friscoron Offline Upload & Sell: On
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I do a number of low-paying jobs that I enjoy and that I believe will eventually pay some dividends. My work with Ballet Chicago is an example. Another is my work with this group of regional magazines. Aside from how much I enjoy it, I do it because I've now shot more than two dozen covers in the past year, the experience of it, the challenges I get to face at each shoot, and the firm belief that it would pay off. This week, it paid off.
The managing editor leans heavily on me for anything wedding-related, and I'd been working her all summer and fall about the bridal fashion mags in their February issues. Not surprisingly, I got the gig, I got to use my models. I hired an assistant as I knew I'd need to move quickly from setup to setup. We had their art director there, hair stylist, and the bridal boutique was there. We shot at a very well known restaurant out in the country that had been converted into a wedding ceremony/reception site. It was, as they put it, "rustic yet elegant." Since it was a high of 5 degrees that day, we were doing everything inside and this place gave us a ton of different looks with plenty of gorgeous ambient light from its huge windows. I had brought four Einsteins with me, but only set up two of them; and I used just one light on 50% of my shots, two lights on the rest.
The location had staff there to assist in moving anything around to the way I wanted it. It was the best situation I'd been in yet. I had a lot of people around me supporting the shoot.
The short story from all this is that I'm entering an exclusive partnership with the high-end reception site as a result of this. We had a meeting earlier today and I was invited to a tasting this evening. We'll meet again in another week to pretty much lock things in, and I'm in the process of being hired to shoot the site owner's daughter's wedding in June. The expectation is that I'll get 40-plus weddings a year, conservatively, just from this venue alone. Basically, in other words, everything I've worked for all these years has led to this. And now I can turn off my wasted marketing money (goodbye, The Knot!) and focus on my relationship with this site, and my word-of-mouth referrals. I'm just so excited because the venue is so good, and better, the people are so good. It's like we were meant to find each other.
Comments are welcome, but keep in mind the facial expressions were completely deliberate.
Anyway, here are a few images from the shoot.
1. This will be the cover shot for one of the magazines. I had some great light coming from the camera left, but the shadows on the opposite side of her face were too dark. Added The Ice Light for fill.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7581/15661712494_00666a86f1_b.jpg
2. You'll see this wall again in a little while. It's just unbelievably gorgeous as a backdrop.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8575/15661712434_03c3422e10_b.jpg
3. They always have to have a bar shot.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7475/16282345871_e9b22c058f_b.jpg
4. This door is hanging on each side of the bar.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7480/15664267303_a00bd1c979_b.jpg
5. Really wish I had more time in this bridal dressing room. I had like 15 minutes to get a bunch of shots in here.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8579/16098270787_510889eec5_b.jpg
6.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7472/16258208356_c9cf020acb_b.jpg
7.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7513/16098271047_d334a1b720_b.jpg
8. After getting No. 7 with short lighting, they put a veil on her and added that hairpiece and said here's your next shot, exact same spot. So I flipped the lights and went for broad lighting here to emphasize the hairpiece.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8614/16098270987_4b250837c8_b.jpg
9. I'm only going to bore you with one of the detail shots. They wanted the model in the shot so this is what I did.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7524/15664267623_3fea4cca4d_b.jpg
10. Told you I'd bring you back to this wall. Not my favorite shot really, but the venue just absolutely loved it. The windmill there came from the farm that this site was built on, so it was important to them.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8659/16282345601_84405dabc5_b.jpg
11. That's a freakin' silo behind her. Love it!
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8626/15664267573_1a3469b676_b.jpg
12. Probably my favorite shot of the day, silo in the the background.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7472/16284129045_22201f0ee0_b.jpg
Edited on Jan 17, 2015 at 11:33 PM · View previous versions
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