Executive Headshot Photographer
Executive and leadership portraits for San Francisco companies, shot on location and built to be used everywhere. Josh Edelson has photographed some of the most recognizable executives in tech, including Google CEO Sundar Pichai and AWS CEO Matt Garman, alongside founders, partners, and senior leaders at the Bay Area’s largest technology, finance, and law firms. The goal is simple: a natural, confident frame of a busy person, made in the few minutes you actually get.
What Makes an Executive Portrait Perform
A good executive portrait gets used everywhere: the annual report, the investor deck, the press release, the company website, the conference badge, and the speaker bio at the next event. Because it travels that far, it has to do more than look sharp. It has to read as the person, not a pose, and it has to hold up next to the rest of the leadership team.
When the CFO, the general counsel, and the CEO were all shot in different rooms on different days, it shows. Josh photographs leadership as a set, matching the light, the crop, and the tone so the group looks like it belongs to one company. For the full staff or a large headcount, that same consistency carries into the company headshots and the broader headshots work.
The Editorial Difference
This is the part a studio setup cannot fake. Josh has photographed Google CEO Sundar Pichai and AWS CEO Matt Garman on assignment for the wire, along with Apple CEO Tim Cook and Elon Musk, across 15+ years shooting for Agence France-Presse with images distributed on the Getty wire. His photojournalism has run in TIME, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
That background changes the photo itself. Shooting news on deadline teaches you to find the real expression fast, before a busy executive stiffens up, and to make a frame that looks like the person on their best ordinary day. The same eye earned First Prize at the Istanbul Photo Awards and the AFP Varenne / Canon Grand Prix. You can read what clients say on the reviews page.
Shot on Location, With a Full Studio
Most executive sessions happen at your office or HQ. Josh brings a full portable studio, lighting, and backdrops, so a conference room, a lobby, or a window office becomes the set. On location beats a rented studio for one practical reason: your executives step away from their desks for a few minutes instead of losing half a day to travel and parking.
It also lets the portrait carry the real environment when you want it, from a clean seamless background for a formal board portrait to an office-context frame for a profile or team page. For polished profile photos across a department, see LinkedIn headshots.
Working Within a Leadership Calendar
Senior leaders do not have an hour to give you. Josh works the way the wire trained him: walk in, read the light, put a busy person at ease, and come away with the frame in the time he gets. He has photographed Google CEO Sundar Pichai and AWS CEO Matt Garman on assignment, fitting each frame into a schedule that would not move.
That efficiency is the whole point of hiring someone who shoots on deadline. The CEO signs off, the shot is done, and the calendar stays intact. Josh is based in San Francisco and available nationwide when leadership sits in more than one city.
Delivering for Press, IR, the Board, and the Keynote
An executive portrait rarely has one home. The same session can feed a press release, an investor relations deck, a proxy statement, a board bio, and the headshot on a keynote slide. Josh delivers files ready for each of those uses, with clean high-resolution frames and the crops those channels expect. When a single top-leader portrait is the priority, the CEO headshots page focuses on exactly that. When there is a hard date, a rush or same-day turnaround keeps the image ahead of the announcement.
Pricing and Turnaround
Individual executive sessions start at $2,000, depending on location, scope, and retouching. A full day of shooting runs from $4,000. Large leadership or full-firm headshot days are roughly $3,500 to $4,000 for a standard large day, and very large or multi-office projects are quoted per project and can reach $6,000 or more across multiple days. Aerial and drone coverage, shot under an FAA Part 107 certificate, starts at $500.
Standard turnaround is 3 to 5 business days, delivered as edited selects through a private online gallery, with same-day and rush available for press and board needs. To book or ask a question, use the contact page.
For physician, researcher, and medical-office portraits, see my healthcare and life sciences photography.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you photograph the whole leadership team, or a single executive?
Both. This page covers executive and leadership sets, individually or as a matched group. If you need a single portrait of the top leader for a press release or annual report, see the CEO headshots page. For the whole company or a large staff, see company headshots. Josh keeps the lighting and framing consistent so the set looks like it belongs together.
Do you shoot at our office, or do we come to a studio?
At your office or HQ. Josh brings a full portable studio and lighting kit, so a conference room, lobby, or corner office becomes the set. Shooting on location means your executives step out for a few minutes instead of losing half a day to travel.
How much does an executive headshot session cost?
Individual executive sessions start at $2,000, depending on location, scope, and retouching. A full day runs from $4,000. Large leadership or full-firm days are roughly $3,500 to $4,000, and very large or multi-office projects are quoted per project.
How fast do we get the images?
Standard turnaround is 3 to 5 business days, delivered as edited selects through a private online gallery. Same-day and rush delivery are available when you have a press release, earnings date, or keynote on a fixed clock.
Can you keep the look consistent across offices or cities?
Yes. Josh is based in San Francisco and available nationwide, and he has photographed executives on location at Bay Area headquarters and offices in other cities. He uses the same lighting setup and direction in every room, so a leadership team shot across multiple offices still reads as one set.
Serving the Entire Bay Area, and Traveling Nationwide
I am based in Novato and photograph executive headshots across the entire San Francisco Bay Area, from the Financial District and SoMa down to Palo Alto, Mountain View and San Jose, and out to Oakland and the East Bay. I bring a full studio lighting setup to your office, so your executives never have to leave the building. For companies rolling out consistent headshots across several offices, I travel nationwide and keep the lighting, background and retouching identical from one office to the next.
More Common Questions
Who owns the usage rights to our executive headshots?
Your company gets the usage rights it needs to run the final images across your website, LinkedIn, press, investor decks and internal channels. If you have a specific licensing or exclusivity requirement, tell me up front and I will spell out the terms in your quote.
How should our executives prepare for a headshot session?
Keep it simple. Solid colors photograph better than busy patterns, and it helps to bring one or two wardrobe options so we can adjust on the day. I direct posture and expression on set, so nobody needs to practice in the mirror beforehand. Most executives are done in a few minutes once we start. Send me your current headshots or brand guidelines ahead of time and I will match the look so a new hire slots in next to the rest of the team.
How far in advance should we book an executive headshot session?
Two to three weeks of lead time is comfortable, especially when you are coordinating several executives’ calendars. That said, I hold room for last-minute needs like a new CEO announcement or a funding round that has to go out this week, so it is always worth asking. For national rollouts I block the travel dates once we lock the scope.
Planning a headshot day? Try my free headshot day planner to estimate the time, crew, and cost for your team, or see all my planning tools.
CEO, Fortune 500 & Senior Executive Headshots
When the subject is your chief executive or a board member, the stakes are different, the portrait represents the whole company. Josh photographs CEOs, founders, partners, and senior leaders for annual reports, investor decks, press, and the corporate website, on location at your office. His editorial background means he puts busy, camera-wary executives at ease and gets a confident, authentic frame in minutes, not an hour. He has photographed public-company leaders including Google CEO Sundar Pichai and the CEO of AWS on assignment for AFP, and that same eye goes into every Fortune 500 executive session. Get in touch to schedule executive headshots in San Francisco.