:good busy:

Despite any possible trepidation I may have felt prior to last Friday's photoshoot, I believe that it went pretty well. The plan was still for an outdoor shoot, and I had chosen a nearby place in mind to cut down on travel time, but considering how rainy it had been all week, I set up my lighting and such indoors just in case. When Friday arrived, the rain did indeed stop, but I received a morning text from the model asking if we could have it indoors instead, as it was still not terribly warm out. So it was fortunate that I had foreseen this possibility. If I'm learning anything from each successive shoot, it's how to improvise.

The model in question, Theresa, is another one of those who pretty much makes her living by traveling and setting up shoots in each city. She was slender and had quite a few interesting tattoos. Another reason for her wanting to move indoors was that she didn't want to be unclothed out in the chilly weather, which showed that a bit of miscommunication had happened along the way, as I wasn't planning on shooting her nude while outdoors, and the place I had in mind would've likely had a fair amount of passersby, so it's just as well that events happened up as they did.

We only had an hour and it went by quickly, which I think is a good sign that it went well, time flying when you're having fun and all that. No deep concept for this shoot, she just moved from pose to pose, and I got to use a few props that were as of yet unused; an interesting chair that I had found, a cow skull, and a top hat. The latter was a cheap Halloween costume version, now I want to seek out a real one.

I was going to have company afterwards to celebrate my birthday, and since I already had the lights and backdrop up, I said why not do another quick shoot? I've worked with this model many times before, so we just proceeded into it right away. Pretty much just more practice for both of us, but it was fun. The chair, skull and hat got put into use again.

In the aftermath, while I can appreciate the things that I did right - it seems that I work fine with just one light, and I put my reflector to use - I'm already looking to see how I can improve for next time. I still think I need better lighting. The ones I have can be harsh at times, and I don't always want extreme shadows. I did manage to diffuse it somewhat with a screen on the second shoot. And the plain paper backdrop is, well, a bit too plain at times. Time to find different ones. And oh yeah, that top hat.

I hated putting away everything when I was done. Again in an ideal world I'd have a place where this would remain set up. I actually got another modeling request the same day, so there's the possibility that it could all go back up again real soon. Would that most of my life was this way.