Getting My Money's Worth

Shoots never come together quickly. This was an exception. A makeup artist and a model contacted me about shooting. I said I would shoot avant-garde beauty with them. They were both excited. I really know nothing about avant-garde, but I wanted something different and I wanted to use my rentals at least one more time.

I totally expected one to say she couldn't shoot--not on such short notice. Both were available Monday, both had no problem with the location, both were responsive to emails. This was bizarre. Shoots don't come together in fewer than three days.

Thirty minutes before the shoot, I get a call from the model. She's hoping I can excuse her tardiness--she spent the night in the hospital after a life-threatening asthma attack. I asked her if she was sure she wanted to shoot. She couldn't wait.

It was a good shoot.

Lighting

I tend to light everything high and directly in front. But on this day, I quickly learned to shoot with back light. It made things completely different from any shoot I've done before.

The sunlight in the picture on the left is was started all the back lighting. Then I wanted to exaggerate what was happening in the doorway. Then I needed to recreate that in the laundry room (before we got kicked out). I don't think I'll ever go back...

Test Shoot

Because I don't have enough on my plate with needing to turn around images, I stuck to my test shoot for this week. We did a variety things, ranging from kind of bizarre to totally bizarre. (The are slightly bizarre and normal.) And then she got hurt. And it was 90 degrees outside. And I kept getting phones calls from my contact person for this coming weekend's shoot. The posing was good, the lighting was good, but "the shoot" was... eh.

More Clothes

I can't believe that's my yard. I also can't believe I figured out how to light that. It's like I've been reading. It's more like I woke up, having learned from all my past mistakes. And then my yard turned out looking this lush.

Stuff

Kind of crazy to think that less than a year ago I quit the office job and a little less than a month ago I almost gave up on this photography idea. Here I am shooting, shooting, shooting...

Super Cute, Super Fast

More art direction from LV...

This is me and the designer, Alison from Project Runway Season 3, hustling to get through 14 looks. Without her knowing exactly what she likes and having two great models from Race Management, I'm not sure how long this shoot might have taken. Our call time was 10 a.m. and just about everyone got lost. So we started around 11 a.m. and still finished by 4:30 p.m.

Then, completely unprecedented, people stayed to hang out after the shoot.

It was a good shoot.

New Pictures

I thought I had two shoots today, but it turns I was just way too excited about being double-booked. My second shoot is next Tuesday.

LV says it's too soon to give up on trying to be a photographer, so I've been going crazy trying to book more shoots. With today's shoot, there were no stylists. That makes booking the shoot so much less stressful. Less stress means feeling less like giving up. Which is good.

Retouching

Today I finally sent the makeup artist the high res from last month's shoot. It doesn't feel like it's been more than a month since we shot...

More Swimwear

The model who arranged the beauty shoot from June was so happy with the results, she wanted to do another shoot to update the rest of her portfolio. Swimwear, lingerie, dresses... More retouching to add to my list. :0)

Swimwear

These are three of the looks from the swimwear shoot. I had wanted to set up a beauty shoot, but the model I was able to get comes from an agency that prefers to send models to fashion test shoots. So I brought in a wardrobe stylist to make it a fashion shoot.

But I still spent plenty of time getting my beauty shots.

This is the picture LV took of me taking the previous picture.

Our dining room gets really great light. I hate to waste it, so I shot a few without the flash. This look is courtesy of LV saying I needed one with her hair pulled back and my last-minute bikini purchase.

The swimsuits didn't immediately get packed up. I left them out for my shoot the following day. This meant lots of yelling at the cats to stay away from all the dangling strings.

Fixed Position

I basically had the chance to hone my blown-out white background skills immediately. The beauty was only with two models, but we stuck with the happy bright white background to make it more commercial.

Blow Out

This is the lovely clean white background I was able to produce with two lights on the back blocked by foam core. (The model specifically requested this look for the re-shoot of her January session.) Next time I'll have to be better about keeping the model in a fixed position; it's a lot harder to tell on the preview when her light wasn't exposing her properly.

With the laptop still being fussy about its connection to the camera (I specifically bought Aperture so I could shoot tethered...), we had plenty of time to talk about the Secret and how it's worked for her.

Male Model

I looked around for a new modeling agency that had men who were looking to test. Lucky for me, it only took one phone call. Unlucky for me, my guy had a short amount of time to shoot. I think we squeezed in everything we needed and got what we wanted. A little too much in too little time, but, well, that's why it's a test.

Color & Motion

I wanted some bright colors to help make my book pop. Then I thought I could use some motion, too. And tight shots of the wardrobe. And not another white girl. There were a lot of things I wanted to add to my book in one shoot. I'd like to think we got it.

Everyone Showed Up

It was like a test shoot miracle. Although the model was switched last minute, we had hair, makeup and a wardrobe stylist. Yay!

The dark gray background I wanted was out of stock, so we shot on the light gray that arrived earlier in the week. The color pictures are nice, too. I ended up getting really good with the healing tool after retouching clothes and all on 16 images for the agency. Our model was quite the chameleon (not that you can tell from the two I put here) and the team was awesome (love the bow).

Printing the Book

I wanted to be able to show off my latest work at a happy hour with old coworkers, so I quickly put together pages and tried to print as many as I could before running out of ink. LV told me too many pages were devoted to boring pictures. But at least I had good cards to hand out... (There's no "MadelineStrum.com" in print.)

Wardrobe Function

My wardrobe stylist did not cancel! She drove down with a set of clothes to do a geek chic shoot. The model showed up, too! Shoots should always be like that...

Super Bowl Sunday

I was supposed to do a shoot with a wardrobe stylist at her fiance's bar, but she had an emergency and needed to cancel. I'm still hoping to reschedule that shoot.

The model, the makeup + hair stylist, and I threw together an outdoor gear shoot in my backyard. Just as I've discovered it's bad for me to shoot on at dawn because I am not a morning person, I've now discovered Sundays aren't very good days for me either.

Not Just Kittens

I really do take pictures of things other than my cats...

After assisting on a shoot for Verse magazine and talking to the fashion director about where I could find wardrobe stylists, I was really motivated to go out and find some people. These people keep canceling on me, but I push on. Shoots are always better with stylists, but, hey, I think we did all right with a wardrobe person.

And now for a photo of me taking a photo

This is a picture LV took of me and Shannon on Wednesday. I'm the one with the camera...

Pictures from this shoot to follow soon. A little too much freelancing and unfulfilled invoices to follow up on. Blech.