Training for Translators

Classes for translators and interpreters


Corinne McKay

Some thoughts on professional photographs

Thanks to Chris Durban for suggesting this post topic!

Let’s say that you want to hire a professional services provider: maybe a business accountant, a copyright attorney, a web designer or a marketing consultant. You’re clicking through that person’s website, and on their About page, you see a photograph. Great! It’s always helpful to get a visual image of the person you’re thinking of working with. But then you notice that the person’s photograph is clearly from 20+ years ago, or was obviously taken in a drugstore photo booth, or features them and their pet ferret, or you can’t really tell what the person looks like because they’re facing away from the camera and their hair is in their eyes. Problem? Maybe! Let’s ponder the issue of professional photographs for a second.

I had never used a professional photograph until about a year ago. My previous head shot photos were decent (hair brushed, facing the camera, no ferrets) but clearly not taken by a professional. I told myself that a) it doesn’t really matter, I’m just a freelancer; b) a professional photo session is outside my budget and c) how different will the photo look anyway? Then, Judy Jenner gave our local translators’ association the idea of hiring a professional photographer to do head shots of a bunch of our members during one session. Eve Bodeux organized this and it was a huge success. Our photographer did head shots of 12 people in two hours at a cost of $40 per person, and we were really pleased with the results. Since then I’ve been using the picture I had taken during that session, and I do think that it’s an asset to my marketing materials. So, why should you consider a professional photograph?

  • It shows that you’re willing to invest in your business. I am very frugal. I don’t own a clothes dryer and I wash Ziploc bags. But when someone hands me a business card with “Get your free business cards at…” printed on the back, my immediate reaction is that this person is not even willing to invest $25 in their business in order to get real cards. Ditto with the professional photograph: it shows that you care.
  • It conveys an impression of you as a person. Let’s face it: working with a freelancer is a very personal relationship. And if people don’t have a positive impression of you, they are less likely to work with you. A professional photograph can help establish you as approachable, personable, likable and other qualities that are desirable in a business associate.
  • It’s what other people do. I hate to play the “everyone else is doing it” card, but there’s some truth to this. If you consider yourself on par with other consultant-type service providers, your marketing materials need to be at that level.

When you’re having your photo taken, it’s also worth thinking about the image that you want to convey to your potential clients. For example at our local photo session, at least one member was concerned that she looks too young (clients think she is inexperienced/don’t take her seriously) and at least one was concerned that she looks too old (clients think she is outdated). Our photographer had some good suggestions on how to stage and pose the photograph in order to counter those impressions. In addition, I think that professional photographers really are better at putting you at ease during the photo session. I dislike having my picture taken and I don’t think I’ve very photogenic, but I was very happy with the photos that I got from this session.

Any other thoughts on professional photos?


Corinne McKay

Guest post on Intralingo

I’m excited to announce that my guest post on Lisa Carter’s blog Intralingo is up! It’s about self-publishing options for translators, and draws on my experience publishing two editions of my book How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator through Lulu, a print-on-demand service. I’m flattered that Lisa asked me to write this post, and I love her blog too! Great tips for translators of all flavors, especially anyone interested in literary translation and good writing.


Corinne McKay

Out and about on the web

I know that Thoughts on Translation has been a little quiet lately, but I’ve been trying to implement some of my own advice (isn’t that always the hardest thing to do!) and write for other people’s sites as well. The ever-dynamic Jost Zetzsche invited me to write a guest article for his online newsletter The Tool Kit, and I decided to repurpose my presentation from April’s ATA Translation Company Division mid-year conference on 10 ways to raise your profile in the translation industry. Thanks to Jost for this awesome opportunity, and let me know if you have any feedback on the article!

Tomorrow (Wednesday 8/31) morning, my guest post on self-publishing for translators will run on Lisa Carter’s blog Intralingo: a culture of language and thought. I’ll post the permalink to the article as soon as it’s up! Thanks to Lisa for asking me to write about a topic that I haven’t covered much on my own blog; it was a good chance to distill my thoughts on the world of self-publishing and how translators can make better use of it.


Corinne McKay

Obtaining your Certified Translator seal

At the beginning of August, Portuguese translator/interpreter Cris Silva wrote about her newly-obtained ATA-certified translator seal. This is an exciting development for all of us CTs (as ATA-certified translators can now call themselves!): a great addition to a certified translator’s marketing materials and official document translations.

Call me technologically disabled, but I had a hard time figuring out how to actually order my seal. Maybe you’re struggling in silence with this issue too, so let me help you! ATA has set up a very cool electronic verification system for the Certified Translator credential. If a client goes to atanet.org/verify, they can type in your certification number (included on your Certified Translator seal) and verify that you are actually certified. If you scroll down to the very bottom of that page, you’ll see some text that begins “If you are an ATA-certified member who would like to get your unique certification number…” and that’s what you want. First, make sure that you’re logged in as an ATA member using your member number and password and then click where it says “click here” (I told you I was going to help…). The system will recognize you and auto-generate your certification number and seal right there. You can then download the seal for your own use; just make sure to abide by the rules for use, including leaving the “Verify at www.atanet.org/verify” text below the seal image. A local translator who is certified in two language combinations told me that you receive a different certification number and seal for each language combination in which you are certified.