Another photo shoot

The Wife has gotten so good with her photography skills--she attends conferences and learning seminars with nationally-prominent photographers on a regular basis--that I can often feel like dead weight on her career. I am supposed to be her second shooter/backup for Lisa on Location, but it's no great desire of mine to be a great talent drop-off when called upon to shoot. So every so often I manage to squeeze in a shooting session, to keep those photography muscles lubricated and the mind sharp. It also has the added benefit of giving me a break from all the Chicken Ranch work I'm doing, which (believe it or not) can get pretty onerous.

In any event, I met up with Taylor Bentley Monday evening for a night shoot in San Marcos. She'd been known for her long, flowing blonde hair, but had gotten it cut some months back. We wanted to do a shoot to capture that different look, and the idea of a 1920s flapper came to mind. Well, life intervenes, and we didn't get to shoot as soon as we'd have liked, and her hair isn't quite so short anymore. But we managed to get some fun shots anyway.



We did a night shoot for a couple of reasons. First, evenings were the only times either of us could ever find any free time, but secondly, I've been playing with off-camera lighting and shooting at night gave me the opportunity to take more control over the visual look of the piece. Plus, a night shoot lent itself to establishing more of a glamorous, roaring 20s speakeasy type of mood. A 1928 Hudson or Desoto sedan would've served as the perfect set piece, but alas, on a shoestring budget you can't always swing luxuries like that. I was doing good to get the martini glass.



I didn't have as many keeper shots as I'd have hoped. Focusing in low-light conditions is problematic, and I'm not quite comfortable enough in these kinds of shoots to effectively direct the model and manage consistently good composition. That comes with practice. But overall, I'm happy with some of the shots that I did get, and hopefully, Taylor is as well.

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