Hello! Yesterday, my boyfriend Dan and I were doing a photo shoot for some new vintage that I will be adding to the Whimsberry Etsy Store. As I was going through the mass amount of new photos to delete the bad ones, I realized that this is a topic that should be discussed more in detail.
The good vs the bad photos.
For any of you lovely readers that do not know me, I am a fashion designer and I own a small business, Whimsberry. I am the CEO, the designer, the seamstress, one of the models, and occasionally the operator of the self timed camera on my phone. Yay, entrepreneurship! Don't laugh, I love it. What this means is that I take a LOT of photographs. My phone currently has over 25,000 on it, yikes!
When doing a photoshoot, I like to take a lot of photos. The more photos you have, the more you have to work with. There will be a lot of awkward, blurry, bad expression, weird angle photos that you are going to see after a shoot, especially if you are taking them with a self timer. The more photos you take, the more likely you are going to get that one perfect photo that makes the whole session worth it. The one you are proud of, you know, the one you immediately text to your best friend! So be overly camera happy, it will work out for you better in the long run.
Also on this same page is the reality of bad photo days. If you are getting into modeling, or just taking selfies for your Instagram, you are going to have bad days. Modeling and photography are like every other day of your life. Sometimes great, sometimes not quite so great. You may find that in one photoshoot that the light is perfect, you are smiling perfectly in every shot, and your legs look simply amazing (wow!). The next week, you may work on a day that you didn't eat enough lunch, drank too much coffee, or maybe you are just having an off day. Those days it can be frustrating. You may feel anxious, overwhelmed, or distracted. Your body might not want to find those perfect poses, and you might not be meshing with your photographer.
That is OK.
Read it again, that is totally ok. It happens. If you are able to step away, do it! Take a short walk or get some fresh air. Look at some cute dogs on your phone. If you are unable to step away, then try and break the tension with something humorous. Do some jumping jacks, give it a few high kicks (thanks Reeb), or just crack a joke. You may find that your new jolly state relaxes everyone and the shoot may turn around for you. Dance, spin, do a dip! Who cares, as long as it changes how you are feeling.
If it just still is not quite the best shoot that you have ever had, just know that there will be others. Other great shoots, and maybe a few not so great as well. It's all a part of the process. Just work as hard as you can with what you have that day, you might be surprised by the outcome, anyway!
So, while you are going through your photos, take a moment and laugh at the outtakes. Accept them for what they are, a part of a bigger process. You will learn from each shoot. Take it easy on yourself, we are all human after all.
I hope you enjoyed the silly photos throughout this post, and that it made you feel that we are all in this together. Cheers to all of our upcoming great photo days!
-Miss. Whimsberry