1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
September 2019
It became quite the frenzy when booking this shoot. I had reached out to another model back on Instagram just a few days before booking the studio. Everything seem to be in order for our shoot, we had locked down a concept we both were excited about, and I had driven down early to pick up the key from the owner of the place, the day of. Not long after, I had received a message from the model informing me that she won't be able to make it and I couldn’t tell you the level of panic I had. I have no problems with cancellations, as both sides (photographer and model) are prone to do so, and I understand that things happen. Yet, this would normally be fine if it had been communicated weeks, even days before. This shoot was no longer happening, and it was happening that day.
I began to reachout to people I had worked with in the past, seeing frantically if anyone was available. It would have been too last minute to get my payment back from the studio, and, as much as possible, if I can still find means to shoot, then I will absolutely put in the work to do so. Fortunately, I had a few hours to spare before my booking began so, I kept contacting people until finally, Brooklyn, whom I had met back at a photography meet up months prior, replied back saying that she would be happy to drive out. I had ran the concept I originally had by her, and hours later, we had met up at the studio and began to shoot.
Brooklyn is one of the funniest, down to earth models I have worked with thus far. She’s easy to communicate with, and she has a very sweet personality on camera, while fully understanding the tone and theme of the shoot. I wanted to go for a casual, lounging atmosphere, and I also wanted to try juxtaposing this with a business looking blazer. Brooklyn is also excellent at bringing her own ideas to the table, so the diverse range of outfits helped in providing different moods in the studio space as well.
This time around, the space hadn’t provided any lighting equipment, so our only main source of light came from the windows, which helped keep the appearance of the images very straightforward, with no harsh exposures. The wall is a big focal point as well, as it had plenty of different meshes of grey tones that gave a lot of nuance and texture in the background. We had a lot of fun mixing and rearranging different configurations to the furniture that was available, which definitely gave a deeper array of settings that we could visualize on camera. One of my favorite spots in the space was the nook near the window of the studio, which gave a nice cozy, fall time look to some of the photos.
Although everything came together at the last minute, Brooklyn was fantastic at rising up to the challenge and helping me out with what turned out to be a fun shoot. Sometimes, it takes a bit of hustle and collaborative effort to make difficult circumstances turn out for the better.