April- Model Session
As spring time hits I really start feeling the urge to get out and shoot. We are coming out of months of rain and my slow season. I want to feel inspired and start my season off with a few personal projects to get things going. I don't always have time for personal projects but I know how important they can be in my journey as a photographer. Sometimes shooting just for me and pushing myself to try something new can be so satisfying. There are no expectations and the shoot can often evolve however it does. For a personal project I usually try to go in with at least one goal, theme or idea that I have. But then I just let it play out. I like to be in the moment and be inspired by my model and location and just see what happens.
I have a couple personal shoots to share with you guys. First up is beautiful and stunning, April. For this one, you need a little backstory. For those of you that do not know, I work at ON1 Software which is a company that makes software for photographers (umm...WIN/WIN right?!?). One of my unwritten jobs there is to help encourage and grow the passion of photography with my co-workers. And I take that job VERY seriously. It makes my heart happy to see these guys out shooting and really appreciating photography which turns into them having a deeper passion on the product they are building and marketing. Another Win/Win!
Which brings us to...April. April works at Starbucks across the street from the office. This girl is seriously STUNNING. Even in her Starbucks uniform I knew she would make magic in front of the camera. Her eyes are a piercing blue, with her fair skin and dark hair. KILLER. She almost has a modern day Snow White look (LOVE!). Everyone at the office spends quite a bit of time at Starbucks so on a little whim a co-worker (Jim) and I borrowed April for an hour for a little impromptu shoot. The office is too far from my studio so we decided to turn one of the ON1 offices into a little studio and take a few outside. This in itself was a HUGE challenge and not one I was super excited about. The office is blah and around it is blah buildings with man made landscaping that is also blah. So now what? Well we started with the office and here is what our setup looked like...
With hardly anything we had a studio! That is gray paper taped to the wall, Window light on the left and the light disk on the right. We did't have a step stool so we used a chair. And just like that you would never know that we were not in my actual studio. Here are a couple of my favorites from this setup.
Stunning right? This right here is why I love a personal project. Something completely uninspiring turned into amazingness right before my eyes. This is exactly how my season should start!
After shooting inside we ventured out to try and make the near surroundings work for us. We found a little area that appeared to look like a park even though it was just a pathway between two buildings.
This is a good reminder to me how important a few personal projects are and how they really impact me. I have another one to share soon and have a few ideas for future ones. If you read all this and made it to the end thanks for sticking with me! It was a lot to share! If you have any questions I am happy to answer!
Also thanks to Jim for shooting with me! And a HUGE thanks to our model, April for hanging in there with us! We both look forward to working with you again in the future.
