Modeling Shots With a Dash of Fun

Modeling Shots With a Dash of Fun

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Beautiful Taylor, pictured above, recently joined with a model agency. She was in need of some photos with emphasis on just her to use for her portfolio. Nothing distracting, simple, nice head/model shots. Originally she wanted to do this on white seamless. Seamless is great and all, but… it’s nothing special, everyone does it. In my mind, if I were marketing myself as a model in a sea of “talent,” I would wanna standout a bit. I talked Taylor into doing some location stuff that would keep the backgrounds simple, add a little spice, yet keep her as the focus. She said that was cool.

I selected a location with cement walls, ivy… just something with a touch of character to add that little something to the photo. It’s not as simple as white seamless, and it’s not like the 4th of July going off in the background. Calm, subtle, different.

Typically as a photographer, and especially while using off-camera lighting, you have to always be watchful of darkness falling on the eyes due to brow shadows, or awkward nose shadows. Not with Taylor. She has this facial structure that seemed no matter which direction she looked the light just filled all of the common problem areas. I would’ve had to damn near put the light behind her head to cast an unflattering shadow. 🙂

And then… I got the itch. The itch to shoot something a little more fun. There is the walking path with a couple… I guess you would call them “bushes,” I don’t know, I’m not a gardener. Anyways, they looked really cool, and I instantly saw this picture in my head (the photo at the top of the post). The convo with Taylor was something like “ok, so I have this idea and it’s a little more… creative than simple headshots.” She was cool with it, so we shot it. 🙂 “Hey Taylor, ok, here’s my cool idea, hop into this giant planter box and stand in the middle of these bushes.” Real reassuring, right? She was probably like “ok, what did I get myself into hiring this guy!” I think the resulting photos gave me a little more credibility.

Got some solid shots for Taylor, got to inject a little creativity into the shoot, it was a good day.