Notes from the Field

I am not the type of person to make New Year’s resolutions. I have trouble, like most, holding myself to those resolutions. But in the last part of 2009, into the beginning of 2010, I decided that I needed to make a change to my approach to my photography.

While I do get paid to do video and photo work during the day at the mother ship. (What I call the day job to those new readers.) I was having trouble working on my own photography in my off hours. I would try to work on personal projects, and have them fall through, talent fail to show, or just have a general lack of drive to spend my own time doing something, that I was doing from 9-5 during the week. I needed to focus on my work.

The lovely Krissy!

Many photography friends and colleges suggested doing a personal project, or a 365 series through Flickr. But I know from past experiences that my ADD would keep me from completing these projects. All one needs to do is see how spotty my posting to this blog is, for proof of this theory.

Because my day job is all about shooting things, and not people, I knew that I had to focus my time on photographing people. I needed to work on my directing skills and lighting to further work on my craft. So I made the decision that I would try to work with, and photograph a model or models every Sunday of the month.

April, who I couldn't take a bad image of the entire time together.

Sundays allow me to go out and shoot while most of the area is still recovering from living in Reno. Legalized gambling, prostitution and bars that never close have a tendency to do that to a town.

Since the New Year, I have had a pretty good record. I shoot about twice a month. Sometimes I will shoot four Sundays back to back, then have several weeks were I cannot connect the dots with models, hair stylists and makeup artists. But then it hit me, instead of doing a rifle approach, working with one or two models at a time, who may cancel or have some issue come up at the last minute. Why not book several models for one daylong shoot?

Rebecca was the first model that I have every worked with that brought her own TriGrip reflector to a shoot.

I called my friends at Salon 7, the coolest Salon in Reno by the way, and a cast of characters with mad skills with makeup and hair. The plan, to shoot this past Sunday, with a number of models, and pair them up with stylists at Salon 7. This way the model, the stylist and myself would be able to work on their portfolio, while collaborating together. One of the stylists, the lovely Mikayla Bianchi, and myself, booked over a dozen models that would rotate throughout the day. All I had to do was photograph the whole thing and not pass out.

Tasha brought a Harley to the shoot! A freaking Harley!

Since many of the models were new to me, and several had only worked a few other times, there was no real theme or idea behind the shoot. Some models wanted to work with others, and I would pair up or create group shots as I saw opportunities present themselves.

The real test was that I work alone on most shoots, so I would have to not only come up with ideas, but also setup, tear down and move as the day progressed and the light changed.

To keep thins simple, we settled on working the ¼ mile worth of 5th street in front of the Salon, not one of the nicer parts of town, but full of character and style. We also had a few props, one being Hass, the Pit Bull. Hass is a true lover, but also served as security, as long as people didn’t get to close and see that a small poodle posted more of a threat.

Molly and Hass. No poodle in a bag for this girl, no sir.

By the end of the day, we had worked for almost 11 hours, several wardrobe changes and almost 40 gigs of memory cards. Everyone was beat, but we got some great stuff and did some great work.

If you are looking to expand your portfolio, I recommend trying a similar approach. You will certainly have your hands full, but will walk away with a ton of great images and meet new people, which is the best part about photography.

Kristina's second shoot, ever.