A Semi Successful Solo Shoot

Last time we left off I was explaining the pitfalls of a not so successful 1st photo shoot. The shoot discussed here is not my second solo shoot since my colossal blunder, but the second interns of actual full moving parts, ie,.. makeup, stylist etc..

Securing A Model 

With this shoot the first thing I did was seek out a reliable model who I have worked with on a previous shoot.

Enter stage right Samara.  A talented young lady with a killer smile.  I had worked with her a year or two earlier on the pic posted about and wanted to work with her again.  So now I have the model in the can lets move on to step# 2, lets secure some help.

Securing Help

I preach in my last post about doing stuff on your own, well that's the major stuff like booking a model and hair and mua etc... Now to help with the nuts and bolts of carrying and helping you wrangle equipment and catch stuff that you can't see, and art direct :-)  you most definitely could use a second set of hands.  In comes Steven a brilliant second photographer and  God send.   Steven is an indispensable and invaluable friend, and photographer. You couldn't ask for a better friend or fellow photog to work with.  Pardon Steven below as he's dealing with some really harsh mid day sun right now.

Having A Working Concept

So with experience with working with many models and combing the pages of model mayhem I have found that people like to have direction, a feel of where the shoot is going before they get on board.  When I first started to seek out models the only direction I had is need pretty lady, bring light make picture. Ok, so maybe not so Neanderthal, but I just wanted to light and shoot never really thought of what to shoot or what I wanted the picture to say or express other then lets make some nice lighting.

So when looking for your inspiration to create a concept look at fashion or any magazines for that matter.  Look around at whats going on in the world or in your personal life. What would you like your image to convey?  What are you trying to say.  In the case of this shoot I had come across a series of pictures with long blowing dresses or fabric.  It then hit me that I wanted this type of infinite dress look and feel to the images. So I went about finding and looking at pictures creating a type of mood board to work with.  This way I now had something visual for myself,  the model and makeup artist.

Finding Someone To Bring Your Idea To Life

Now that I know what I had in mind the next step was to bring the dress/concept to life. This part can be tricky or expensive depending on which avenue you travel.  It just so happens that I have a friend who is a wonderful up and coming designer check out her work if your in need of something custom or designed specifically for a shoot House of Iso  .  If your not lucky to have a designer I would checkout etsy  your maybe able to find someone locally via craiglist or maybe a nearby fashion or design school.  You may be able to find someone thrifty and just buy some fabric and have it shaped into a dress, anyway you try you should come out a winner just for the effort alone.

Securing Hair/Makeup Artist

I usually work with a great makeup artist who unfortunately was unavailable for the shoot.  So I again let my fate lay in the hands of finding someone on model mayhem.  This time I was however prepared to pay a few to insure that someone would almost indefinitely show up.   I posted a few casting call and got nearly 20+ replys in about 2-3 hours.  I can't really explain why I chose the makeup artist That I went with  Mua Wendy ,but I think it was something in her reply that said take a chance, and I must say it was one well taken.  Her work and willingness to get fully involved with every aspect of the shoot was far beyond my expectations.  I think we all had a great time shooting this day as we formed a genuine bond. These are the type of relationships you need to try and form as a working creative. This way hopefully everyone can push one another and further advance everyone's cause.  So now the dress is designed the makeup artist has an idea of what you have in mind and the actual wardrobe you are almost there. 

Choosing A Location.  

This dress shoot could have pretty much been pulled off anywhere, and was almost done at the beach, but I digress.  However, when in a big city like Nyc try to choose the path of least resistance, central park.  In Central park there are no worries of fines for putting down lightstands or looking like a professional shoot etc.  No need to run and gun either.  You can setup with little to know resistance and for the most part not to many on lookers as this is fairly typical in nyc.  

Success & Failures During Shoot

One thing I learned from my old mentor Lou Garou Madart-LouGarou  is that you really should take 5 to maybe 10 frames and move on.  If you don't have the shot by then your probably not going to get it. You should move on to the next pose, location or look.  I unfortunately neglected this rule.  Partly because the plan I had in my head I did not right down and we had so much fun that we pretty much stayed in the same location for far to long.  I initially planned to have some shots located by the castle in central park and a very thick wooded area, but we wound up staying around the opening shoot location. So, try to make a plan of the places and ideas you have in mind flesh it out on paper (old-school) or on a tablet etc.. and share it with your group so that you guys can stay on schedule.

For me failing to complete all of the shooting locations and fleshing out all of the ideas I had in my head was the biggest failure.  But again, the knowledge that I gained from everything the shoot did not accomplish was a success. Before I continue to go on and on becoming ever so long winded I will end here and post some pics from the shoot. 

Please keep shooting, learning developing and growing in your craft and all that you do. 

The Endless Dress

The Endless Dress  

    

Avoiding Pitfalls During Your 1st Solo Photoshoot

The Strobist Groups 

I've found that working with other more experienced photographers has been a god send.  Especially at the height of the entire Strobist craze(2006-2010).  There were always groups of photographers willing to pool together resources ie, exotic lens and flashes you have never seen before or would probably never venture upon otherwise. With so much already in place, for the most part all you really had to do was show up with some basic strobist knowledge and your camera. There more then likely was a model (No need to worry if no model were on hand you would just shoot each other) and on those extra special meetup days perhaps someone was able to wrestle up makeup and possibly hair. Your job was  basically to show up, share if you got'em and shoot.

The Workshops/Shoot Groups

My second and probably most enjoyable meetup for me is the workshop type of meet. Pay your pound of flesh, bring your camera and shoot. The workshop, depending on the fee and setup, usually will have hair and makeup ready for you. There will almost more then surely be 2-3 people with some higher level of expertise guiding the workshop, and giving you and the model directions on how she should pose, where the light should be and how you should take the image for the best results.  The only downside is usually your standing on a line waiting your turn to shoot, or there are a bunch of photographers all standing around trying to get the models attention all at the same time. If you see the correlation between the two examples, bring camera and shoot not much else need apply.

The Self Setup Photoshoot

Having been involved with both types of shoots mentioned above at one time in my photographic follies, I still worked very closely with some good friends during the duration of my photographic years. My friend pretty much always got the model and had either hair and makeup artist ready to go.  This is excellent until the time comes for you to stand on your own two feet.

I believe I've blogged about this in the past but I'm not to sure, so I will touch on it briefly.  In a nutshell my 1st solo photoshoot was a disaster.  I located a model (Which trying on model mayhem can be a job and a blog post by itself), makeup  artist and hairstylist. There were a few weeks of trying to wrangle everyone's schedule etc.. I finally get everything together and the very last minute ( I mean five minutes before the makeup artist should be arriving) the makeup artist now tells me that she's out of town and won't be able to make the shoot.  From that moment the hairstylist doesn't want to do any work and the model also is not feeling up to the challenge.  Did I mention that I also had another model en route about 4 or 5 friends who I also wanted to share the experience with?  Yeah it was a total disaster.  

This experience shook my confidence to say the least. At this point I was ready to give up on photography all together.  I'd just wasted money renting a small but thankfully affordable studio, lugged a ton of gear across town and invited friends who at the last minute told the shoot was off and just most likely destroyed some great relationships that I had been working on putting together for a few weeks.  So, after sitting around and feeling sorry for myself, I decided that it was time to dust of the hurt and push forward.  I vowed to learn from mistakes made from the last shoot.

Mistakes learned From Failure  

Make sure everyone is in the same geographic location 
They say if you learn from your mistakes then there is no true failure.  The first Lesson I learned is to make sure everyone is in the same time zone, coast and hopefully the same state and Provence.  Granted, things happen. Things come up and people make excuses when they want to get out of things. However, I totally believe that the makeup artist was where she said she was. She claimed that her flight from L.A had been delayed and would not be able to make it.  The shoot was in nyc. That's fair. Everyone has a career and things and places to go and do, but if you have a shoot the next day it would make sense and seem professional to tell the photog that your working out of town.  If she would have  shared that key info with me I would have thanked her and found someone else as a backup or moved on completely. It may sound silly but try to make sure everyone is in town and or has any travel plans just prior to your shoot. It could save you a world of headache and disappointment.

Try not to bring every piece of gear that you own
For the shoot that never happened, I believe I came with everything and the kitchen sink.  I had softboxes, grids, beauty dish, strip lights, octaboxes.  Not to mention all flavor of lightstands and every lens that I owned at the time.  It was heavy, difficult to carry and had to make several trips back and forth, and lets not forget the fact that I never got to use any of it.  one-hundred plus pounds of gear went unused that day. What did I learn? Well, firstly you should have some idea of what you would like to accomplish during the shoot day and what modifiers you will need to complete the task, and that doesn't mean every light modifier in your arsenal.  I would say for a first shoot, 1-2 light mods at best.  This will force you to learn to work with what you have and keep you on track so you can only stray so far off the grid.

Consider not buying gear for awhile and put money towards the shoot 
Now this may be a hard one for many.  Some people may not have the extra funds or would rather buy another piece of gear.  My friends, with all the gear and lighting crap that I have, I have yet to make a picture or series of images that has bought riches and celebrity to my door.  Maybe the credit card company and bill collectors.  You can have all the gear in the world but if you have just that extra pop of something it may just push your image(s) over the edge.

That extra that I speak of is hair and makeup and possibly a stylist.  If your a female photog with a sense of fashion or a guy with a sense of fashion for the most part you can wing the clothing, but hair and make up can add that 3rd or 4th dimension to your images. I see it this way, had I spent less money on gear and put a few $$$ aside to actually pay for hair and makeup I'm pretty sure that makeup artist would have showed up that day or would have provided much better and timely info about her whereabouts.

 My mistake was the great "TF" Time for prints or Time for F*#k .  You probably wouldn't believe the horror stories I hear all the time about  tf shoots, mines included. However, once money is involved, The dynamics start to change. People will more than likely be reliable. If you can, it may cost a few extra dollars, but try to find someone who can do hair and makeup this way you need only rely on a single individual as opposed to two.  On my second shoot which to me was a semi success, I had a dress designed and a makeup artist.  We were in contact during the entire planning of the shoot up until we meet at the shoot location.

If your pressed for cash and are unable to afford hair and makeup, I would still try to find someone on model mayhem, but try to meet them before hand to get a sense of what type of people you are dealing with. Do they seem reliable?  did they show up on time at your meeting? Also, if you can try to find people they have worked with in the past and see if you can get any info on them or there work and or reliability.

Closing Thoughts  

As first mentioned it can be a god send working in strobist type groups or with friends and workshops, but this gift can also be a curse.  You should try and do them all, but you should also start slowly to venture out and try working on your own shoots.  I believe you will learn so much more about the workings of photography and the industry.  Working on your own will at first produce some failures which will only serve to make you a stronger and more resilient person and photographer.  Also, if you are in a group setting or with friends try to step up and take the lead sometimes.  Give the model direction or try to get the stylist or hair and makeup for the shoot.  I learned a lot from my friend and mentor over the years, but I always hid behind his shadow during shoots.  This aided in handicapping me for awhile, but I now shoot mostly alone or with the aide of a good friend or assistant but I take the lead. If just one person reading this finds this helpful or has been in a similar situation then putting these words to screen were well worth it.  Take care and remember keep shooting learning and growing.
 

F^&K It. Life Is Short And Unpredictable

Hi, I know its been awhile since my last post. But like all things we get busy and life is full of distractions. You know like way to much porn, either gear or otherwise :-) . Then there's the constant hanging out in photo forums instead of shooting. Don't let me get started about projects that you kick around in your head and never start.  But as we enter the second month of 2014 with broken self promises try to find something to remind you to push on and live life the way you want.  For me, it came in the form of a fellow photo whom I don't know personally and have never seen his work until today.

Anthony Carbajal for all intensive purposes appears to be an excellent west coast wedding photographer who appears to have been shooting for a much shorter time then I, but appears to have more talent in his finger than I've been able to muster with my lacking flickr stream in 7 years.  The point here is Anthony has just been diagnosed with ALS. which will soon rob him of his photographic talent, and most unfortunately his normal way of life.  So I ask the question what the fuck are you and I doing?  We may never reach Anthony's level of photographic excellence, or we may not strive to, but are we leaving life to its fullest?  Are we fleshing out those photographic or other ideas swimming around in our heads, or are we just letting them drown in a quagmire of excuses and waiting for tomorrow to come.  My friend tomorrow may never come or it may come with exemptions or limitations.  I haven't written in quite sometime but reading about Anthony's story has again encouraged me to push forward.  Time is short and the promise of a full healthy life to waste on stagnation can be ever shorter.  Find the extra 10mins or 15mins to start your project.  Go find that lake, stream or prop reclaimed wood, or grab that friend  that you keep toying with the idea to shoot and just do it.   

I truly believe Anthony Carbajal will be my inspiration for sometime to come.  I don't want to go on in circles so I will leave off here.  To find out the full story on Anthony and how the photographic community is stepping up to help a fellow brother-photog in need please follow the links to the Slr-lounge full article.

wedding-photographer-diagnosed-als

Anthony Carbajal Website