Meet, Jay! She’s been on the blog a couple times before. Jay will be standing in as my first model in a (hopefully long) series of studio model portrait practice.
Jay was our family’s very first full time employee before Covid hit. We invited her to take our families photos. While we were shooting, I took a few photos of her. She was so natural behind the camera, I invited her to be the studio’s first recurring model!
Since the day I moved into the studio, I set the goal to shoot once a week for practice. So often, photographer’s get stuck in a rut always working for paying clients. As a photographer with a history in classical music, this was like performing but never truly rehearsing. It’s like being on tour but with no rehearsals because every time I picked up the camera, it was to perform.
This results in less risk taking, less trying new things, and avoiding ever making clients feel awkward for the sake of something that may or may not work. Without this freedom from time and once in a lifetime moments, work tends to plateau or progress less quickly.
So, I came up with the solution to shoot just for me as a studio model photographer once a week.
However, once my studio was set up and ready to go, hiring a model wouldn’t be easy…and I wasn’t even sure if it was legal because of pandemic regulations.
Finally, I decided to start with carefully selected acquaintances and family friends who I knew would be patient with me, enjoy having their picture taken, and work in exchange for photos!
Each model will take a 4 week period. Then, we will switch out models for fresh faces. This will allow me to practice different posing for different body types, lighting for different skin tones, and be inspired by different faces often. I’ll have four weeks to get a favorite shot and monitor progress.
Jay has actually already done a “Week 1” shoot that will be on the blog soon. I can’t wait to share what we were able to try and experiment with!
All of these portraits (and more not shown) were taken in less than 10 minutes of her behind the camera. It was seriously so easy and Jay isn’t even a professional, yet.
There was a moment while I was snapping these where James, my five year old, stood next to her and started trying to do the posing direction I was giving. I didn’t notice until I was going through the photos how closely he was trying to listen. It gave me a little glimpse into his obvious future in modeling. hahaha
If you’d like to be on the model list for future 4 week long positions, you can sign up to be considered, here! If selected, I will have you come to the studio for a 30 minute (or less) trial shoot to see if you’re comfortable behind the camera without any bells or whistles. Very similar to this one!
Welcome to The Studio, Jay!! Thank you for volunteering to rehearse new techniques with me for the next four weeks!
Studio Model Photographer
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