Gary Hughes

Staff Writer

Gary Hughes is a photographer, author, and educator from Winter Park, FL. For more than a decade, Gary and his wife Julie have run Hughes Fioretti Photography, specializing in commercial portraiture for executives, actors, and models. Aside from running a studio in Winter Park, Gary is also in demand as a photography educator and often travels, teaching his methods to photographers around the world. His focus as an instructor is to empower photographers to create the type of business that sets them free to live the kind of life they want. Gary's articles and work have been featured in Guitar World, Rolling Stone, Professional Photographer Magazine and more.

Articles by Gary Hughes

Team Headshots: AI vs. Professional Photographer

Have you Googled “headshot photographers" lately? The results are pretty eye-opening. Right before I sat down to write this, my Google search resulted in 4 sponsored ads, right at the top, for AI headshot generators. If that doesn’t concern you, it should.

Are Photography Conventions Still Relevant?

The alarm on my phone sounds at 4 am. For a few bleary seconds I think, this can’t be right…but then it hits me: I have a plane to catch. Not only me, but my wife, our four kids, and my mother-in-law need to cram ourselves and all our bags into the minivan and be on the road by 4:45 am. We are headed to St. Louis for my last photography conference of the year: Shutterfest.

A Photographer’s Guide to Networking

We’ve all been there. Walking into a room of complete strangers, business cards at the ready, with a feeling vaguely reminiscent of stepping onto a used car lot. Welcome to the monthly Chamber of Commerce networking luncheon: a hellscape of desperate Realtors, indifferent bank managers, and the guy who just quit his job at the car wash to become a personal trainer.

3 Things Every Headshot Photographer Needs to Do Right Now

As far as my group of photographer friends is concerned, I am an oddity. Our studio operates 9-5, Monday through Friday, with no holidays and very little emotion involved. Specializing in headshots and commercial photography has its perks. No babies in buckets, no couches in fields, no wedding weekends.

Westcott Eyelighter 3 Review: A Solid Portable Curved Reflector

Westcott recently released its third version of the popular specialist tool, the Eyelighter. If you happen to be a working headshot or portrait photographer, there is no way you haven’t seen it, thought about buying it, or even had it in your shopping cart at some point.

Natural Light vs. Strobes: Everything They Say is a Lie

During the dark ages of digital photography, also known as the early 2000s, I was spending an awful lot of time trying to get my Canon 430EX Speedlite to work as an off-camera flash. Speedlites, by design, were clearly never meant to be used that way.