Personal Fashion Shoot

One of the great things about the photography industry is the comradery among everyone. Sure youre going to have you're ego maniacs and jerks, but for the most part, everyone is more than willing to lend a helping hand.

After a dinner meeting, and many sleepless nights, ive begun to develop a plan. A 1 year plan, a 2 year plan and so on and so on. A plan, mainly focused on the development and advancement of my photographic career. The first step in that process included pushing myself. As a photographer, an editor, a stylist, a business person, and as a person in general. I sent out email after email to a couple of friends, most of which were my age, about collaborating together for an upcoming personal project. I wanted to rent some gear, and shoot a bit outside of my comfort zone. I rented gear I had never used before, got a couple of models, a VALS (Voice Activated Light Stand), and got to planning/shooting.

In the past, I have typically thrived off my off the cuff shooting style. I often never scout a location before a shoot, as I feel it opens my creative side. However, for this shoot, I wanted to shoot it as if my client were a magazine editor like I was shooting a fashion editorial. I am a strong believer in shooting as if you were shooting for the clients you hope to one day land. I scouted locations, created a shot list, and even a schedule. Even though the schedule quickly went out the window. This pre-production planning, especially when working with multiple people reduced the stress of the day tremendously. We shot for 8 hours last Thursday, and while I was incredibly tired, I was so thrilled with the shots we came away with. Most shots were lit from an Alien Bee B800 with a 22inch beauty dish, although some were completely lit with natural light. If you have any questions please feel free to post them in the comments below.

Here are some of my favorites. Which is your favorite?

 This was pretty much the Go-To lighting setup for the entire shoot in which I lit the models using the strobe(s).

 Big "Thank You" to my VALS (Voice Activated Light Stand) for holding it up for the 8 hour shoot. Whether it was on a rooftop in downtown Atlanta, or underground in a Marta station in mid-town. Oh, and sweet 3D glasses...

The above shots were shot at 135mm at 1/30th of a second. Like a boss.