She needed a new head shot for college applications.
A casual viewer of this site might assume that I work exclusively outside on location. Truth be told, I’m just as comfortable in a studio as I am out on the streets or on the beach. Given that the weather is so nice for so long, here, it just makes more sense that I’d be outside.
To be honest, I’ve been looking for a space to rent where I can set up my gear and call home for over a year now. A space where I can walk in, flip a light switch, turn on the power and just go. No more lugging gear around, no more storing stuff in my living room, in closets, and in the back of my car. When I’m done, I would just turn everything off, lock up, and go home. No set up, tear down, or packing.
I would certainly use it as a back up plan for any outdoor shoots where the weather turns iffy. That’s a given. But I’d also use it as a chance to flex my studio muscles and explore new styles and looks. Lighting is paramount in my world and there are so many ways to push the boundaries. Strobes, diffusers, gobos/flags, snoots, barndoors, softboxes of all shapes and sizes. Split, Double split, Rembrandt, Paramount, Rim, Silhouette. I could go on and on.
Each person looks different in the same light and different set ups project different moods so the combinations are endless.
A studio of my own would be perfect for something like Isabella’s recent head shot session. She needed one for her theater college applications. She wanted to keep the background simple so not to be a distraction. So, I decided to rent an hour and a half of studio time at The Studio at City Center for our session.
Something like this only takes about an hour or so from beginning to end. The other half hour was for set up and tear down. In fact, once we had several strong candidates for her to pick from, we still had some time left over so we transitioned into a little mini fashion shoot to fill out our allot rental time.
We didn’t need to worry about the weather days ahead of our session. We didn’t need to worry about onlookers interrupting us. We didn’t have to hunt down a bathroom. We didn’t have to worry about a permit to shoot in certain areas. We didn’t sweat or freeze thanks to the air conditioning.
Our time together was maximized so we got a wide range of looks. While she did a quick change in the bathroom, I changed up the light set up. It’s amazing what we got in just under an hour of shooting time.
When it was all said and done, it just solidified my drive to find a space of my own even more. I’m still on the hunt for a space to call my own so stay tuned.
Photography by Mark K 