It's been almost two months since I have been at a wedding, which is a long time for me. Normally I shoot a wedding almost every other week, if not more frequently. Soon enough I will be right back in the middle of weddings, but not now. Now I am busy working on personal projects of inspiration and planning growth.
As a professional photographer, I'm a huge fan of personal projects as a source of inspiriation. I get to play on my own dime and not be forced into results that others are looking for - it's my show. That's why I constantly hire models for shoots that inspire weddings. So way back in December (do you remember December?) I traveled to LA and photographed the indie Angela Porter Band. Do yourself a favor and check out their sound, I'll wait.
I had spoken with members of the band beforehand and exchanged ideas about the direction for the shoot to develop game plan for the shoot. The plan was to travel into the city at night and work the moody and street lit urban landscape into submission. In my head, I began to work through ideas, looks, complete photographs and I knew this was going to be awesome.
It was only the day before the schedule shoot that we learned we could not go ahead as planned due to a scheduling conflict. Suddenly the only time we had available for the shoot as midmorning in Compton. Alright not what I previously had in mind, but I'm a wedding photographer at heart and I pride myself on my ability to see differently and think on my feet.
We arrived on the day of the shoot to have strong winds greet us, probably a consistent 30mph breeze (read: no lights to be used). Still schedules being what they are, we move forward and find the images. The album was finished but the artwork wasn't. Time to create. Here is what we found:
For you photographers out there, here is the setup shot for the previous image. The band was on the roof of a five story parking structure while I was on a walkway underneath them. I pushed my bare flash as high up and close to them as possible for the coverage and power I needed to get the shot. Remember the wind I mentioned? It came very close to carrying the light to the ground four stories below. Like I caught the light stand as it was blowing over the edge close.
So after the near destruction of a light, the band chooses their favorite photo. You know, the one without the light. Its all about options.
In the end, not one of these photos looked anything like what I had planned on shoot for the band. At the same time, I am proud of my work. New opportunities and new ways to create came up and I took advantage of it.
To come full circle, I am incredibly excited for the future. Never before have I spent so much time behind the scenes planning and creating. Big changes are coming (soon) and new opportunities remain to be explored. Now let's rock the boat.
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