Cornell Haynes, Jr. has one of those picture faces that I would expect from some guy who works as as insurance agent, shows up at a party and is baffled when people start calling out his name and snapping his photo. Haynes has the look of someone who has been mistaken as a hometown rap recording giant named Nelly.

Except, oh yeah, he is Nelly.

I never thought I’d say this, but Nelly needs a game face. And if Paris Hilton knows anything, it’s how to take a photo. She should teach workshops.

She makes eye contact with the lens, juts her chin slightly, tilts head, shoulders back but one angled slightly forward from the other, then she smiles with eyes and teeth. Presto, photo magic every time. I know this Hilton trick because a friend made me practice a couple of rounds one New Year’s Eve. It’s spooky how automatic the movements become, I now have to fight to not do those tricks.

Nelly is more of a hit-and-miss type photo taker. Singer Ashanti (above left) knows her stuff. She’s photo perfection, Nelly… not so much. The face you see on him in the first two pictures was the standard observed through most of the Black & White ball festivities on Sunday night whenever he was tapped on the shoulder and spun around by an admirer wielding a camera.

The man knows how to throw a party (with the help of local event planners Synergy Productions), but you’d think he’d look happier about it. He’s so much cuter with a smile or even that little bad boy grimace thing that rappers tend be so good at.

Actually, he walked around indulging fans with cameras whenever he wasn’t on stage talking or performing or grooving to the performances of his friends, including fellow St. Louis Lunatics and Boys II Men.

He must do a lot of photo taking, so you’d think he’d be better at it. At the party his grin would go from the sweetest kid-on-recess-smile to looking slightly terrified all in the flash of a light bulb.

I’m sure it doesn’t go with the hip-reformed-bad-boy-but-still-bad-ass image to be too good at the paparazzi game, but he could at least smirk or something … anything… would be better than that disturbing deer-in-the-headlights stare.

There were some images where he actually looked happy to have his photo taken. At left, you’ll notice that for some reason he doesn’t seem to notice the cameras poppin.

For a slide show of pictures from Nelly’s bash visit iParty on www.stltoday.com.

(Photos above by iParty photographer extraordinaire Katherine Bish and friend John DeGregorio)