Group Photoshoots: Skill Builder, Networking Mecca, or Time Waster?

Veronica Vaughn

 Pt. 1

    I just finished processing images from a group photoshoot event I participated in about 2 weekends ago. This was the first event I had attended with this particular meetup group and I went to the event not knowing anything about how the shoots were run until I showed up at the door. Like most things in life there were positives  and negatives I took from the event, but it made me think about the title question more seriously. I’ll address the particular event first, and then the question as a larger issue second.

Esmerelda

     The event was held in a San Francisco studio that clearly had been created as a near-permanent photostudio. This was the first time I had been in such a space, so seeing the 4 different set setups and additional set spaces available was astounding.  There was more lighting and wiring equipment in that studio than I’m likely to ever have in my lifetime. That studio is capable of providing a plethora of lighting resources, so creativity should not be a problem for a prepared photographer.

Veronica Vaughn

      The organizers of the event were genuinely friendly and willing to talk about the shoot, the studio, life, etc., so time didn’t seem to drag on at any point during the day.  Before the shooting started, the organizer explained the process to the photographers, stating that we’d have free run of 2 fashion sets (black or white backgrounds) , use of 1 of the glamour sets (pink background), and free use of the natural light area (open space in 2^nd room of studio). He also explained the few rules: no touching, no entering the dressing room, no adjusting wiring, etc. He then explained that all of the models were aware of the shoot style (Italian-style Vogue Fashion), and that these would be edgier images than typical fashion but not glamour images.

Veronica Vaughn

      At this point, it is important to note that it did state in the meetup groups signup sheet that these were all newer models. This was evidenced by a model who, after dressing in some lingerie and walking onto the first set, immediately decided to quit and left without actually modeling. This forced the female organizer (a model herself) to have to step in so the model total would be back up to 4 models. As I still have no idea if the models were paid for this event, I don’t know if the quitter ended up costing the organizers any money or not. Either way, it was critical for this event to have 4 models because there ended up being ~11 photographers(not counting the male organizer who shot images, and the 2 late shows) at this event.

SamIAm

     Up to the present time, I have participated in several free-for-all style photoshoot meetups, and personally do not prefer them. That said, I have been in some that have ran better than others. While I’m not a full-time, career photographer, my impression is that photographers who are would probably not like free-for-all shoots if they intended to use the images for anything useful. The most obvious problem this creates is that the aesthetic biases(to put it politely) of the photographers always come up. One of the models in this fashion shoot was tall, pretty, and generously & naturally endowed. Her MM profile states she’s a D cup, but she is probably larger. As I happened to be into the room she walked into for her first set I was able to observe the flock of male photographers stream to shoot her. It went from 2 photographers in the room to 10 photographers clamoring over each other in less than a minute. I shot 2 images of her in that outfit then left to find another model to work with. In every free-for-all I’ve attended, the photographer shooting stampede has split the model’s attention in to many directions, impeded her ability to find a posing flow, and resulted in the model adopting canned modeling poses rather than really utilizing the wardrobe to the fullest extent. Consequently the photographers shoot quantity over quality and getting great images becomes mostly a crap shoot, rather than a definitive practice. Now I’ve seen highly skilled and experienced models rise above the melee; but that has only occurred as the photographer glut lost interest and moved to the next model or set so the number of shooters dropped down to less than 4.

Funz

  I’m traditionally a pretty laid-back shooter; I prefer to spend my energy preplanning what & how to shoot before the actual shoot date. I then take a “let’s see how it goes…” approach on the actual shoot date using the ideas and plans as catalyst or generation points for shooting. I am therefore not opposed to attending free-for-all events. I do however feel that these types of events shortchange models, unless they are compensated in money for modeling. A model serious about generating future work should know that he/she can’t have 25 images of the same wardrobe and from the same shoot in his/her portfolio. Such a port demonstrates a lack of range or experience in modeling. F-F-A shoots tend to provide a model a glut of these images. Yes he/she will have a pose from 10 different angles, but additional angles doesn’t automatically yield a superior picture. In many cases, poses only look good from particular locations so extra angles are just wasted shots.

 A second concern for models should also be increasing the skill level through practice in a shoot. The ability to interact with a photographer to create the desired image is hampered when multiple photogs are shooting at the same time.  However, if the photographers are new, or inexperienced, they may be incapable of shooting for a particular image and instead shoot-to-hope for something good.

Ranie Mae

Ranie Mae

  At this particular Italian, vogue-style fashion event wardrobe was a big issue. I don’t know if the concept was clearly explained—with visual examples—to the models, but it was my impression that the majority of them did not come prepared for the type of shoot sold to the photographers. Showing up to a shoot with only 1 pair of underwear is not planning ahead. If a model states she is willing to do implied work, proper preparation would be arriving with 1 strapless bra and no thongs or panties.  This was of particular interest to me as the models walked onto the sets already in their wardrobe and the photographers had no input as to what outfits (or how the outfits) were worn. The one model who actually had layered her wardrobe—allowing for staged removal of clothing items—came in more gothic-style wardrobe which none of the sets were set up for; this resulted in the wardrobe looking at odds with the shoots rather than complimenting the shoot.

Ranie Mae

    Moving away from the modeling end, I find as a photographer that F-F-A shoots do not yield me as high returns of quality images. When I’m firing on all cylinders(when conducting a solo photoshoot) my bad-to-excellent image ratio tends to hover around 12-to-1, and drops to 18-to-1 on my off days. I’ve never had a group F-F-A shoot that yielded me anything better than a 20-to-1 ratio. This is due to the dual confound of shooting less total images (I have to clamor over or compete with other photogs to shoot) and not having a flow with the model to shoot through many poses(I end up shooting what I can get, not what I’d like). The longer I’ve been in photography the stingier I’ve become with my time and energy. I see little benefit spending hours of time for useless images that don’t improve my skills nor improve my portfolio.

   Today’s images are of silhouettes taken at a couple different times. I am wanting an opportunity to revist silhouette photography as I feel I’ve learned much about the photography style over the past 18 months. Hopefully my results for the MM casting I will put up will yield better results.

Ranie Mae

Ranie Mae

Ranie Mae

Long Delayed...but worthwhile.

So it’s been over half a year since my last post. In addition to questioning the continued output of the blog, much of life has gotten in the way of posting. Over the next couple weeks I’ll be posting some of the photographic work I’ve done in the interim time. Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to attend to my writing as much as I’ve wished. I still have the fully plotted novel I’m working on sitting on a shelf awaiting completion. Of the many essays I’ve wanted to research and write, I’ve not begun a single one.

While my previous goal was to use this blog as a means of conversation, I find my drive to electronically publicize my work has diminished since undergraduate education. I value interacting with people more than electronics. Just processing photographs puts me in front of a computer for more hours than I’d prefer. But it appears that generating traffic to a blog site requires a higher level of dedication, both in posting and networking.

Now that I’m reaching the limits of allowed photographs on MM and OMP, I’ve decided to begin using the images posted here as an extension to show more from shoots I participate in. Today’s images come from a shoot done last summer.

Today’s images are of a model named Antonita(MM#1282645). At the time I worked with her, she was still relatively new and wanted practice in developing facial expression variety. I’ve noticed newer models tend to have similar difficulties with facial expression variety as well as knowing what to do with their arms & hands. As a photographer I’m often stymied as to how to deal with those issues when they come up in a shoot. I can tell when something looks bad—or when a model is likely to dislike an image—but explaining what to do is much more difficult. It is much more simpler to explain slight adjustments than wholesale instruction on how to get an exact pose. This is why I now always have examples available for a model to look at when I set up shoots. Modeling is a physical activity as well as an art. Descriptives without images would be akin to attempting to describe the paintings in the Sistine Chapel without the listener having ever seen any of them: much is lost.

Antonita worked hard at our shoot. In addition to the headshots we shot with a mirror up so she could view herself, we worked through some fashion, glamour, and artistic photography. It took her some time before she was confident enough to try the artistic shots, some of which were topless. Despite the fact that some of the silhouette images were her best poses and shots of the day, Antonita decided she wanted to pursue a different direction in her modeling and hasn’t used those images in her portfolio.

What would be nice is to be able to find another model willing to shoot them with me now that I’m much better at the process. My skills in shaping light and shadow are ones that improve the more opportunities I have to use them. I now also have better equipment which both gives me greater control over what occurs before the lens, and allows more precise post work.

Coming up in the next post… Group shootouts: Skill builders, Networking meccas, or Time wasters?

The Joy of Too Much Work

I think the critical mass point is finally in sight. When I first decided to add model photography to my skill set last summer, I knew there would be a significant amount of time spent scrounging both for models willing to let me shoot them and for money to pay the models that demanded cash compensation. In the month of April I had six different shoots, only 2 of which I paid to participate in. Of the six shoots, I was able to garner from three of them images I think are of high enough quality to begin assembling a physical portfolio book. With the remaining shoots I have lined up for the next month or so, I think by July I’ll be able to start attracting models to shoot with me on the strength of my port and name alone; by Sep/Oct I should be able to break even on shoots from either selling the images or the model paying me to shoot her.

Today’s images are both from different April shoots. The single model, Genevieve, I tracked down through her Model Mayhem page and contacted. She was a pleasure to work with: easygoing and creative. The couple, Jessica and DeSean, I also contacted off of Model Mayhem; I answered a casting call Jessica had put out looking for photographers. DeSean was a great worker, and hopefully he manages to succeed in getting signed to an agency. I hope to work with Jessica again in the near future.

I'm hoping in July to have some time to revamp the website. I also should have some thoughts ready to post then about the TV series Lost. As the series concludes, I find myself considering how the series worked as a story, and how the series was received by the audience, and what all of that says about current American culture.

Ranie Mae

Just processed an image from a January shoot. I didn't notice this image the first pass through the shots, but liked it when I found it on the second pass through. The model changed her screen name sometime after we had the photoshoot; I'm not really sure why. I'm left with the quandary of whether or not to post processed images of her with her original screen name or the adjusted one. My attempts to contact her for elucidation, or to schedule future shoots have gone unanswered.
I'm hoping to have properly learned how to improve high-key silhouettes. This was the first time I had attempted it, and while I did have interesting results, I believe it could be done better. I'm hoping to arrange a shoot with a new model within the next few weeks to try again.

Headshot of Laurel

This image is a recently processed photo from a February shoot with Laurel. Every time I shoot with her, she impresses me with her range of expressions she can throw on with just tiny alterations of movement. It may be a while before I get a chance to go up and shoot in the snow again.

Ideally, I would shoot at least one model for each project so I can use the images obtained as references for future shoots. If I can manage to do that before June, I think I'll slow down on the photoshoots for a couple months so I can finally find time to finish the Batman novel. At this stage, the outline for each chapter and scene--up to the end of the story--is already done. My time has just been filled out with other things, so I have yet to physically write the actual text. I'm hoping to find some more models to fill out some of the projects I've had on the backburner for several months now.I need to get the first novel done, because it is really the 2nd follow-up novel and the concurrent-time Superman novel that, when packaged as a whole, should provide enough proof-of-concept to allow me to secure an agent.