Providers should never show their face or other identifiable features in professional photos unless recognition is their goal.

The days of good-enough autonomous facial recognition are here. A provider would likely be unhappy when their friends and family log-in to "Facebook" or whatever the social networking site du jour is and are shown professional photos of them. Indeed, with coordinated services like Google Search, Google Images and Google+ in play such "oops" moments will become a regular part of our "totally interconnected" cultural experience.

Furthermore, while a provider's professional career is usually of fairly short duration, many parts of the web live on for a very long time. Technology marches forward and those photos may be archived somewhere for decades. Witness the recent thread about a well-liked provider that retired some 10 years ago whose archived website along with wonderful full-face photos is still easily accessed

I can't say i've noticed a big decline .....

.......in response of when I used to show my face without any kind of blurring or cropping vs. now when I do a sort of a medium to medium-heavy blur on my face.

... there's very good reasons for a provider to NOT show her face in photos.  And the one time I was asked to send a photo to a provider as part of her screening process, I didn't show my face, either.  Never know where those photos will end up!

What I like however is when there's enough hint about the face to give you an idea what to expect, yet no one would be able to identify the lady from the photo.  I especially like the photos that show her smile.  Believe it or not, I've decided to visit a couple of providers based largely on their smiles.  OK, so there were other things too, but the smiles won me over.  And the visits went very well.  

I haven't noticed a decline in visitors since I haven't shown my full face.  
Just a decline in stupid people sending nasty rude messages regarding my looks.  
  It's never gonna happen either I have  to avoid getting recognized in public (which has happened before because I like to be left alone when I'm out with my kids or friends.  To each their own though

One of the ladies this past year was identified by the media and LE.

It is up to each individual if they want to show their face, but there are huge risks in doing so, IMHO.

I think if there were reviews that stated she had an attractive face, I might. Or if someone I know has seen her and told me that, I would.  

As I think about it, I do tend to move past ads or websites where the face is blurred. If not, I will take my time, which I guess builds more desire to book.