four hours of shooting. That is the math of covering the Hawk Fire in Reno on assignment for AFP this weekend, and it was worth every mile. The fire has burned through more than 15,000 acres northwest of the city, destroyed 32 homes so far, and pushed 42,000 people out at the height of the evacuations. Investigators say it was human caused. I got access into one of the neighborhoods where homes burned, and I was there as residents came back to see what was left. That return is the hardest part of any fire to photograph and the most important. Statistics do not move people. A person standing in front of the place they lived does. Resident Sydney Opperman weeps while viewing her burned home during the Hawk Fire in Reno, Nevada, August 24, 2026. (Josh Edelson / AFP) Resident Luke Opperman views his burned work truck as his home smolders during the Hawk Fire in Reno, Nevada, August 24, 2026. (Josh Edelson / AFP) Residents view their burned home during the Hawk Fire in Reno, Nevada, August 24, 2026. (Josh Edelson / AFP) Then, a few doors down, the strangest scene of the day. A house that survived, surrounded on every side by burned properties, and in the backyard three guys swimming in their pool. One of them was doing backflips into the water with torched cars and black hillsides in the frame behind him. Fires hand you heartbreak and absurdity in the same afternoon, and the job is to photograph both honestly. Surrounded by burned homes, Dylan Atkinson does a backflip into a backyard pool at a home that survived the Hawk Fire in Reno, Nevada, August 24, 2026. (Josh Edelson / AFP) The details are what stay with you. A statue of two people embracing, still standing in the ash of a home. A collection of vehicles painted like the characters from the movie Cars, scorched where they sat. A house still smoldering a full day after the front moved through. A statue of two people embracing remains at a burned home during the Hawk Fire in Reno, Nevada, August 24, 2026. (Josh Edelson / AFP) Vehicles themed after the movie Cars sit damaged by fire during the Hawk Fire in Reno, Nevada, August 24, 2026. (Josh Edelson / AFP) A burned home smolders during the Hawk Fire in Reno, Nevada, August 24, 2026. (Josh Edelson / AFP) I photograph corporate and editorial assignments, and wildfires are one of the subjects I cover regularly. My archive from more than 100 fires across the West is in my wildfire gallery, and comparable outtakes from my fire coverage are available to license directly for editorial and educational use. If you are covering the Nevada fires and need context imagery, reach out.

See the full set: my World’s Ugliest Dog Competition take on Getty Images. For nearly a decade, one of my favorite assignments of the year has been the World’s Ugliest Dog Competition, which I photograph for AFP. This year it ran in Santa Rosa on August 14, and the winner was Jinny Lu, a rescue pug who took home first place, a $5,000 award, and a trip to New York. Jinny Lu, a pug rescue, wins first place during the World's Ugliest Dog Competition in Santa Rosa, California on August 14, 2026. (Josh Edelson / AFP) Sometimes cute, sometimes ugly, all of them happy People assume this event is mean-spirited until they attend. It is the opposite. Most of the contestants are rescues, many with the kind of medical histories that would have ended their stories anywhere else, and the whole competition is a celebration of the dogs that got a second chance. Some are genuinely adorable. Some have faces only a wire service could love. Every single one of them is having the best day of its life, and the crowd is having it right along with them. Otto, a chihuahua mix with a severe double cleft lip and cleft palate, took third place at the World's Ugliest Dog Competition in Santa Rosa, California on August 14, 2026. (Josh Edelson / AFP) This year’s breakout was Otto, a chihuahua mix with a severe double cleft lip and cleft palate, who took third place and stole every camera in the room. You do not point a lens at Otto so much as surrender to him. Otto, a chihuahua mix, is shown on stage during the World's Ugliest Dog Competition in Santa Rosa, California on August 14, 2026. (Josh Edelson / AFP) Pinky, an albino Pomeranian chihuahua, takes second place during the World's Ugliest Dog Competition in Santa Rosa, California on August 14, 2026. (Josh Edelson / AFP) Why I keep coming back After a decade, I know this event the way I know a fire line or a keynote stage: where the light falls, when the judges lean in, which handlers will hold their dog up like a trophy at exactly the right moment. Shooting it well is the same craft as any assignment, get close, wait for the real expression, and let the subject be entirely itself. The subjects here are just better at that than most executives. Little Prince Wonder, a Chinese crested, walks the stage during the World's Ugliest Dog Competition in Santa Rosa, California on August 14, 2026. (Josh Edelson / AFP) Otto on stage during the World's Ugliest Dog Competition in Santa Rosa, California on August 14, 2026. (Josh Edelson / AFP) Otto, third-place finisher at the World's Ugliest Dog Competition in Santa Rosa, California on August 14, 2026. (Josh Edelson / AFP) These photographs moved on the AFP wire and are distributed by AFP and Getty Images. I retain copyright on comparable outtakes and license those directly for editorial and educational use. If you are covering the competition, tell me the moment you need and I will send a matching selection.

BigPanda, an enterprise AI software company in Redwood City, needed to refresh the headshots on their executive leadership page. Their head of corporate marketing sent me a creative brief with a line I have thought about ever since: they wanted editorial confidence, not corporate compliance, and individual personality over a branded wall of blue button-downs. That is the clearest description I have read of what separates a good leadership page from a forgettable one. Here is how we shot it. The CEO portrait, lit in the company's own blue against their logo. (Photo by Josh Edelson for Big Panda) Building the CEO portrait out of a waiting room The CEO needed something distinct from the rest of the team, and the space I had to work with was an ordinary corporate waiting area. What it did have was the company logo on the wall. So I moved the furniture out of the way and set two lights with umbrellas. One went on the wall, aimed directly at the logo, gelled blue to match BigPanda’s brand color. The second lit the CEO himself, keeping him clean and separated from that blue field behind him. The result reads like a set built for the shot, not a lobby I rearranged twenty minutes earlier. That is usually the job: find the one usable element in an unremarkable room and build around it. Two looks for the CEO, one consistent look for the team For the CEO we shot two distinct looks: the blue logo portrait above, and a second setup matching the rest of the leadership team. The CEO’s photo works harder than anyone else’s. It runs next to funding announcements, in press kits, and on conference bios, so having both a branded signature image and a versatile standard one covers every use without a reshoot. The rest of the leadership team got one carefully consistent look. On a team page, consistency is the whole game: same light, same crop logic, same background treatment, so the grid reads as one company rather than a collection of individual photos taken in different decades. Shot outdoors in an open park area beside the office, background thrown fully out of focus. (Photo by Josh Edelson for Big Panda) Why the background is a blurred park, not a backdrop A seamless backdrop is the right call for a lot of corporate work. It was the wrong call here, because a gray sweep is exactly the compliance look the brief was pushing against. Next to the office there was an open park area with good separation between the subject position and the trees behind it. Shooting there, wide open, threw the background into soft color and light while keeping every portrait consistent with the others. The team reads as a group without looking stamped out of the same machine, and the images have air in them, which matters on a web page where the portraits sit in a grid. The same setup and light across the leadership team keeps the page consistent. (Photo by Josh Edelson for Big Panda) One consistent outdoor look across the leadership team. (Photo by Josh Edelson for Big Panda) How they found me One detail I like about this project: BigPanda found me by asking Claude for a photographer in Redwood City. An enterprise AI company discovered their photographer through an AI assistant. Their head of marketing mentioned it in the first email, and it is a small sign of how much has changed about the way companies find the people they hire. What this kind of shoot involves A leadership team refresh like this runs as a half day on location, about fifteen minutes per executive, timed around a day when the team is already together. I bring the full studio: lights, modifiers, backdrop options if we need them, and instant review so nobody leaves wondering how they looked. Delivery is a curated, retouched gallery, and selects can come back fast when a page relaunch is waiting on them. If your leadership page needs the same treatment, see executive headshots and portrait sessions or read the difference between a headshot session and an executive portrait session. For a full team, the corporate headshots page covers how headshot days work, and the headshot day planner gives you timing and pricing before you book. If your company is looking to refresh its corporate headshots, reach out for a quote! Tell me your team size and timeline and I will send pricing the same day: josh@edelsonphotography.com or 650-515-0999. You can also plan your shoot with the free headshot day planner. Frequently Asked Questions How long does an executive leadership team headshot session take? A leadership team refresh typically runs as a half day on location, about fifteen minutes per executive, scheduled around a day when the team is already together such as an offsite or board meeting. Should executive headshots use a backdrop or an environmental background? It depends on the look you want. A seamless backdrop gives a clean, formal, highly consistent result. An outdoor or environmental background thrown out of focus reads warmer and more editorial while still keeping the whole team consistent, which suits companies who want personality rather than a uniform corporate look. Should the CEO get a different headshot than the rest of the team? Often, yes. The CEO photo works harder than anyone else's: press releases, funding announcements, conference bios. A signature branded portrait plus a standard look matching the team covers every use. The rest of the leadership team benefits most from one carefully consistent look across the whole page. For a full breakdown of pricing, see what professional headshots cost in San Francisco.

See the full set: my complete Old Trails Fire take on Getty Images. I spent 14 hours on Monday photographing the Old Trails Fire in Spokane, Washington, on assignment for AFP. Three fires burning through Spokane County have destroyed more than 700 homes and displaced at least 65,000 people. After more than a decade covering California fires, this was my first major fire assignment in Washington, and it followed a pattern I know too well: the fire moves through, and then people come back to see what is left. Most of what I photographed was not flame. It was aftermath. A woman kneeling beside her dog. Families walking the footprint of a house and trying to match the debris to the rooms they remember. A couple holding hands in front of a home that is now a chimney and a car body. These are the hardest frames to make, and they are the reason I keep making them. Fire statistics do not move people. A person hugging her mother in the ash does. Kimber Renz hugs her mother Kristen Renz at her burned home during the Old Trails Fire in Spokane, Washington, August 4, 2026. (Josh Edelson / AFP) Shyla Zavala and Jin Brooks view their burned home during the Old Trails Fire in Spokane, Washington, August 4, 2026. (Josh Edelson / AFP) Some details stay with you. A burned American flag still hanging from its pole. A message spray painted on the street in front of a destroyed house, asking whether anyone had checked under the car for a missing pet, with the pet’s name and years written beside it. Whole blocks reduced to foundations while a house one street over stands untouched under a coat of pink retardant. Fire is not fair, and it is not finished: crews were still working lines outside the city while residents sifted lots inside it. A burned American flag rests atop a flagpole at a burned home during the Old Trails Fire in Spokane, Washington, August 4, 2026. (Josh Edelson / AFP) A note searching for a missing pet is painted on the street of a burned home during the Old Trails Fire in Spokane, Washington, August 4, 2026. (Josh Edelson / AFP) At a Red Cross evacuation center, people waited for news about homes they could not reach. That is the part of a fire the cameras usually leave before: the waiting. Sixty five thousand people in one county are doing some version of it right now. My wildfire archive from more than 100 fires across the West is in my California wildfire gallery, and comparable outtakes from my fire coverage are available to license directly for editorial and educational use. If you are covering the Northwest fires and need context imagery, reach out.

Two of the most common requests I get from companies sound similar but are different products: “our team needs headshots” and “our CEO needs photos because press is starting to pick us up.” The first is a headshot session. The second is an executive portrait session. Here is the difference in plain language, and how to know which one you need. What a standard headshot session covers A headshot session produces one polished, consistent look. One background treatment, one outfit, a tight professional frame. It is the right product for LinkedIn profiles, team pages, internal directories, and most professional uses. For teams, it is priced by group size as a headshot day. For an individual, it is a short session with a handful of finished selects. What an executive portrait session covers An executive portrait session is built for range, not just polish. In roughly two hours we shoot 3 to 4 distinct looks across different backgrounds and settings, with multiple outfits, and I frame every look three ways: wide, medium, and tight. The deliverable is a press-ready image library, usually a few dozen finished files, that covers everything a communications team gets asked for. AWS CEO Matt Garman, photographed in Seattle. Two looks from the same session: an environmental portrait at Amazon headquarters, and a studio look on a plain background. One serves a magazine feature, the other a byline or board deck. Why the framing matrix matters Different outlets want different photos. LinkedIn and article bylines want a tight headshot. Conference organizers and podcast producers want a medium portrait with some breathing room for their graphics. Magazines and newspapers prefer wider environmental frames they can crop to their layout. If all you have is one tight headshot, every one of those requests becomes a scramble. With a portrait library, your team just picks the right file and hits send. When a CEO should upgrade The trigger is visibility. If your company is raising a round, launching publicly, hiring fast, or starting to appear in trade press, requests for photos of your leadership will arrive faster than you expect. That is the moment to build the library, before the profile piece, not the week the reporter asks. A funding announcement with a strong environmental portrait reads like a company on the way up. The same announcement with a stretched LinkedIn headshot does not. Time, deliverables, and price A standard individual headshot session is short and focused, and team headshot days are priced by group size, starting at $2,000 for a half day. An executive portrait session runs about two hours on site, covers 3 to 4 looks with multiple outfits, and delivers a finished library with wide, medium, and tight frames of each look. Executive portrait sessions are quoted to scope: locations, number of looks, and how the images will be used. Both happen at your office or a location of your choice, and I bring the full studio either way. Which one do you need? If the photos are for LinkedIn, the team page, or internal use: a headshot session. If the photos are for press, speaking, fundraising, a board announcement, or a CEO who is becoming the public face of the company: an executive portrait session. If you are not sure, tell me what the photos need to do over the next twelve months and I will tell you honestly which one fits. For team pricing, see what headshot photography costs. If your company is looking to refresh its corporate headshots, reach out for a quote! Tell me your team size and timeline and I will send pricing the same day: josh@edelsonphotography.com or 650-515-0999. You can also plan your shoot with the free headshot day planner. Real examples of both: an executive portrait session for a billion-dollar startup CEO and a leadership team headshot refresh. Frequently Asked Questions What is the difference between a headshot session and an executive portrait session? A headshot session produces one polished look for LinkedIn and team pages. An executive portrait session is a roughly two hour shoot producing 3 to 4 looks with multiple outfits, each framed wide, medium, and tight, resulting in a press-ready image library for media, speaking, and investor use. How much does an executive portrait session cost? Executive portrait sessions are quoted individually based on scope, locations, and how the images will be used. Standard team headshot days start at $2,000 for a half day. When should a CEO book an executive portrait session? When visibility is rising: a funding round, a public launch, growing trade press coverage, or a speaking calendar. Build the image library before the requests arrive, not the week a reporter asks.

One of the most common questions I get when a company books a headshot day: should we bring in a hair and makeup artist? The honest answer is that it depends on the shoot, and after photographing headshot days for teams from three people to three hundred, I can tell you exactly when it is worth it. Natural, matte, and consistent: what good hair and makeup preparation looks like on camera. (Photo by Josh Edelson) What a Makeup Artist Actually Fixes This is not about making anyone look made up. On a corporate shoot, a hair and makeup artist solves four specific problems that show up in almost every session. Shine. Studio strobes bounce off skin, and by mid-morning most faces have enough shine on the forehead and nose to catch the light. A makeup artist keeps everyone matte, which reads as polished and rested on camera. Hair. Most people do a quick pass in the mirror and call it done, and the camera disagrees. Flyaways, uneven parts, and collar-flattened hair are the small things people notice in their own photo and ask to reshoot. An artist catches them in thirty seconds, before the first frame. Consistency across the team. When forty people cycle through a headshot day, an artist gives every single person the same finishing pass. The result is a team page with one coherent tone instead of a mix of camera-ready and just-walked-in. For brands that care about a consistent look and feel, this is the quiet ingredient. Fewer retouching compromises. Small blemishes, dry patches, and redness can be handled in retouching, but heavy retouching starts to look like retouching. Fixing skin in person keeps the final images natural, because the correction happened in front of the lens instead of in software. Studio lighting finds every reflective surface, which is why matte beats glossy on a headshot day. (Photo by Josh Edelson) When I Recommend It Executive portraits and leadership headshots, almost always: these images live on press releases and investor pages, and they get scrutinized. Large headshot days, strongly recommended: the consistency benefit grows with every person. Any shoot that doubles as video day: video is far less forgiving of shine than stills. And brand or website revamp shoots where the whole company will sit side by side on one page. When You Can Skip It Small sessions with a natural, editorial look in mind often do fine without one. I carry blotting papers and a small finishing kit, I check hair and collars before every frame, and my retouching handles the rest. If the budget forces a choice between a makeup artist and more shooting time, I will usually tell you to take the shooting time. For current day rates, see what headshot photography costs in San Francisco. For executive portraits that will run in press and annual reports, a makeup artist is usually worth it. (Photo by Josh Edelson) How It Works With Me I work with trusted hair and makeup artists in the Bay Area and can add one to any quote, including multi-office programs in other cities. On the day, the artist works a few minutes ahead of me so the line keeps moving and nobody waits. If you are planning a team headshot day, the free headshot day planner maps out timing with and without an artist, or just start at the headshots page. If your company is looking to refresh its corporate headshots, reach out for a quote! Tell me your team size and timeline and I will send pricing the same day: josh@edelsonphotography.com or 650-515-0999. You can also plan your shoot with the free headshot day planner.