18 months ago I photographed Eric Murphy for my 100 Strangers project. I did a little digging into his background as I sometimes do and so happened upon a local photography group called The Creative Talent Circle.
It has taken me a long time to get around to attending one of their meetings but tonight I finally did … and I’m really glad that I did.
This was way out of my comfort zone which is odd given I can photograph random strangers in the middle of a busy street yet somehow photographing paid models in an organised setting was a little nerve-wracking to me. I guess it’s the fear of being out of one’s depth whilst surrounded by professionals and competent amateurs!
The group was really friendly though and helped me get started with the right settings on my camera and plenty of encouragement. By the end of the night I had stopped copying others (mostly) and was talking to the models explaining what I wanted them to do and coming up with ideas of my own – perhaps not new ideas but also not something that I had just seen someone else ask for.
I learned quite a bit tonight and when I go back I will definitely be more confident to adjust the setup as I want it and as with everything else in photography I now have lots of points in my head that I need to try and apply next time. I’ve just spent far too much time painting over backgrounds to make them darker or lighter and much of that could have been avoided with the right camera settings and paying a little bit more attention to angles.
I also learned NOT to ask a professional model to smile … none of those shots came out as I would have hoped. Perhaps I need to dig out my joke book ;).
I’d like to thank Eric, Alisia and all the models for organising and taking part in a really fun night. I’ll definitely be back someday.
99% Digital 