A typical photo shoot for me

Let’s go through a typical shoot for me.

I sometimes spend hours, days, even weeks trying to line up a model and get her comfortable enough to work with me. Let’s face it, when are an old white guy getting people to trust you with them naked takes quite a bit of work just to begin with. And this isn’t even part of the shoot, just the far-advanced preliminaries.

I can’t even begin to guess the amount of hours and gas I have wasted just driving around to check out potential places for photo shoots, and that amount has doubled since moving to this area as there are hardly any places within close proximity to do great pics in that are also secluded enough to make the models feel comfortable getting naked.

OK, got a place to shoot. Got a model to shoot. Lets move on to shoot day.

Most of my morning is taken up with cleaning my plethora of lenses (why I don’t know as I typically use only 1 or 2 of them.) Making sure the camera batteries are fully charged, the memory cards are emptied and placed in the camera bag. Other supplies for the shoot, like rope, gloves, outfits for the model to change into, plenty of water for both myself, my assistant and the model and snacks to eat to keep the energy level high. Load everything into the vehicle. This used to include things like a fainting couch, mirrors, mirror stand and everything else I might possibly want to use as a prop, but since I sold the truck, is now much less.

Fill up the tank on the car/jeep whichever one is going to be needed. Drive to wherever the model is to pick them up (sometimes 30-40 miles away or more).

Wait for them to get ready.

Wait. Wait. Wait. … fuck!

Finally get on the road. Most often drive 30-60 miles to place of shoot. Sometimes in places that require 4 wheel drive, and driving 5 miles an hour.

Unload everything from the vehicle. Start setting up exactly where and how I want to shoot things based on the attitude/demeanor of the model, and what I see in my minds eye as the finished product.
Typically the first half hour to an hour of a shoot is just wasted clicks on the camera because the real person who is the model doesn’t immediately get comfortable in front of the camera, unless they are a professional model (and I typically don’t shoot with pros as they cost money and I’m a cheap bastard who does this for fun and for free.)

The next 3-4 hours is what the model considers “the work”, and what I consider “the fun”. Outfits are changed numerous times, different poses tried in different places all intended to create different visual effects. Camera settings and lenses are constantly rearranged for changes in lighting and what I think will look “cool”. Lots of water is consumed. Snacks are eaten. More shooting is done. I am constantly moving, kneeling, laying on the ground, climbing on a structure to get a new angle, going forward or backward to catch more of the subject, less of the subject and ALWAYS, ALWAYS checking lighting to make sure that the shot is not underexposed or overexposed.

On one recent shoot I took 1400 pictures, but this is almost twice what is normally taken, and should be specified that this was over the course of 2 days with the same model.

Typically by the end of this time I am worn the fuck out and a drooling mess … and nearly as happy as I can be. It’s like running a marathon, but without all the stupid shit … like running.

Pack everything back into the vehicle. Drive the 30-60 miles back to the models home. Hug. Hug again. Hand out for a bit. Hug some more. Drive the 30-40 miles home. Leave everything in the vehicle and go pass the fuck out.

Wake up the next morning at an ungodly hour. Not because I want too, but because I have to pee at like 4 in the morning because of all that water I drank during the shoot. Figure I’m up anyway, might as well take a look at the pictures, and start sorting through them.

It most often takes me about and hour or 2 hours just for the initial assessment of the pictures, deciding which ones to keep and which ones to immediately throw out. Usually this nets me 50 or so pictures that I think are worth my time to work on. (The recent shoot of 1400 netted me around 200 pictures I thought were worthy.)

Start working on the RAW photos in Photoshop to crop them to what I think is appealing to the eyes and senses. Adjust exposure, colors, how deep the blacks are, how white the whites are, add or delete sharpness … suffice it to say man adjustments are made as I get closer to seeing on the screen what I had envisioned in my minds eye. Usually this process helps me to eliminate another 100 - 150 pictures so that I am left with typically 50 or less pics to do the final work on. (Recent shoot left me with 120 pics after this step.)

Open the .psd files in photoshop and remove blemishes to the model’s skin. I typically don’t over process like other photographers as I want as much of the TRUE model to come through in the pics. I usually don’t do things like make the model look skinnier or anything. That is what camera angle is for. Also I tend to enjoy black and white art myself, so that is my usual intended final product for most photos. I will save a few color ones for the model to keep if that is more what they were wanting. I just find B/W to be more artistically appealing to me. This step of the work usually helps me eliminate another 20-30 pics so I am left with 20-30 pictures that I am proud to put my name/logo on. (Latest shoot eliminated 50 on this step so I was left with 80.)

The photoshop work is usually around 6-8 hours of work for a normal shoot.

I generally load a copy of all the final color and black and white pictures and send them through dropbox to the model and have them look at the pictures and let me know which ones they are comfortable with having posted online. Sometimes due to technological difficulties on their end I will burn these photos on a disk and take it to them.

Finally I usually wait a couple of days to choose which ones I want to post online, further narrowing my chooses to somewhere under 10 that I am happy with everyone else seeing.

This whole thing is generally done for free because I love to make people look good, and I am trying to improve my photography skills and become great at my art. I don’t expect to make money, and I probably never will because I am overly critical of myself and horrible at marketing my photography.

I really do appreciate it when my friends like my pictures. It makes me feel like it is all coming together and I am doing things right. It validation that I am getting better at what I do.

Then some little girl snaps a fucking selfie with her cell phone of herself in her underwear and she immediately gets 200+ “likes”! Fuck my life!