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September 2019
One of the most exciting, yet daunting, part of photography that I really enjoy is the acclimation to a new setting. Whenever I enter a new place, with nothing but my camera in tow, my eyes are instantly scanning around to see which immediate location is getting the best light, how can I use this space to tell a story I think would be interesting to tell, or what story is the space already telling. I think, in this third photography meetup I had attended in 2019, this practice of finding the happy medium in all three criteria is what made working with each new person so fun.
Working with Lizette, I could tell she had a quieter means in her emotive performance. She has a very calm presence, but yet, there’s also a lot of expressiveness that I felt that works well with the theme I wanted to go for. A lot of her outfits had a neat contemporary vibe to them, while there was some nostalgic qualities, especially with the vibrant red leather pants, paired with the Guess shirt as well. While some of the framing in our microshoot is similar to the work I had done with Lindsey, I felt that I could stay consistent in this theme of nostalgia through the color grading in the edit. In contrast with the set I had done with Lindsey that felt warm, a vibrant, I wanted to go for a more muted, cooler palette that felt like it had matched Lizette’s calmer personality. I was inspired by lo-fi hip-hop and mellow 80s disco music that I ultimately wanted the first three photos, below, to feel stylish and slick.
Throughout the three story house that served as the meetup’s venue for the day, there were several rooms that were decorated with cool themes, and as such, one had been covered with reflective material that was crinkled and taped along the walls. It was one of the most visually striking rooms in the house and on camera, it looks really cool as the natural light coming from the windows becomes magnified as it acts as nice backlighting source for subjects, and almost feels like folks are encased in some sort of diamond room. With the Guess outfit, I felt like this room would be cool to emulate a 90s styled shoot that kept in line with music videos from the pop music that dominated that era. Both sets for Lizette contrast against one another, with the first feeling quite mellow, and the latter feeling more energetic.