I’ve been known as a wedding photographer for going on 14 years. It’s my thing. I love shooting weddings, and I feel like I’ve picked up a few skills here and there. But I always find it a little funny when people are surprised when I do a studio shoot.
Actually, when I started out doing photography, that’s sort of what I wanted to be… a studio photographer. Every photographer dreams of having a commercial studio that has a steady stream of clients booked for everything from modeling assignments, headshots, and family portraits. Then reality sets in, and you realize it takes a long time to build up a reputation as a studio artist, and even more time to get to that point where you’re booked solid for the next few months.
So, I ended up doing weddings… but it doesn’t mean that I forgot how to do studio lighting for a commercial shoot. I still enjoy it, and recently I had a chance to be creative. The motorcycle club that I belong to is planning a group ride in September 2021 through an area of the Hill Country that is known as the 3 Sisters, or the “Three Twisted Sisters”. So I’m in charge of the advertising for this event, flyers, online presence, and maybe even t-shirt designs.
I didn’t want to describe it as the 3 ‘twisted’ sisters… too confusing with that stupid 80’s band, which is another story. So I would do a photo shoot for the 3 Sisters. I wanted models that knew what they were doing. Someone who looked good, and had the ‘biker look’.
I advertised for the photoshoot on Model Mayhem and on Facebook. I got probably 12 really good responses. It was hard narrowing down the choice for who would be the face(s) of this motorcycle event. Since I don’t have a studio, I began looking for a studio to rent for a few hours for the shoot. I found the San Antonio Professional Studios. They do everything at this studio, from boudoir, to pet portraits, to music videos. The cost is very reasonable.
On the day of the photoshoot, I was nervous. The models arrived and looked great. I couldn’t have gotten any more of the perfect look than I did with these three girls. The girls signed model releases, and I explained that I don’t do this full time, so have patience with me. It went smooth as silk and I knew I had some great images.
When it was all over, then the hard part begins… the editing. We shot on a white background because I knew that on several of the advertising bits, I’d have to make the background transparent. One of the girls had a dark tan, and another had very pale beautiful skin tones, so I added a color filter to some of the shots to even out the color tones.
