Ameera pouting against a winter backdrop, probably freezing her butt off.

I’m taking Digital Photography 2 at school, as subjective a class as there ever be. There are about 2 “advanced” students per period and our schedules vacillate between two extremes: one, we’re either bored out of our minds doing nothing and surfing the ‘net or two, we’re frantically editing and trying to get a go at the printer before all the ink is used up.

Or at least I am. And there is no in between for me. (In certain other cases, there is a third: finish all the work in 5 minutes and then  complain about having nothing to do.)

For the final project of last semester, each of us were to explore an aspect of photography we were really passionate about or were afraid to do. Guess what everyone chose, including chicken little myself. Little did I realize that this so-called portfolio was to be submitted for the media fair and that ink was of limited supply, especially when everyone decides to come into my period and print 50 copies each. As it was, I only liked the way the photo above printed (albeit after 4 tries).

I did two shoots with two separate girls from the fashion merchandising class – photo and fashion merch are all R.O.P which basically is career-prep and don’t usually count in terms of A-G for the UC system – within a week and ended up with some okay results. They were definitely rushed and didn’t turn out as well as I would have liked.

Part I

The first incident happened with the shoot above, which took place in empty dirt field with railroad tracks running through. You’d think that homeless guys wouldn’t care about trespassing and whatnot, but apparently this guy did. As soon as we approached the tracks, this dirty man comes up to us and starts railing about how the tracks are Union Pacific property and we’re not allowed to take pictures on it.

Lies!

Unless it’s like federal homeland-security property, you don’t need permission to take pictures of it. If anything, you could be cited for trespassing, but hello sir, you are probably more guilty than we were on that count. We were there for less than 2 hours using trees as a backdrop — mister hobo guy probably spent the night there. I mean, why else would you be walking along the railroad near the buttcrack of dawn on a weekend?

People give so much crap about taking photos. I gave him some lip and ignored him, but the models got all freaked out and scared so wrapped up quickly.

Part II

The second shoot we did in the very makeshift studio of the classroom: essentially with large white paper (yes, paper) for the background and 3 strobes after school one Thursday. It also happened to be the day before a major photo 1 project was due, so there were tons of people in there using computers, trying to do their entire 1-month project in an hour.

Leah was my favorite model, though she too had hair-tie and bra-strap issues.

Unfortunately, Jen could not stop looking directly at the camera.

Varsha, pictured left had the sexiest red bra with cheetah-print straps...which I began to despise after the 234230th time editing it out.

As it was my first time using more than 2 models and shooting in a semi-studio setting, I didn’t know (or feel in-the-element enough) to check all the models before the shoot. So on top of trying to figure out  school’s Canon Rebels on the go and having people everywhere, I had models with way too much clothes on. I would pay for that later with hours of editing out straps and ties and lighting issues and girls not properly positioned. And by straps I do not mean of the sexy-garter variety.

Sage Advice

So if you’re ever taking portraits, fashion or otherwise, there are some things that should be checked for on everyone that will be in the shot before that shutter even gets depressed halfway.

1. Hair Ties on Wrists – Apparently, every girl has them. In the months of having hair not long enough to tie up, I forgot this fact. They are distracting and make everyone look like they have their hands severed from their arms. I edited a bunch out, but left some in to remind myself. Can you spot all the hair ties?
2. Chipped Nail Polish/Black Nail Polish/Any Nail Polish at All – In the future, I’m bring polish remover and banning it from shoots unless the manicures are fresh and nicely done. A spot of red on the finger that is obviously covering about 1/8 of the nail makes for bleh-ness.
3. Bra Straps/Camis/Undershirts - Make sure your girls wear strapless bras (or even no bras at all if possible) if shooting fashion of the sleeveless kind. Laura was the only girl who didn’t have a set of unecessary straps over her shoulder.
4. Makeup Artists with No Makeup – My god that was a bitch. Feeling nice, I volunteered my new and UNUSED Ulta set for her to work with and in the end, half my grays and whites were used up not on the models, but on the makeup artist herself. She looked like she had a black eye. Also, if you’re working with Asian models, make sure the MA knows how to properly do makeup on Asian girls. Or how to properly to makeup in the first place. If in doubt, do it yourself. The second girl was much better.