Well, the slideshow from this shoot has been up for a little while, but I suppose I should tell you more about it. This shoot was pretty cool for a number of reasons, but the most important one was that I had a makeup artist “on set” for the first time. Now, I mentioned shooting with significant others or friends (or bodyguards?) on set and how that can be very distracting and ultimately negatively impact the results.

By contrast, having a makeup artist on set is pretty much the opposite. The first thing, and the most obvious, is that the models look absolutely stunning. And that’s not to say they don’t anyway, but a makeup artist (a good one at least) understands the way light works and how colors and shades affect the look. Amy, my MUA (industry abbreviation), was definitely in this category. She did an incredible job with Saron, setting an overall mood and making my job in the editing room absolutely painless.

So the concept here was to first shoot a sort of classic look (above), and then move into something with a little more punk/grunge feel. Again, the usefulness of having Amy around was immeasurable. Throughout the shoot she hung out and kept an eye on things like stray hairs (called fly-aways apparently) and things like being sure the makeup stayed even. With her eye on that, it left me free to just shoot away.

TIP: If you can get a makeup artist to help you with your shoot, do it. Much like the work of models and photographers, makeup artists need to have a great portfolio too. That means you can work for trade with some great talent. That being said, they are bringing product into it, which means their costs are much more than simply time. For this reason, if you’re shooting for trade with a makeup artist, be sure to get plenty of shots that feature the work they do (even if you don’t want them for your own portfolio). And, of course, be prompt in getting them images.

This shoot also gave me some pretty cool perspective about location. I ended up shooting under the Morrison Bridge in Southeast Portland, a location I had previously shot a couple times. What I found at this point was that no matter how many times you shoot at one place, you can always find a way to make it look different. That may sounds obvious to some, or dumb to others, but the point is, keep looking at the same place in different ways and you’ll find yourself making amazingly interesting photographs. In fact, it sort of forces you to. No one wants to have the same shot as someone else, do they?