Here’s another thing that a lot of people don’t think about when it comes to modeling: timing. Sometimes it’s a bit of luck combined with skill. The photographer catches the perfect expression just before a laugh or a smile, or during, or right after, or catches a beautiful moment of reflection after being asked a question.
The other part is is just as tricky, and involves luck too.
On-location shoots are a blast, but the weather can create serious problems. It may be too sunny. (Yes, that’s a thing.) It may be raining. Or, if you’re crazy like us, you try to time a shoot when the cherry and apple blossoms are open.
You’d think that all it would take is for the trees to bloom, you call everyone up, and everyone meets by the nearest cherry tree. Well, that’s not how a photo shoots work. You need to work around everyone’s schedule, which means picking a day in advance, usually a month or more in advance. Also, not just any tree will do. For example, you need a $250 license to shoot commercial images at Portland’s beautiful waterfront park where you can find a long line of young cherry trees. Will they be blooming the day you pick?
Well, you may think, look on the calendar and find out when the trees will bloom!
Except, cherry trees don’t bloom at the same time every year. It depends on the weather, and internal things that go on invisibly within the trees that carry over from the year before. Additionally, cherry blossoms are very delicate. You may luck out and think that you picked the perfect day, only to show up and find that they were destroyed by a heavy rain the night before and all the petals are now on the ground, sopping wet and crushed underfoot. Or, it may be that the light isn’t good that day, or all the cherry blossoms are higher up than you expected, or that no matter what angle you shoot at it’s clear that it’s an urban setting and you were hoping for a country feel, etc. The photographer doesn’t always have time to scope out the site the day before, or even if they do, it may not be practical if the site is hours away. Often times the first look everyone has of a place, aside from photos online or a description from someone close by that’s scouting the area for you, is the morning of the shoot. At that point you just have to do the best that you can with what you have.
Case in point: the snow queen shoot. After five months of planning and the rental of a cabin, we were all on the edges of our seat as to whether the snow-line would be low enough. The backup plan was to drive up the mountain until we found snow, hopefully in a pretty area in the woods that was on public lands and didn’t require a commercial license. Then, I got ill. As in sick for a whole month ill. Thankfully I wasn’t the only model, but still…five months of planning, ordering a special costume, special arrows, etc. I was crushed. I finally decided I was well enough to attend two days before the shoot, but not for the whole weekend. I would day trip it.
So I arrived and it was raining on all that beautiful snow. Everyone was cold and damp, but the cabin was right there and so everyone was able to warm up between takes. By the time I got into costume and makeup, weirdly, it had begun to snow! And not just a little. The kind that actually shows up on film. It was a tiny miracle. So we got lucky there. Also, the wind picked up, which did nice things for the costume.
However, it wasn’t long before we started to ‘lose my hair’. There’s the sexy damp hair, there’s the flowing waves with snow in it, and then there’s the damp, windy conditions that make hair like mine poof back into the eighties when teasing and hairspray were all the rage. Thankfully we got the shot before that happened. Another model with incredible hair (he and I definitely need to do some shots together) was fighting the wild person in the woods for six months look as well. He ended up taking a straightening iron to his. I would have too, but we were running out of light. If I’d taken the time, by the time my hair was straightened it would have been too dark.
So there you have it! Timing, timing, timing is just as important as location, location, location when it comes to shooting on-location. Wish us luck for the cherry blossoms! Unlike roses, which start blooming in June and don’t quit until long after the first frost, these ephemeral beauties are here and gone in a blink. It looked like we booked right on time, but the cold weather hasn’t let up so now I fear it’s too early. But the latest forecasts show a huge bump in temperature, as in going from the 30’s daytime highs in the fifties! That will really encourage the cherry trees to bloom. But everything doesn’t ride on the cherry trees. We would be very foolish to book a shoot so dependent on something so ephemeral. And so we’re going to have the shoot here at my farm, with the star attraction being our beautiful baby goat, Brigid (goddess of fire and healing.)
I hope you’re enjoying these behind-the-scenes posts. Next time, I hope to have some behind-the-scenes images of the Goat Farm shoot. Catch you later!