A Model Shoot At Six Corners

I just finished a model shoot. I haven’t got any pictures yet, so if you were hoping for some cheesecake, this post will be a disappointment (I’m looking at you, Ken!) I just thought a few people might be interested in how this works, and besides, I need a break from all the law-and-order blogging.

I did a couple of group model shoots last summer, and they were fun and educational, but now I wanted to try one by myself. The group shoots are a madhouse, with a bunch of photographers rotating through a bunch of models. I got a few good shots, but I need more time to think about what I’m doing.

Also, I wanted to try some experimental stuff. I’m fascinated by street photography—such as the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Garry Winogrand, Lee Friedlander, and Robert Frank—and I wanted to try some of that style of photography, but with a model in the scenes.

(By the way, just because I know the names of some famous photographers, don’t for a moment think you’re going to see anything that good from me. I’m just using a bit of the scenery and lighting that is characteristic of the street style.)

That sort of experimental approach might get me some really interesting pictures, but it’s a bit of a problem to do in a group shoot because they are usually done on a TFCD basis. That stands for Time For CD, and it means the models are spending time posing in return for a CD of nice images for their portfolio. But if I’m screwing around with weird angles and lighting, the resulting photos may not be suitable for a portfolio.

I didn’t want to feel any pressure to get good portfolio shots, and I wanted to be able to take my time. For that reason, I decided to hire a model for two hours of shooting. I put out a casting call on one of the modeling web sites, and after a few false starts, I hired a 26-year old model named Jennifer.

After a few false starts, we got together today at 5:30 in the Six Corners shopping district on the northwest side of Chicago. It’s got some fairly old-looking buildings, and I figured that by that time of day the light would be hitting at some interesting angles.

I was planning on a very casual look, and Jennifer showed up wearing faded jeans and a white sleeveless top, which was perfect. Unless you have very dark skin, this is always an excellent choice of casual clothing for any time you know you’re getting your picture taken.

We basically spent the next hour and a half wandering around the neighborhood, with me telling Jennifer “stand over there” and “lean against that.” I was looking for interesting backgrounds with urban shapes and textures. I also tried experimenting with harsher sunlight and shadows than are normally used in glamour photography.

The Six Corners area isn’t quite a classic Chicago neighborhood, but parts of it make for an interesting background. The biggest problem was the large number of all-glass storefronts. Glass is hard for me to work with. At best, it reflects an unwanted scene from across the street, and at worst it reflects me as I take the picture.

It was fun to see how people reacted. Jennifer said she got some looks from guys passing by, and as we were shooting in an alley, some guy drove up and started talking to her. He took a picture with his cell phone and then asked her for her phone number. He wasn’t as creepy as I’m making him seem, but when Jennifer told him she was married he was gone in a flash.

Just to prove I can’t get away from legal blogging, about a minute later, a police car drove by, then stopped maybe 20 feet further on and a female officer got out of the passenger side and asked “How old is she?”

Before Jennifer could answer, the cop asked to see some ID, and asked us what we were doing.

Jennifer answered, “Model shoot.”

“In an alley?”

I shrugged, “Something different.”

Luckily, Jennifer had her ID in her pocket (no purses during the model shoot) and showed it to the cop. I had my ID out, but the cop just got back in her car without looking at it.

I don’t know what the cop was really thinking. Jennifer looks young but not child-like, and even if she was under-age, there’s nothing wrong with taking pictures of her. The cop had wandered over from a neighboring district, so I’m not even sure why she was in that area. I’m guessing the age question was just a pretext to ask us what we were doing taking pictures behind a commercial building. Cop curiousity.

(I did some location scouting with a friend, and he found a really cool place to take pictures out by the airport. It’s a special bit of open public property that gets you surprisingly close to the planes on the ground. It’s totally legal, but I now have the feeling I should bring along a defense attorney to handle the inevitable arrival of the airport cops.)

We wrapped up a few minutes later. I haven’t looked at the pictures, but I learned a few things.

For one thing, I am really out of shape. I’m overweight, and my right knee is screwed up. We barely walked half a mile during the shoot, but my legs were killing me when I got back to the car. I’ve never been an athlete, but I didn’t used to have problems just walking around. I need to get a lot more exercise.

Another thing I learned from wandering around a city neighborhood with a model and $3000 worth of camera gear is that it would be nice to have someone along for security. I got tired of carrying my camera bag everywhere, but I didn’t want to put it down where some opportunistic thief could grab it and run. I don’t usually worry about stuff like that, but photographing models attracts attention. The concentration on the photography also distracts me, unlike my photojournalism work, where I’m necessarily much more aware of my environment.

One thing I already knew is that model photography is as much about giving the models good directions as it is about photographic skill. This shoot confirmed for me that I suck at directing a model. I’m too busy taking pictures, I don’t know what I want, and…well…it just feels funny telling a young lady how to pose sexy for me.

(There’s a whole sub-breed of model photographers, derisively called GWC’s for Guy-With-Camera, who live for nothing else. They’re not in it for the pictures, they’re in it because they want pretty girls to act sexy for them. The camera is just an excuse.)

Another thing I learned is that operating a camera is hard when you’re out of practice. I haven’t been taking as many photos as I’d like to, lately. Even when I get to take pictures, they’re usually photojournalistic, meaning I just point the camera and shoot. The subject is more important than the technique.

On the model shoot, I ended up out of my normal auto-exposure modes a lot, and it was trickier than I remembered. I was worried about stuff like lighting ratios that I haven’t had to bother with lately. I need more practice.

I’ll post more about the shoot when I’ve had time to look over the pictures. It might be a while.