What a morning of creativity. I’m getting better about taking the extra time to document and share it all. That’s been a hole in my game over the years, but now, with this pandemic and so much uncertainty about when I’ll ever able able to travel and shoot like I used to, I have to accept that this is all part of my job now. The silver lining is certainly that I will have footage like this, not just for all of you, but for myself. It’ll be so cool to look back on in 10 or 20 years, remember that I not only survived a global pandemic, but thrived.
I’ve been seeing some photographers do these distance shoots, or FaceTime shoots. The premise is, you do a FaceTime call with a model, you direct them however you want, then you take stills or screenshots when you see something you like. I found a lot of problems with this approach and began working on a solution. One of the biggest issues is just lack of raw data and image quality. If on the rare chance you get an outstanding shot, you’d never be able to print it with any respectable quality.
It took a few weeks, but I landed on this. Set up a big shrine in the Kommienezuspadt style; skulls, brass, candles, dead flowers and all the things I like. A one hundred year old antique picture frame. A HDMI adapter from my phone to a projector, and then throw the FaceTime call to the center of the picture frame. Once the image was placed, use my actual Nikon D750 to photograph the entire scene. This way, I get raw data and high resolution mages. I have to say, it worked out great during my first shoot this morning with a beautiful, curvy pinup named Katherine from Sarajevo.
I worked the problems of this out in my mind for weeks before I scheduled the first shoot, and I'm glad I did. A few hang ups, but overall, it went smoothly. I posted the work on my Instagram account and booked 10 more in two hours! I’m happy to create more content like this, and talk about philosophies as a creative professional, staying inspired and staying relevant during situations like the one we’re stuck in right now. As freelancers, its very much up to us to make our own opportunities. Thanks so much for staying with me. Enjoy the work!
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