Shooting An Interchangeable Bra Campaign

A few months ago we partnered with La G Productions and Space Model Management to shoot the summer campaign for The Bra Lab, a California brand that created and patented the first interchangeable bra. This was our first time working with La G Productions and The Bra Lab and we are very grateful for the opportunity they gave us to shoot their designs.

The Bra Lab designs for the sleek and classy woman who’s willing to show off her assets and flaunt her style. A woman who likes a fashion forward and functional outfit. The concept of the shoot was to represent this woman in a very editorial but realistic way. We shot the location part of the photoshoot in a very classic London home in Notting Hill and the studio part in Shoreditch. The models, makeup, hair and styling were provided by Space Model Management.

We can’t wait for the release of the full campaign and are very much looking forward to working with this amazing crew again! As usual, we leave you with a few behind the scenes photos.

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Live The Life You Want To Be Remembered By

This past week my grandma past away. She was a strong woman, a catalan immigrant who alongside my grandpa moved with their family to the other side of the planet during the aftermath of the Second World War. They were looking for a place to start a new life and leave their past behind so that they could give their children a better future. And it was in Panama where they ended up, a small country where they raised their children and where decades later became grandparents to me, my brother and all my cousins. Today I remember her as a hardworking and restless woman from whom I got my passion for cooking, my control freakness and my emigrant gene. She was the one who taught me to be proud of my heritage, who taught me our language and our culture and who always reminded me that I was as much catalan as I was panamanian. Today I can only think of her with love and with admiration, and when my time comes I would like to be remembered for at least half of the accomplishments that she had in her life. Mami, iaia, avia… T’estimo i et trobaré a faltar… molt…

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Shooting A Designer Shoes Campaign

Last week we shot the SS16 campaign for shoe designer Aksha Fernandez. Go check out her beautiful creations! This is the third season that we shoot her collection and we are very thankful to her and her team for trusting their imagery to us one more time.

The brief aligned perfectly with the ethos of her brand. Aksha designs for the every day woman who ventures beyond her daily life. Therefore, the shoot intended to capture a glimpse of a woman’s life, wearing different shoes and carrying out different activities/chores. Reinterpreting the saying “…wearing many hats” and turning it into “…wearing many shoes”.

The location was a contemporary flat that looked like an everyday woman’s home. Nothing glamorous nor stylish, it had to look realistic. The styling was provided by different designers like Merci Me London who collaborated with Aksha on the making of the campaign. Hair and makeup were done by Lily Rose Gregory, a makeup artist with whom we regularly work and whose makeup looks are to die for!

We can’t wait to see the campaign released next year! In the meantime we leave you with some behind the scenes from the shoot. Enjoy!

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Models: When Applying To Casting Calls…

Being a model is not easy and the market is tough out there. There is a lot of competition, there is a lot of poorly paid jobs, there is a lot of rejection. We know, we understand, we are all in this together and even if we are working from a different side of the industry, we are still in the same industry. But don’t make it harder on yourself, your reputation is at stake and a name is easily tainted.

This week we have been casting female models for a shoe campaign that we will be shooting soon. Hundreds of models applied, but only about 10% matched the criteria specified on the casting call. So we were forced to go through almost 500 applications from which only 45 more or less matched what we were looking for according to our ad. Why would you apply for a casting call where someone is looking for a shoe size 4 girl if you are a shoe size 7? We all need the money, and cities like London are really expensive to live in, but you don’t want to look desperate. Nobody wants to cast a desperate person. And it is also disrespectful, because basically you are telling us that you don’t mind wasting our times at all.

This is why my blog post today is about some best practices to take into account when applying to casting calls:

1. Matching the criteria is important: if we are looking for a shoe size 4 girl, what makes someone think that we are going to cast a shoe size 7 person? How are you going to manage to shrink your feet to make them fit into the shoes? Or if we are looking for a black girl and you are asian, how are you going to manage to change your race for the job?

2. You can’t fit all the sizes: we were casting shoe size 4 and shoe size 6 female models. One girl said that she could fit shoe sizes 4, 5, 6 and 7. Literally.

3. Geography is important: we were casting only female models living in London. If you live in Australia, why would you even apply?

4. The dates are set: if the shoot is on X day and you know that you will not be available on said date, why apply? We are all working to produce a campaign shoot with a date in mind and it is very unlikely that we would change this date because one of the applicants is only available a week later.

5. Show that you care: after filtering the dissapointing amount of almost 450 applications, we were left with a group of suitable applicants from which we shortlisted around 20. We sent emails to all the girls and almost half of them haven’t responded yet. So you are telling me that after all that we have been through to shortlist you now you are not going to even care to reply when we tell you that we want to meet you in person? If you are not available anymore, please have the decency to let us know. Don’t burn any bridges.

6. Show up to the casting: one of the shortlisted girls sent us a text saying that she couldn’t come to the casting day we had given her and asked to be switched to the following day. We let her come the next morning. The next day she sent us another text asking if we could see her in the afternoon instead. We let her come in the afternoon. In the afternoon she texted again to see if she could come a few hours later than we had agreed. Obviously we didn’t cast this girl. If she can’t even come to the casting what guarantees us that she will come on the day of the actual job?

From this casting call we only selected one girl out of 500 applicants. Thankfully, one that we are really happy with. But for the second girl we had to call someone who had worked with us before to see if she was available and luckily she was. So this here is our last piece of advice today: if you are professional and do a great job and leave a good impression, you might get called back for another job again in the future.

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Your One Person Orchestra

Most of us who are freelancers find ourselves constantly wearing so many hats that at times it is really hard to keep up. As a freelance photographer I am like a one man orchestra where I play all the instruments at once and my clients and peers are the audience of my one man show. It is hard work, especially because you always feel like you should be paying more attention to something different from what you are paying attention to, without leaving everything else unanttended. It can get overwhealming at times, but it is also very rewarding.

For me the key to not loosing my mind is to delegate or automate those tasks that I feel do not require to be done by myself. Also, being organized and consistent helps me interiorize tasks so much that I just do them without even thinking about them. Here are a few things that I do that help me stay focused on the core of my craft without the distractions of the daily administrative tasks:

• I assign a day of the week for each repetitive or administrative task. For instance, every Wednesday I write on my blog. So I have an alert set up to remind me every Wednesday morning that I have to write my weekly post. I do the same for other tasks like researching for new clients or sending emails to clients with whom I have worked before or finding out about new photography contests. Each day of the week has different tasks assigned.

• When I get up, the first thing that I do is check my social media feeds and notifications and while having breakfast I prepare my daily post. To manage all my social media effortlessly I use Hootsuite and to know which is the best time to post to reach most of my audience I use Iconosquare. I also use this last one to track all those people who like to follow/unfollow because they mess up my statistics.
• I knew since day one that I wanted an affordable online portfolio which was easy to use and which would take all the burden of maintaining a website off my shoulders. I use format.com, it’s the one that works for me.
• I keep track of my prospective and actual jobs with fotoClient. It’s an easy and centralized way to manage your upcoming projects.
• I have alerts set up in different online job boards so that I passively receive job alerts everyday. I use services like ImageBrief, FashionWorkie, StarNow or TheFreelancersClub.
• As a freelancer most of the times you not only have to manage your business but you are also in charge of taking care of your home, especially if your spouse has a full-time job. Because of this, I do all my shopping online. For photographic equipment I trust Calumet, for props I always go to Amazon, I get all my stationary printed from Moo and my go to print lab is DS Colour Lab.

These are only a few things that I do to keep my business up and running as effortlessly as possible. Do you have any of your own that you would like to share?

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The Worst Attempt Is The One You Don’t Make

I used to dread Mondays. And also Sunday afternoons, because they meant that the weekend was almost over. Actually, I used to hate the whole day Sunday, because it was the last day of the weekend and of my break from work. So that means that I would spend 4 days a week longing for Friday to come, but only really enjoyed Friday if I didn’t have to work late, and then I would try to make the most out of the Friday night and the Saturday because once it was already Sunday all the fun was over. It was a terrible way of looking at life. I just couldn’t take it anymore.

But then one day I decided to quit my job, change career paths and finally do what I really enjoyed doing. And now I work almost every day of the week, weekends included, but I have never been happier nor more fulfilled in my whole life. I now love Mondays. As a matter of fact, I love every single day of the week, because when I am working I am happy, and when I am off, I am not despising the working day to come and I can really enjoy my spare time.

I am going to repeat it: I am happy. And all it took was taking the risk to follow my dream. When I was little, whenever I was facing a difficult choice, my dad would always tell me “the worst attempt is the one you don’t make.” What is the worst that can happen? That I fail? That I learn from my mistakes? That someone says “no”? If someone says “no” today, someone else might say “yes” tomorrow. If I am not good enough at this point that means that there is room for improvement and I can always get better.

If you are facing a big decision right now and all that is stopping you from moving forward is fear, I say to you “Jump!”. This world belongs to those who dare.

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gO cRaZy

Create. Go crazy. Let yourself go. There is no right or wrong, no pretty or ugly, everything is subjective. There is only your vision and other people’s vision. Learn the rules, then break them. Research and get inspired by others but create something new, something that it’s yours. Everyone is trying to be the best or struggling to not be the worst; the challenge is being different. Develop your personal style. Be flexible, be receptive, be open to advice and criticism but know that you have the power to decide what to do with those inputs. Don’t let anyone tell you that what you are doing is not good. It’s your work, not theirs. Believe in yourself. Not everyone is going to like what you do and that is ok. Stop believing those who say “this is THE way to do it” and start developing your own way. It’s your life, it’s your style and it’s your work. Create. Go crazy. Let yourself go.

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Rejection Makes You Stronger

Let’s face it: nobody likes being rejected. As much as we dislike to admit it, human beings are like most animals, always looking for acceptance from the pack. But how much rejection can you take before deciding to switch packs or alienate yourself for good? If you are like me and when you started following your dream you knew that quitting was not an option, the answer to this question is simple: you just take it all.

We creatives face rejection every day of our lives. And it hurts, badly. Because for us our creations are like our little babies and nobody wants to hear that they have an ugly baby. We see them as the most beautiful creatures in the world! So when someone says that they don’t like our work or that they think that we should be doing it differently, we automatically feel defeated. But we shouldn’t. Why? Because everyone has the right to have an opinion and opinions are very subjective. This person (client, peer, friend, relative) might not like what you do but the next one coming along might think that your work is the most amazing work in the planet. Learning to deal with feedback is one of the most important skills in the creatives toolset.

So how do you learn how to handle feedback? How do you cope with rejection? Here are a few things that I do that hopefully might work for you as well:

• When it comes to positive feedback I embrace it, I feed my creative ego for a few seconds but I don’t let it go to my head. As I said before, this person’s opinion is subjective. The next person might think my work is rubbish.
• But when it comes to rejection, that’s when I feel that the way you deal with it separates loosers from winners. Negative feedback comes in two flavours and you must be able to identify them. Is it constructive feedback or destructive feedback?
• If it’s constructive, I feel thankful. There are people who are taking their time to help me be better. Then, I analyze the message. Do I agree with what they say? If I follow their advice will my work get better? Do I want to follow their advice? You don’t always have to do what other people suggest you to do. It’s still their subjective opinion. I have had plenty mentors in my career who have given my valuable pieces of advice. Some of them I have followed, some of them I have not. You have the power to decide what to do with the feedback and when to decide to follow it.
• If it’s destructive, I try not to let it affect me. Instead I tell myself that at least my work is not being taken for granted and is causing some sort of reaction. I obviously feel hurt for a moment but then I try to be objective. Is there any true in what this person is saying or are they just being mean? Can I learn something from their words? Either way, I try to find a positive outcome for the experience.

People say that there are only two certain things in life: death and taxes. But I would add a third one: rejection. It’s always going to be there and if you don’t like the idea you might as well move to a deserted island because rejection is inherent to social interaction. Learning to deal with it and to keep on going even after you have heard a thousand “no’s” will only get you closer to the people who will be giving you the “yes”.

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Limitations Are Invitations To Grow

They say that it’s all about the Journey, not the Destination. But for some people, the obstacles that they encounter during the journey are enough reason to not take the journey at all. But what if we stop seeing obstacles as stoppers and start seeing them as challenges or tests that we need to pass in order to move forward? What if we took those limitations and turned them into sources of lessons to be learned to help us grow?

When I started in photography I used to think that I was never going to advance in my career because I didn’t have the latest camera, nor the appropiate lighting equipment, nor I had the contacts in the industry to help me get the jobs. Thankfully, I didn’t let any of those things stop me and I was able to work with those limitations and eventually overcome them. And now that I look back I feel like those limitations were necessary for me to learn that it’s not the camera, it’s the eye, or that if you don’t have contacts then you have to go out and get them.

Accepting your limitations is the first step. And don’t be afraid to admit that you have them, everyone does. The important thing is to do something about them. You can embrace them and work with what you have, work around them and look for alternative paths or overcome them and get rid of them completely. But you should never let them stop you.

Take as an example what happened to me today during London’s heat wave. I accepted my limitation (I can’t stand the heat), tried to embrace it and work with what I have (stripped to my undies, didn’t work), tried to work around it and look for alternative paths (not enough money to fly to Iceland) and finally decided to overcome the obstacle (went out and bought a fan). But I didn’t let the heat wave prevent me from writing my weekly post.

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People Don’t Buy Drills, They Buy Holes

Back when I was working in my previous industry I received from my boss one of those lessons that mark you for life. We were looking for a new software for our production department that would replace the one that we had been using for years. My department came up with various options from industry leaders and major software brands but to our shock my boss opted for an unknown product from a small company that he had previously worked with. His reasoning was that this small company already knew his business and his needs and because of their size they were more flexible and it was easier for them to adapt to the particular way he conducted his company. As he put it: he wasn’t buying a tool, he was buying a solution.

Our clients are the same way. More often than not they are not looking for the photographer with the latest camera, nor the makeup artist who can draw the straightest winged eye, nor the stylist with the most celebrity friends. Clients are looking for the reliable creative, the one who adapts easily and understands them, the one who is flexible and who can react quickly to the unexpected, the one who is not just a perfect product but the product that satisfies their needs. We spend too much time and energy trying to be better than the rest of our peers instead of focusing on trying to be the best solution for those who actually hire us.

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The English And The Groin

Whenever I talk to my non-Spanish speaking friends about the importance of using accents in Spanish, I always use the same example: it is not the same to write “inglés” than to write “ingles”. The first one, with an accent, means “English” or “englishman”; the second one, without the accent, means “groin”. That tiny little detail when you write in Spanish makes a huge difference in the meaning of the word. And in cases like this one, it can keep you out of trouble. The Devil is in the detail, they say.

The same applies to your daily life, especially your work. Paying attention to details separates the amateur from the professional. I remember when I was starting out as a photographer that I would get really overwhelmed while shooting. I was trying to control all the technicalities of photography (apperture, speed, ISO, depth of field, composition, framing) while trying really hard to pay attention to my subject and their surroundings. It was just too much and of course I would leave so many things unattended that I would spend hours in post-processing trying to correct them. But with practice you get better at your craft and you automate the technicalities leaving you free to focus on the rest of the details.

Here are a few tips to help you pay better attention to details:

• Plan ahead: the more you plan in advance, the more you can concentrate on minor details during the execution of your project.
• Seek feedback: four eyes see more than two.
• Stop, check, continue: no matter how stressful and time challenging the project is, you will not go wrong if you stop for a second and check the progress and quality of your work.
• “We will fix this later”: wrong! Try to get everything as perfect as possible from the beginning. There will always be things that need some tweaking afterwards but the less the better.
• Zoom in / zoom out: as you work on your project, take a look at your progress by looking at your results from far and also from very close. Sometimes things look good from a distance but once you zoom in it’s a completely different story.

These are just a few things to keep in mind to help you pay more attention to details. Do you have any tips or ideas of your own? Share them with us in the comments field below!

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Nobody Is Born Knowing

Do you get an upset stomach every time that you are doing something for the first time? You can relax, there is no need to call the doctor. There is nothing wrong with you, it happens to everyone. Even to those who seem extremely confident, they just know how to fake it better. When you are doing something for the first time, it is not your fault that you have not done it before and that you have no experience doing it. We all have to start somewhere. But it is definitely your fault if you do not prepare for it. We all must recognize our limitations and be proactive addressing them.

My father used to say “nobody learns with someone else’s head”, meaning that only through our own experiences were we able to learn from our achievements and mistakes. And in a way this is true: I can lecture you on photography for days but only when you pick up the camera is when you understand what taking photos is all about. But when you learn how to use the camera and then you decide that you want to be a photographer you will face the reality that taking photos and running a photography business are two completely different things. And, of course, you can google “how to run a photography business”, or even ask your friends and peers, and more times than not you will be able to find answers. But there will come times when the answers that you find do not adapt to your particular situation and those are the times when you need advice from someone with experience in the field.  Those are the times when you need a mentor.

Mentors come in different sizes and flavours. A mentor could be a relative, a friend, your boss, your peer or even someone that you pay for having a mentoring session. In any case, a mentor is not someone who will tell you how to do your craft or who will do the work for you. That’s on you. A mentor is someone who will give you advice from their own experience when you feel stuck or when you face a new challenge that you just cannot seem to find a way to overcome. Do not expect to come to a mentor with a generic question like “can you help me become a photographer?” because that is not the way it works. Instead, you must come after thoroughly doing your research and when speaking to the mentor seems like the last resort. That way you will be able to ask specific questions and you will get your time or money’s worth.

I have had many mentors throughout my career, from the free advisors like friends and peers to the professional ones who offer mentoring sessions in exchange of a fee, and they have all taught me valuable lessons. Being a succesful creative nowadays is not only about knowing your craft; you also need to know the business. If you have doubts that you cannot seem to solve online, if you feel that you are not advancing on your career or even if you just need feedback to know if you are heading the right way, a one on one chat with a mentor might be all that you need.

Resources:

- Marketing Mentor

- The Freelancers Club

- Crunch

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How To Put Together A Fashion Editorial For Submission?

When I wrote my series of blog posts on everything you need to know before you organize your first photoshoot I received a lot of questions about my process when I am putting together the shoot. If you haven’t read the posts, I recommend you read them first and then you come back and continue reading this post. It’s a series of 4 posts and you can find them by following these links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

I already wrote about my process when organising fashion editorials for submissions when I was interviewed by Rion Magazine at the beginning of the year. You can see the full interview here. The following is an extract of that interview:

“(…) let’s say that
I am shooting an editorial that I want to pitch to a magazine and it’s a
small shoot:

So a couple of months before the actual shoot I think about what I am
going to shoot. What is the story behind the shoot, what do I want the
models to be doing in the photos, where are those models (location),
what will they be wearing that conveys the message that I am trying to
express, etc… and with all this information I would create a moodboard.

Once I have the general idea of the shoot I think about when I will
shoot (I usually give myself 2 months for a shoot like this), what kind
of crew do I need and where will I be shooting this. So I contact my
regular team and if they are not available then I would contact people
that I have met in networking events or that I have worked with at some
point and sometimes even people who have contacted me directly
expressing their interest in doing something with me. While setting up
the team I start quoting locations.

In the meantime, I usually already know which stylist I will be
working with but if I don’t then that would be one of the first crew
members that I would look for. Because the stylist will be the one who
would translate all my moodboard into the actual brands and clothes to
use. It’s also true that at times the stylists are the ones who come to
me with a concept they want to explore and we develop it together. So it
works the other way around too.

The team is complete, the location has been sourced and the date set.
Then I work with each of the team members on coming up with the
different looks for the shoot: the different makeups to do, how many
different hair styles we will use, how will the video look like, etc.

At this point I pitch the whole concept to a magazine that I have in
mind at the moment. I will send them the moodboard (style, makeup, hair,
lighting, type of models) and the whole info on the crew and the date
and time of the shoot.

And meanwhile the stylist is sourcing the clothes from brands and PR
agencies and they show me the different style ideas to see if I like
where they are going.

By then a whole month has gone by and then we start looking for
models. Depending on the type of model we want we then contact the
agency that we feel has what we are looking for.

We are now at two weeks of the shoot and the stylist more or less has
decided the brands and styles we will use. We then put the looks
together and most of the times we will create a couple of looks more
than the ones planned just in case.

One week before the shoot I will confirm crew, location and models
and if anyone or anything fails then we still have one week to react.

Two days before the shoot I prepare a detailed schedule for the day:
when are we starting, when are we wrapping up, how long does hair and
makeup take, how long does each of the photos will take to shoot
including changes in clothes and hair and makeup, etc. This will help
the whole team know exactly at what point in time we are at each moment
during the shoot. I then print this schedule along with the call sheet,
the moodboard, the names and photos of the models so everyone knows
their names and the concept of the shoot. An informed team is key to the
success of the shoot.

The day before the shoot I prepare all my equipment and pack
everything I am taking with me, including the refreshments for the whole
crew and the models. A fed team is a happy team, and a happy team makes
better photos.

The day of the shoot I arrive at least 15min earlier so I am there
when everyone else arrives. I paste the printed schedule and the rest of
the sheets on the wall and when everyone is there I have a 15min
meeting explaining the plan for the day.

The day goes by, we wrap up and the shooting is done. Then I get home
and the first thing I do is backup all the photos to my backup disk.
And then the selection and editing process begins. Depending on the type
of shoot the editing can last from 30 minutes to 4 hours per photo. So
the next few days after the shoot I spend them retouching.

Once the photos are retouched I share them with the crew to see if
they see something that might need correcting and that I haven’t
noticed. Once all the corrections are made, the photos are sent to the
magazine and I hold my breath until they give me their approval. And
then just wait until the release date of the issue.”

I hope this answers most of your questions. If you still have any doubts do not hesitate to comment below or to drop us a line and we will be happy to help!

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Are You Running The Rat Race?

We live in a society where more is more and being the best is better. We have been taught that success equals having more money, more possesions, more of everything and especially more than what the rest has. It is as if we had been programmed to be like those rats in the lab that run tirelessly on their exercise wheels just because that is what you are meant to do. Without going anywhere, without achieving anything meaningful. Just running. Our modern business culture is like a rat race. And, as someone famously said, what’s the point of winning the rat race if in the end you are still a rat?

Along the way someone forgot to teach us that the real success is
not achieving those goals but being happy while pursuing them, loving
what you do, feeling comfortable in your skin and sharing that special
feeling with those who matter the most to you. Be it your spouse,
family, friends, coworkers, team members, neighbours… Of course, we all have bills to pay and we all want to run a succesful business, but working our lives away just to make it to the end of the month or just to outdo the competition does not add any value to our lives.

When was the last time that you opened your eyes in the morning and thought “Gee, I’m so happy that it’s Monday!”? Us creatives may not have a proper beginning or a proper end of the week, but this still applies to us. When was the last time that you got home from work completely exhausted but with a smile on your face and feeling fulfilled? When was the last time that you felt happy with what you do?

Instead of spending our days trying to make more money or trying to be better than the competition, why don’t we try to focus in ourselves? Albert Camus once said “To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others.” Let’s stop trying to win this race and let’s start focusing in our personal growth. Let’s try to learn something new as often as we can, let’s try to improve our skills and become better in our craft, let’s try to make deeper connections with the people that we interact with. We might feel today that being successful is about making a lot of money, having a million clients or even becoming famous. But in the end, money comes and goes, clients are here today and maybe not tomorrow and fame is ephemeral and all that we are left with is what we have learned from the experiences that we have lived. Let every experience in your life be worthy of a life worth living.

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Why Is A Community Important For Creatives?

If you have been following my blog you may know by now that when I arrived in London I had little experience in the field and my portfolio was very poor. It wasn’t until I started hanging out with peers and meeting other creatives in networking events that I started growing as a creative myself. Learning from them and their experiences, getting inspiration from their work and feeling supported by people who understood what I was going through were key factors in my professional development. 

Networking events for creatives are not a modern invention. The famous names in art history had gatherings of their own where they exchanged ideas, techniques and struggles and the major artistic movements that we know today wouldn’t have existed if there hadn’t been a group of creatives who constantly seeked like-minded peers with whom to collaborate with. Picasso would have never been one of the major names in Cubism if he hadn’t frequented the Paris art scene of his time; Bourke-White would have never become one of the greatest photographers of the past century if she hadn’t met White, who was friends with Stieglitz, the founder of the Camera Club. 

Knowledge exchange among peers is not only beneficial for the individual but for the community as well. Creatives who work isolated from what their peers are doing risk getting stuck in what they do. They don’t find out about the trends in the industry, they don’t know if other creatives are coming up with solutions to challenges that they face and their professional development is slower because they don’t learn from other people’s experiences and mistakes. But those creatives who push themselves to be better than the rest encourage innovation and raise the quality of the industry and give a better reputation to our profession. This translates into clients having more and better options to choose from when looking for creatives to fulfill their needs. 

But creatives who are protectionists with their knowledge for fear of empowering competitors so much that they steal their clients away from them become victims of their own greed. The rest of the industry will grow faster, will get better at what they do and will become the trendsetters who eventually will keep the clients anyways. Because when clients realise that their suppliers are becoming isolated from the industry and are not being innovative enough they simply leave on their own. 

Being a creative can be a very lonely and misunderstood profession if we don’t have a support group that encourages us to keep on going. Don’t make it harder on youself; get off that chair and attend the next networking event in town. You will not only be doing yourself a favour but you will be making our community stronger and better for the rest of us out there.

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Show Up To Give, Not To Take

I read an interview with Simon Sinek on his TED Talk of 2009 where he spoke about the concept of showing up to give, not to take. This concept resonated in my mind because I could completely relate to it. Wherever you go, whatever you do, if you show up to give something, be it your thoughts, your vision, your personal story, your talent, your feelings or your value, you are more likely to engage with others than if you just show up to take something from them.

When I realised this I learned that whenever I am working for myself or for others, meeting with family, friends or coworkers, visiting clients or collaborators, I should always try to show up with no expectations other than just to give the best in me and add value to our relationship. Because it is not what I can get from them, but what we can build together that matters. Besides, focusing on giving rather than taking makes me a happier and freer person. I no longer have to worry about what I am getting out of everything I do. I just do it because I love doing it.

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Organising Your First Photoshoot: What You Need To Know. Part 4.

When I started writing this post I never realised how much information I
felt I needed to share, but when I finished and saw that my post looked
more like a book than like a blog post I decided to divide it in
several parts. In case you landed here directly, this is the last part of four.

On the last three posts I have taken you through the process of writing a casting call whenever you are looking for creatives to collaborate with on your projects. On this last part of my posts on everything you need to know when organising your first photoshoot, I will give you some tips on managing expectations as a photographer when working with other creatives.

After placing your casting call and getting swamped by applications from fellow creatives you have finally gathered your team for your first photoshoot. You as the organiser of the shoot automatically become the team leader, and as a team leader you have the responsibility to fulfill the expectations of the members of your team. They all trusted you and believed in you when you asked them to collaborate with you on this shoot but now they want to see results to make their times worth. And as a photographer, these results come in the form of quality images. To make sure that you are able to deliver the quality of work your team members are expecting, you first need to be able to transmit a clear vision of the outcome of the photoshoot. And when you are working with people who more often than not have different backgrounds, levels of experience and see life from different perspectives than you, communication is key.

Here are a few tips that I use whenever I am organising a shoot:

1. Put everything in writing and always ask for a read-receipt. Spoken words get carried away by the wind and are always subject to misinterpretation. Put all the communications with the rest of the team in writing and always ask them to reply when they read them. That way you have a proof that every person on the team read the email and you avoid uncomfortable situations by someone claiming they didn’t get the memo. 

2. Your first email to the rest of the team should include as much information as possible about the shoot. This way, if someone does not agree with the terms of the collaboration and decides to leave the team, you have enough time to cast someone to replace them. On this email you should include:

• Everyone’s role and contact info.
• The 5 W’s we learned on the previous post.
• Include your Moodboard and ask for other creatives’ moodboards (MUA, Hair, Stylist, etc). Once you have them, share them with the rest of the team.
• Number of images to be delivered.
• When will this images be delivered.
• If you are sharing expenses in between all the collaborators, a clear figure needs to be informed from the very beginning.
• If the images are meant for submission, let everyone know that magazines do not want to see anything related to the shoot posted online before the release of the issue. This usually includes behind the scenes photos during the shoot.

3. Keep the emails coming. You don’t have to treat your team members like children and be on top of them all the time, but you must follow up and keep the communication flowing through every step of the photoshoot (pre-production, post-production). This way people have a feel that there is work being done. For instance, when the location has been selected, I send an email including a map to the location and useful info on how to get there. Or, once the talent has been selected, I also share photos of them with the team so everyone knows how their faces, hair, bodies look like.

4. Remember that even if your shoot is a collaboration, it doesn’t mean that it is free work. Everyone’s time is valuable. Be as professional as you would be in front of a client.

Well, there is so much that I can say about organising your first photoshoot but I don’t want to bore you to death. If you have any questions or suggestions or if you just want to show your love, leave us a comment below. Until next week!

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Organising Your First Photoshoot: What You Need To Know. Part 3.

When I started writing this post I never realised how much information I felt I needed to share, but when I finished and saw that my post looked more like a book than like a blog post I decided to divide it in several parts. In case you landed here directly, this is the part three.

In my previous two posts I talked about the concepts I had to learn before I organised my first shoot. Today I will talk about how to write a catchy casting call when you look for collaborators on websites like StarNow, ModelMayhem, The Freelancer Club and such.

Before you place the casting call itself, you need to know what you are looking for, who do you want to work with, what is the aim of your shoot. A shoot can be something as simple as a test shoot between you as the photographer and a model, or as a complex as an editorial for a magazine with a full crew of photographer, models, sytlist, MUA, hair stylist, assistants, etc. The clearer the info in the ad looks, the better. For the sake of this post, let’s say that you are organising a menswear AW15 fashion editorial shoot for submission to a magazine.

Let’s break down the casting call into the 5 W’s: who, what, when, where and why.

Who: the who can basically be divided in two: who is placing the casting call and who are you looking for.

What: what is it that you want to do? In this case, a fashion editorial shoot. If you have a concept in mind, you can create a moodboard and upload the photos with the ad or have a link to an online board (I use Pinterest)

When: you don’t necessarily need to know the date at first. But, let’s face it, people are busy and they need to make space in their diaries for collaborations, specially if it means saying no to paid jobs on that day. So having a date in mind will help you get more creatives to apply.

Where: you don’t necessarily need to know the exact location either, but at least mention the city and have an idea of what you want to do. Is it studio work? Or on location? Is it indoors or outdoors?

Why: and finally, why are we doing this? What are we getting in exchange for our time and services? Is it only a shoot for portfolio update or is it for submission? Is it paid, unpaid, TFP? In this case, it would be for submission to a magazine (all these concepts are explained in my previous post).

So now that we have all the info on the shoot, let’s start building our casting call:

Title: it has to be short but contain as much info as possible:

“Photographer looking for full crew in London for editorial submission on May 1.”

Some websites do not allow such long titles so you will have to get creative with abbreviations:

“London TOG needs crew for Mag submission May01.”

Summary: usually websites that do not allow long titles have a summary field where you can explain a little bit more what you are looking for. It would be like a longer version of the title but not as detailed as the content of the casting call.

Content: this would be the content of the casting call itself. Be as specific as the lenght of the casting call allows:

“Photographer is looking for a full crew for a menswear AW15 fashion editorial shoot in East London studio on May 1st 2015, from 10am to 6pm:

* Two agency represented male models: one black and one asian, 6ft tall minimum. 

* An HMUA: with proven experience in grooming.

* A Fashion stylist: with contacts in PR agencies or brands that carry AW15 menswear fashion.

* An Assistant Photographer: with online portfolio and experience with studio lights.

The images will be submitted to a magazine. You can find the moodboard on the following link:

https://www.pinterest.com/greypistachio/editorials/”

And now, you just have to wait for those creatives to apply! On my next post I will give you a few tips on collaborating with fellow creatives and managing expectations as a photographer.

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Organising Your First Photoshoot: What You Need To Know. Part 2.

When I started writing this post I never realised how much information I
felt I needed to share, but when I finished and saw that my post looked
more like a book than like a blog post I decided to divide it in
several parts. In case you landed here directly, this is the part two.

Following up from my previous post, here are a few more concepts that I needed to learn before organising my first photoshoot:

Test shoot: a test shoot is basically a shoot where all the
creatives involved are offering their times to practice a new technique
or to explore a new concept. It could be organised by a photographer
like me who wants to create photos for their portfolio, or by a makeup
artist who wants to try applying makeup on different skin tones, or by a
hair stylist who wants to practice their skills or even by a model who
wants to have more confidence in front of a camera and a crew.

Depending on the type of Test shoot, there are:

Paid Tests: someone
hires the rest of the crew for the test. It is crucial that if there is
at least one creative not getting paid in the crew that said person
knows if someone else is getting paid and why they are asked to do it
without pay. It would be unfair that I went to a test shoot thinking
everyone else is in the same situation that I am in and later on realise
that someone was getting paid while the organiser was taking advantage
of me. In some cases, a paid test means that only expenses are being
covered (travel, food, materials). This needs to be clarifyed in any
communication prior to the shoot.

Unpaid Tests: unpaid
does not mean for free. And this is a really important concept to
understand. An unpaid test is when someone organises a test shoot and
none of the people involved are paid. But not being paid in money does
not make your attendance to the shoot for free. Everyone’s time is
money, so you are working on a shoot where everyone’s precious time is
being invested. Everyone’s materials have a cost, so you are working on a
shoot where everyone is investing money on the materials used
(equipment, makeup, hair products, clothes). And most importantly,
everyone’s reputation is at stake, so you are working on a shoot where
the rest of the creatives are judging you as a collaborator and as a
creative and in the future, if they like you, they might end up
recommending you for a job. So in the end, you might not end up getting
paid in money, but you are getting paid in experience, you are getting
paid in getting the best that other fellow creatives can offer (images,
makeup, hair, clothes, models, assisting) and you are getting paid on
establishing a reputation. So what’s free about unpaid tests?

TF / TFP / Time For Prints:
this type of test shoot specifically suggests that everyone working on
the shoot will give their time in return of receiving images at the end.
The number of images, their type (colour, monochrome), their mood,
every detail has to be agreed before the shoot starts, including the
date when the images will be delivered to everyone involved.

So, after having all those concepts clear, I was ready to look for creatives to collaborate with and post my casting call for my very first shoot. Next week: part 3 on how to write a catchy casting call.

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Organising Your First Photoshoot: What You Need To Know. Part 1.

When I started writing this post I never realised how much information I felt I needed to share, but when I finished and saw that my post looked more like a book than like a blog post I decided to divide it in several parts. In case you landed here directly, this is the part one.

After assisting 4 or 5 different photographers for a few months I thought that I should try and organise my very first shoot. If I wanted to be a fashion photographer I needed to learn from others but I also needed to learn on my own. Besides, as I have said in previous posts, I didn’t have a proper portfolio and I needed the images to create one as well. 

Looking back I must admit that I had no idea if I was going to be able to pull this off, but I was so determined to do it that I didn’t let the fear of failure hold me down. What was there to be afraid of, you may ask? Well, first of all, doing something for the first time is always a little bit scary. Second of all, I knew I had a huge responsibility in my hands: all the creatives involved would want images for their portfolios… what if after all that hard work my images sucked and they felt like they lost their precious times on my shoot? Well, there is always that risk, but as my husband said to me when I shared my thoughts with him: “but, what if the images are great?” Good point.

I decided to post a casting call on ModelMayhem, StarNow and PurplePort asking for creatives who wanted to collaborate on this shoot with me.  I reviewed similar casting calls on those websites to copy the most appropiate wording for mine and also to learn what were the things that I needed to take into account when organising a shoot. And the first thing that struck me was that I had no idea of the terminology used in this industry. So before posting one, I needed to figure out what most of the acronyms and concepts meant. I needed to do some research of my own.

TOG: short for photographer (Photographer ==> Photog ==> Tog)

MUA: Make Up Artist, the person who does makeup.

HS: Hair Stylist, the person who does hair.

HMUA / MUAHS: a person who does both Hair and Make Up.

Fashion Stylist / Wardrobe Stylist / Stylist: the person who will decide which clothes will be used, how will they be used, who will use them or how will the overall mood of the photos will be. Sometimes, they also provide the clothes, sourcing them from designers, brands or PR agencies.

Talent: the persons being photographed or filmed (models, actors, musicians). They can either be freelancers or come from an agency.

Location: where is the shoot taking place. Usually is either in Studio or On Location, which basically means outside a studio and can be Indoors, like at a house, a flat or a hotel room, or outdoors, like in a park, a road or a beach.

Call time: at what time everyone is expected at the location.

Wrap-up time: at what time everyone is expected to vacate the location.

Call sheet: email or document containing all the information for the shoot (date, location, crew, special instructions) that is sent a few days before the shoot so everyone is well informed of what is going on during the day of the shoot.

Submission: in some test shoots, the crew can decide that they will submit the resulting images to a publication (print or online) for self-promotion. It is important that the credits of the whole crew and of all the clothes used are included in the submission.

Moodboard: a moodboard is basically a collection of inspirational images that sets the aesthetics of the whole shoot. It can include samples of posing, styling, makeup, hair, model types, or any other additional information that helps everyone involved in the shoot understand how the final images will look like.

Use of the images: what are the images for (portfolio, submission to publication, commission, commercial or advertisement).

Model / Property / Agency Release: whenever you are photographing a person who is not signed to any agency, a model release has to be signed by that person giving the photographer permission to use the resulting photo in any way specified in the release. If the person belongs to an agency (model, actor, musician), the photographer needs to sign an agreement with the agency where the use of the images is specified. For locations, if you are working in a private property, the owner needs to sign a property release giving the photographer permission to shoot in that location.

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