I belong to a photographers’ group called “We Are The Seen” that challenges my photography skills with monthly concept shoots.
These conceptual photo shoots give us one general theme or photography skill challenge. We take that idea, brainstorm themes or stories, and then plan and organize at least one photoshoot. We submit at least 10 images for our portfolio to be judged nationally; one image we submit for critique. Seems easy enough, right?
We conceptualize the end product, although very often we end up with something much better. In the process, I expand my photography skills, creative thinking, and planning processes, while my models work together with me & my team in that creative process. My models use their talents and personality to bring the images to life, and have fun while working at something challenging. They learn some of the technique behind the photo shoots, as well as, makeup, hair, costumes, prop building, and some good ole’ fashion team building.
The challenge for each concept shoot is to come up with a theme and creative way to tell a story. The best photo shoots are the ones that the models help me in planning and executing the shoots, and writing the “story.”
Below you’ll find a couple of images submitted in the monthly contests for We Are The SEEN from our past concept shooting challenges along with the stories and/or quotes that inspired us to capture these particular moments.
Concept: Shooting with One Light
“Not all who wander are lost.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien
Hair: Letty Sunderman (@lettysunderman)
Makeup: Alda Tomasic (@the_makeup_story)
Our challenge was to shoot with only One Light source. We used the Jeep’s lights–the light bar and headlights for our exposure. We ended up with three different storylines, and three stories that worked well together, about being lost and finding yourself.
To see more about the ideas and technical aspects that went into this shoot check out my next blog! To see the winning submissions for this challenge, click here.
Concept: Shooting at Night
“I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality.”
~ Frida Kahlo
Living in Las Vegas we have a lot of night life, I wanted to represent our town with the iconic neon lights and dark alleys. Our shooting challenge was doing a photo shoot after the sun had set, which challenges photographers all the time, especially in the winter!
Hair: Letty Sunderman (@lettysunderman)
Makeup: Alda Tomasic (@the_makeup_story)
Concept: Seven Deadly Sins
“Seven deadly sins,
seven ways to win,
seven holy paths to hell,
and your trip begins
Seven downward slopes
seven bloodied hopes
seven are your burning fires,
seven your desires…”
~ Iron Maiden
The 7 Deadly Sins are: pride, envy, wrath, gluttony, lust, sloth, and greed. In our entire portfolio of images for this shoot, we described the mythological way that the 7 Deadly Sins entered the world. How the sins came out of a crack in the earth’s crust from the center of the earth to “contaminate” the world with each of those sins.
The challenge for this shoot was to photograph using “the rule of thirds.” I used both the vertical and horizontal thirds – sometimes both in each image. Check out a more technical explanation, purpose, and extra challenges of this shoot in one of my upcoming blogs!
Hair: Para Pouridis (@pouridis5)
Makeup: Kasey Chaftez (@kasey_chaftez)
Concept: Vintage Carwash
“ScrubaDub. A great car wash!”
Vintage Carwash theme to capture water at it’s most fun with some vintage bathing suits from Retro Vegas, and others, new from Target! Since it was 110 degrees that day, this photoshoot cooled us all off a bit.
I love how our story unfolded: a young driver brings his car to the carwash, only to find girls there raising money for a cause. So he hands over his black baby Mustang for a good scrub–only to come back to discover that they were fighting over the suds.
Our shooting challenge was to shoot with water (and not ruin our equipment in the process).
To see the winning submissions, click here.
Hair: Kristi D’Arrigo (@kristi.ann.darrigo)
Vintage Mustang: Donnelly Family
Vintage 1948 Jeep: Christiansen Family
Concept: Using Lines and Patterns
“In the dark there is some light, and in the wrong, there is some right.”
In the studio, we used paper that we cut into stripes or circles and shot light through those with strobes to create the lines and circled patterns. It was much more difficult than I originally thought, but what artistic project isn’t? The idea was to create something moody with the lighting patterns and the black and white edits.
Hair: Kristi D’Arrigo (@kristi.ann.darrigo)
Makeup: Kristi D’Arrigo/Aimee Apalategui (@aimeeapalategui)
Concept: Reflections
“Mirror, Mirror on my wall,
I want to be pretty, thin, and tall.
Mirror, Mirror if I can change my hair,
Maybe will someone start to care?
Mirror, Mirror if I starve myself,
At least I’ll be beautiful, forget my health.
Mirror, Mirror if I cut my wrist,
will I feel like I exist?”
“WARNING: Reflections in this mirror may be distorted by socially constructed ideas of ‘beauty’.”
“Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”
The challenge for this shoot was to shoot using reflections of any type–literal or figuratively, or both.
If you’ve ever taken a mirror selfie, you’ll understand the challenges of shooting into a mirror without getting yourself in the background!
The models wrote their own stories for the concept, and together we thought of creative ways to show that story.
We chose mirrors to show the pain and confidence issues that many teens today face inside themselves. We hope to bring awareness to the simple fact that YOU are beautiful!
We submitted all three stories independently of each other, and out of 12 winners that month, we earned three of those spots! See the winning entries here on the MasterSeries website.
Hair, Costumes, & Storylines: The Models
Makeup: Aimee Apalategui
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