My newest model was also the best I’ve run across. Her name? Sarah Damn. Not afraid of anything, except port-o-potties and snakes. Over three shoots I learned a lot about how I work my best. For me it comes down to reaction and feel. Every time I tried to think, or plan, or pre-conceive any shot, it wouldn’t work. Which I’ve noticed just seems to be the case with me but never really could come to grips with the fact that I do my best when I let go of control and just do whatever feels right.

So, lesson learned: Don’t think too much.

Oh, one other thing I learned…. Blue hair is hot.

So I couldn’t sleep one night last week, decided to get up and go for a drive at sun rise and take photos… Totally a smart idea. Tired, driving, and taking pictures at the same time. Good thing for me (and everyone else) there are no cars on the road that early around here. Decided to use the photos to experiment with different processing effects.

Here are a few shots taken while driving around.

My idea for my blog is simple… To share my constant screw ups.

So for my first post I’ll share my recent photography adventure:

The 2009 Willits Fashion Show.

I’ve never done anything like this before, which is why I wanted to do it. Being that I’m a 24 year old guy I decided to have an older friend of mine get us the gig, figured that would be easier than trying to convince the fashion show directors that really all I wanted to do was practice photography. Having older friends around pays off big time.

So on to the list of screw ups:

1. The building has skylights, which were blacked out (I knew this was going to happen). I should of offered to cover them myself so that I could use translucent material that would soften the light, instead of block it. That way I could have some nice ambient light.

2. Brought a 1000Watt monobloc that must be plugged into the wall, which was fine… But I didn’t attach it correctly to the light stand. So when I moved it, the thing fell off and dented the reflector and broke one of my sync jacks.

3. I didn’t test my lights with any models of equal height to the ones in the show (my friend was the stand in model for testing lights). So 90% of the photos the model was not blocking one of the flashes from camera view because I had the light setup for someone 6′ tall.

4. Should have put my lights up higher so I wouldn’t have to worry about them being in view.

5. Should have brought a ladder to stand on. I stood on chairs which wasn’t high enough to get at a good angle with the models, or to get over the heads of the audience (all the tallest people had to sit in the front row right in my sights!).

So, for everyone out there, and for me if I get the chance to do something similar: Bring a ladder, attach things correctly, put lights up high. Or only shoot shows that have nice bright rooms. But still, bring the ladder.