Wardrobe flakes

All I'm going to say is this. If you agree to do the shoot, for free or not, you talk to the photographer, set up the whole thing, and then say, "oh I'm just so busy, I can't do it." Then you should have said from the beginning that you can't do the shoot. Want to know why? We are ALL busy. You aren't the only one. And it took time for me to set everything up, just for you to flake and say "Oh I'm too busy." Too bad. Next time, say no. Cause honestly, If you think you're going to make it big by being "too busy" then you can think again.

Weekend roundup

Yesterday's photoshoot was all about the wind and the wilderness, while talking about model's rights of course.

Today's photoshoot encompassed the art of shooting in a public restroom and laughing at people's reactions when they walk in and see us in there.

At least they'll have an interesting story to tell.

Perfect weather

Last Saturday was a lovely warm day, the perfect day to drive to Pasadena and go on the hunt to find a park with a stage on it. I'm one of those people who go places w/o an address and hope for the best. At leat I was last Saturday. What a lovely little park it was, full of flowering trees and homeless people (or maybe just old people from a retirement home?). No one bothered us, so it was a good place to shoot. Hair, make up, and clothes by the lovely model. Photography of course by me.

Dry

Ideas. Sometimes I'm just running rampant with ideas and it is just a manner of putting the whole idea together. Other times I seem to be sucked dry. Right now I'm going through a dry spell...


Ideas would be welcome.

Shake, rattle, and run

Yesterday, this man stopped us during our shoot to tell us to beware of rattlesnakes. I told him it wouldn't be the first time I ran into them (while on a shoot). There was no appear of charlie (the rattlesnake) or any of his friends.

Sunday posting

My photoshoot yesterday was like having a little delicate flower in the mist of homeless people.

My photoshoot today was like having a needy little puppy in the midst of the garden of Eden.

I hate how others can shoot people down and those people become self conscious and unsure b/c of that. I know that happens a lot in this business, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.

Here's a photo from last week:

Time waster

Sometimes I think the hardest part of all of this is editing the photos. It takes so long b/c photoshop is so low on my computer. If I don't care much for the photos, I don't edit much b/c I just don't care to. But if I get alot of good shots, then I'm editing away and it sometimes takes days b/c I can only focus on it a little at time.

I have two shoots this weekend. It's supposed to be sunny and nice, so I'm hoping that means the shots will be sunny and nice. I'm wanting to be inspired. I hope I can be.

A silent star

The silent film shoot has been in the works for a while. One day at work, I was looking at photos and I came across one of Lillian Gish. One look and I was sold. I sat there thinking, I want to do a photoshoot with someone pretending to be her. And the idea was born. That's how alot of my ideas are born. Getting it all together, now that's a different story.

Trying to find make-up artists (mua) and wardrobe stylists that are willing to shoot for free is crazy hard. I have to ask so many different people. At least rejections don't bother me anymore. When it comes to that stuff, I just can't take it personally. I posted a casting call on Model Mayhem (MM) which is this great website that has really helped me move forward with my portfolio. I got tons of responses, so it was all about weeding through the responses and finding the right people for the job.

After rescheduling the shoot once and getting everyone's schedule together, the shoot was finally confirmed and ready to go. Only one problem: The wardrobe stylist cancelled, but at least she gave me a week's notice, so had to go shopping for vintage attire and assories (and on a budget too!). I went to my favorite store, Urban Outfitters and I found this cool hat for only $5. The vintage clothes shopping didn't go so well, let's just say I ended up with mostly nothing. I got saved. How? The model owns vintage clothes!

Day of shoot, I look out the window, there is a huge grey sky and the the clouds are just screaming, I want to rain! I'm thinking okay, if it rains, we'll just figure something out. I drive to the model's house and it's drizzling, the mua is already there, and we set off to begin the getting the model ready part of shooting. There was bleaching and curling and tons of powder to get the look just right. All in all, it took about 3 hours. I do have to say the MUA did a great job, I would recommend her to others.

We decided to use the model's house and neighborhood for the shoot since it was cloudy and could start raining at any time. At first, things weren't going all that great, the model was stiff, and was having trouble getting into the role of being a silent film star. I will say this, most models need a warm up before they start taking good photos. Once I told her to stand up and pretend to water the plants while looking away dreamily, she started to get into the role and the shoot went much better. The street scenes are my favorite. The mua helped me with poses and expressions for the model. (Pretend you are kissing someone, there you go!) We got her doing the classic pout and some carefree moves too. It's funny how people will stand and watch us, or to have men yell obscene comments or try to flirt just b/c they see some girl getting her photos taken. As photoshoots go, this one went smoothly and I got some shots I'm proud of.

Welcome!

I'm finally taking Missy's advice and I'm going to start a blog on my many, many different adventures in photography. For the past two years I've been trying to make my start in photography. Do I know what I want to do? No. I do know what I love though, and that's portraits, what I do with those portraits, is yet to be determined. So I will be using this blog to post past and present adventures of my struggles in doing photoshoots, all the different characters I come across, and the two steps forward and three steps back of trying to make it in this business.