My first model shoot.

My first time shooting with a model, was a great learning experience for me. The great thing about being a gymnastics/cheer coach, is there is an unlimited supply of potential models. So I used Shana, a girl I have coached, since she was probably 10-12 years old. Now she’s in college and works with me at the gym. I paid her $20 to go out and shoot with me on a bridge for an hour, at a state park. She said I didn’t have to pay her, but I get paid $60 an hour to teach private lessons at the gym, and that’s more than she makes coaching, so it was a win for both of us. I went to Goodwill and bought a bunch of small dresses for a few dollars each, that would probably fit the body types of most of the girls I coach. The great thing about buying cheap dresses from Goodwill, is you don’t have to worry about the dresses getting dirty or wet. You can have your models roll around in the dirt and get some amazing shots in a $4 dress. I took them home, threw them in the washing machine, and let Shana pick out one she liked. I didn’t care if my models actually liked the dresses. It didn’t matter if it was stylish, cheap, or something they would actually buy themselves. The only thing that mattered to me, is if they were bright colors and/or full of textures that would look good on camera.

Hair tie on the handrail. Her right hand is cut off.

We met at 7am, before we had to coach on a Saturday morning. Even though it was just Shana, I was incredibly nervous. I felt that because I was an adult in my 30’s, I should know exactly what I’m doing and I should know exactly what to tell her to do. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I had so many things in my head, that I wanted to try, but I was in new territory here and had no idea what to tell her to do. We tried a few things, but we didn’t have much time, considering we had to walk pretty far to the bridge and then back to the parking lot. I didn’t want it to look like she was just “looking at the camera and smiling for a picture”, though I feel like that’s what happened for the most part.

It was good to get passed the first, initial shoot with a model. I learned a lot. I thought I was happy with the early morning light, until I later bought a diffuser, but that will be explained in another blog post. I learned about cutting off the hands and feet in a photo, and there was even a picture where she had taken her hair tie out and set it on the railing next to her. I didn’t even see it until I got home and was editing the images. There was another picture we took, where a couple was was walking across the bridge in the background. That was actually something I was aware of and trying to avoid during the shoot, but it looks like one of those pictures snuck in there.

People in the background.

What I took away from it, was getting over the nervousness of shooting my first portrait shoot, learning from my compositional errors, paying attention to my surroundings, and that early morning light doesn’t take long to get “high in the sky”. I used the photos for my first class assignment. We were supposed to take 20 pictures of whatever we wanted, and just focus on getting the exposure correct.

Casio PRG-600. This is by far my EDC. I absolutely love this watch. ABC, solar powered, big legible face. This particular watch was originally intended for the Japanese domestic market. In fact, mine was shipped from overseas. However, they are starting to be found in the US. This rare “Safari” version can now be found at my local Sams Club. I know, it needs to be cleaned. This watch was introduced to me by Nutnfancy, so a big thanks to him.