BK Sessions

I'm supposed to be working on my taxes right now but I thought I would procrastinate and write this blog post instead.

Last weekend I trekked to Brooklyn to do a photo shoot with my friend Gabby. The day started out as somewhat harrowing because the trains in my neighborhood were not running so I had to deal with a massively overcrowded city bus in Queens to make it out but I did. Luckily the weather was gorgeous so it helped make the ordeal a lot better.

One important thing that I've learned about photographing people is developing a rapport with your models. Because I'm often behind the camera, sometimes I forget that people can feel vulnerable in front of a lens, probably because how we envision ourselves is often different from what appears in the picture the camera takes. I also think it's because the person Im photographing is so conscious about trying to get the pose right without looking too awkward and is wary that the photographer may not know what the hell she is doing. When I can, I like to be able to sit down and talk tot he person first, tell them what my concept is and listen to their feedback. I also just like hanging out to get to know the person better too to further a feeling of trust between the photographer and the model. I hadn't seen Gabby in a while, so it was just nice to chill and catch up before we started shooting. It made the photo session even more fun.

Anyway, I met up with my friend and we did some great shots of her with the aid of some beautiful natural light that day. We had fun because I let the session be spontaneous and my model went with the flow and even helped develop my ideas, which makes for great synergy. I'll be using Gabby's images to develop my Inkscape portraits that I started with Frances and Khalil. She took some fantastic shots, so I can't wait to get started on them. In the meantime, here are a few more pics from last weeks shoot: