I think casual images should be fine: I’m not about this being about studio lighting, etc, but more “This picture says something about this person”. That said, if you want to do posed stuff, that’s fine too.
Also, the poem needs the meter: my mother was the best person in the world for reading it out loud, with all the dramatic pauses:
(Typing from memory: there may be errors)
Some hate broccoli;
Some hate bacon.
But I *hate* having
My picture taken.
How could your family
claim to love you;
and then *demand*
A picture of you?
The Electric Chair
is a comfortable chair;
But *I* know an equally
comfortless pair…
One is the Dentist’s,
my good sirs.
The Other?
The Photographer’s.
You open the door,
you enter the Studio
You feel less Cheerio
than Nudio.
The hard light shines
like Seventy Suns
and you know that your features
are foolish ones.
The Photographer says
“Natural Please”
So you cross you knees.
ten you uncross your knees.
Like a Duke
in a high society chronicle.
That Camera glares at you
Through it’s monocle.
Your nose itches
Your palms perspire
You feel ashamed
of your best attire
Your muscles stiffen,
and all the while
You smile and smile
and smile and smile.
It’s over!
you weakly grope for the door;
It’s not!
the photographer wants “Just one more.”
And if this experience
you survive,
Wait, just wait
till the proofs arrive.
You look like a drawing
by Thurber or Babb,
Or a gangster
(stretched out on a marble slab)
And all your dear ones,
(including your wife.)
Say “There he is, that’s him”
“That’s him to the life!”
Some hate broccoli,
some hate bacon,
But I hate
having my picture taken.
– Ogden Nash, 1938
