Hey everyone!

My name is Robert Certain. I am a headshot/portrait photographer living in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. However, I didn’t start here.

Growing up, I wanted to be a musician. I even went to college to perfect my skills, learning the technical aspects of singing and music composition. During that time I sang in multiple performance groups, opened for several recording artists, and even sang at Carnegie Hall (although, not by myself). There was also a period of time where I focused on composing and arranging music. At that time, music was my passion.

I never really did much with music after that. I tried to pursue it, but after a few years found myself working as a restaurant manager. Needing a change of pace, I enlisted in the U.S. Army. Kind of drastic, I know. It wasn’t something I had ever expected to do. Yet, I’m glad I did it.

Most of my military service was spent traveling, especially the last few years. So, I bought my first DSLR (Canon EOS Rebel T3). I figured if the Army was going keep sending me places, I should at least take some decent pictures to show everyone. So, I “became” a landscape and travel photographer.

I was fortunate enough to get to see and take pictures of the Sydney Opera House in Australia, Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, and many other remarkable locations.

Fast forward a few years, and I was ready to get out of the military. Having spent a majority of my time traveling and away from my wife and my children, I was ready to be home and tired of missing out on so many precious and fleeting moments.

Having taken so many pictures while traveling, I started taking more and more pictures of my family, especially my children. However, I wasn’t happy with the results. The images didn’t reflect my kids’ personalities. So, I started studying how to take great portraits, looking to industry experts such as Peter Hurley, Jeremy Coward, and others to figure out how to elicit genuine expressions from individuals in order to capture their true personality.

That's how I eventually became a headshot/portrait photographer.

You see, I believe that everyone has a unique personality that deserves to be brought to light and shared with others through great images. Learning the technical aspects of photography only gets you so far. As a photographer, my goal is to capture genuine expressions that shows the world who you truly are.