Different Approach :: Lyssa Roberts
Posted on February 22 2019
Once you develop a creative process it is very easily to get stuck in your ways. Especially when you feel you have achieved results that you are happy with time and time again. You can develop a "why rock the boat mentality". But you may come to a point where harboring this creative routine might hold you back from reaching different results. I mean that is if you are looking to push yourself.
For years when I did photo shoots with people I loved the thrill of not really having too much planned and coming up on the spot with how to interpret the setting to make photographs. I would ask the model to bring wardrobe that she was inspired to shoot in while I would pick a location that I thought had enough backdrops for us. Once there we would finalize everything.... and that seemed to do o.k. for me.
Over the past few years though I have pushed myself to evolve my photography from all points, especially my shoots with women models. I wanted to have a different kind of fulfillment when making these photo sets.
Which brings me to the set below. A few weeks ago I was tagged by someone in one of Lyssa Roberts photos suggesting that she and I get together to shoot. After looking through her work I had mentioned I would be game. I was surprised when she messaged me being that I didn't think she would have even noticed my comment.
We started talking and planning a shoot. I broke down my approach to making photos to her (no inspo photos, no mood board, etc). She kindly expressed back that she prefers to have some kind of idea of what we would be doing. She also mentioned a store that we could meet up at and pull various wardrobe from for our shoot. Realizing you can't change the end goal of a creative process unless you change how you approach it I gladly agreed to meet her there and pull a few things.
While I still didn't run with any mood board type of stuff I merely grabbed clothing that she felt good in and would be inspired to shoot as well as stuff that would excite me to make photographs.
I am a big fan of vintage clothing. More so due to the structure and the lines of it. Adding another layer to work with when photographing models. After getting our wardrobe situated I was able to book a location that could fit it. While it has been a few years since I shot at the Standard hotel in Hollywood I thought their midcentury vibe would go well with what we picked out.
The set below was the first one from our shoot. I worked with a few cameras for this. My Leica Q-P, M9 Monochrom, MP with color film and my M6 with some black and white. I realize that I have not really been mixing too many black & white and color photos in my set but I felt they all worked well together for this one.
In the end I felt that changing up my initial approach to how I shoot generated some end results that I am beyond happy with. So while you may feel like your way is the only way to do things, don't expect to end up somewhere different if you keep walking the same path. Hope you enjoy the photos.
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