For the longest time, my default avatar pic for....well..basically everything, has been one of me hanging upside down. It wasn't an intentional move. At least not at first. The picture is from me laying on the floor of the Sears Tower Skydeck (still refuse to call it the Willis Tower) and when I had uploaded it to Twitter, I did so without flipping it right-side up. Just out of forgettfulness and not prioritizing what my personal avatar looked like, I let it sit. Eventually, it kinda caught on. Having an upside down picture stuck out in a Twitter stream. It worked. I went to networking events and trade shows and was recognized by the pic alone. When I would introduce myself as"Drew Hawkins," people would pause. However, when I mentioned "the upside down guy on Twitter" people recognized me right off the bat.

For the last couple of years, I've kept it like that. Sure it had an accidental branding purpose but I also lacked any headshots whatsoever. Nothing professional at all. Even most of my Facebook pictures really couldn't be cropped well enough to really be used as something supplemental. However, a photographer/digital friend of mine had a solution for me.

Kendrick Disch (@kendrickdisch on Twitter) wanted to update his photography portfolio with a headshot. With my obvious need of such a thing, he approached me offering to do some shots. Knowing it was time to grow up (and catching crap from several people about it) I decided to go for it.

Kendrick did an awesome job. Standing in front of a camera is very much out of my comfort zone but his creativity for shots and direction helped me become at ease with the whole process. In addition to his photography skill, he knows a lot about digital. Throughout the morning shoot, we were able to talk shop about new emerging media trends and what was going on in the social space to make me forget that I was getting my picture taken.

A HUGE thanks to @kendrickdisch for helping me finally "grow up" online. You can see all the new final pics on my Tumblr site here. Check out what else Kendrick has been up to by visiting him here. If you're in the Atlanta area and need some photography done, he's definitely a guy to call.

It feels good to be right-side up :)