Posts Tagged ‘Next Model’
Masha! Masha! Masha!
This shoot with Masha from Next was absolutely incredible. When her booker sent me her online portfolio, I immediately liked her unique look and striking features.
We started shooting at 5:40PM. We had a few different tops we were going to try with her and everything started out nicely. After a few minutes of shooting, Masha asked if we could play her ipod. I of course agreed and before long, she was dancing on set to David Vendetta’s electronic music. She would strike pose after pose in between her dancing. She started running from one end of the set to the next, jumping all over, and throwing her dress in different directions. My team and I were stunned and amazed by her energy. Every frame I shot was unique and full of energy. This variety of movement and expression is exactly what a photographer hopes for from a model. I had booked the studio till 7PM, but had no problem paying double-time for another hour. These opportunities don’t come often. In the span of about 2 hours, we came away with dozens of great shots. The only problem with this is trying to decide which ones are best…an excellent dilemma nevertheless.
An interesting side note: Numerous serious technical difficulties arose during this photoshoot. I’ve had to work through technical difficulties before, but never to this extent. My primary camera wasn’t focusing, a strobe was bumped and crashed to the ground, my flashes weren’t firing at the same time as the camera, the camera batteries weren’t working consistently, and my memory cards were locking up the camera. All of these hiccups were extremely frustrating. I had to remind myself to not let this influence my shooting. I eventually switched to my back up camera to finish the shoot. I find it fascinating to look back on those problems because they helped keep me extremely attentive for the entire shoot.
Beauty Photoshoot with Elisandra
Elisandra Tomacheski, from Next Models, was perfect for this last beauty shoot. When shooting clean beauty, having a model with excellent skin is essential. Slight retouching can always be done in post, but major changes to the skin leads to very artificial results.
For these first two shots, I used very soft lighting and kept the hair and makeup simple. The challenge with this type of clean beauty is getting energy from the model to match the simplicity of the concept. You don’t want too much energy, but you also don’t want her looking unengaged. I’m very pleased with how these two shots came out.
For the next shot, I wanted something much more dramatic. I brought in a fan to bring energy and movement. Adding wind is tricky because it can easily overwhelm the composition (refer to photo 3). Although photo 3 wasn’t a success, it did strike my interest when I was reviewing it moments later. I liked the direction of her hair and the angle of her face. I showed her and my team the photo, and mentioned how this was a good start. It was then a matter of working this angle again and again till everything came together. It eventually did in this fourth shot.
