Cristina. One of the best i’ve worked with.
In most cases you will find that clients are hesitant to give a new, young photographer a chance. I met Cristina when i was living in Hilton Head, SC. She is a great model and also big on fitness. I’ve seen her work a lot from other photographers in the area on social media. It was only my intention to reach out to her and see if she’d be interested in doing a shoot with me. I guess if you don’t ask you will never know. I messaged her via IG and she was such a sweetheart. Not one time she question my expertise but she knew i was a young and an upcoming photographer. We decided in doing the shoot at Shelter Cove Harbor. Truth is, looking back i know for sure that i wasn’t ready but i wanted to test, experience, trial and error and have an idea of what my next step will be in the learning process. I wanted everything to be right so on the day i arrived at the location about 2 hours before, excited much. At the time i had an AD200 as flash with a flimsy light stand and a big soft box. Little did i know that with wind that thing can be a hassle. It was my first time even trying flash also.
1 hour in i was getting more comfortable and the shoot seemed fun. I must admit i struggled with the flash but it comes with the territory of stepping out and being brave enough to try it. I kept my composure. What made it easy for me was her patience, knowing i lacked a lot, kept the shoot fun, was easy to deal with and she made me feel like it was OK to make mistakes. We shot for most of the evening leading into the dark. I had never been this exciting about editing pictures. Ooops….! Now the real problem came.
Editing can be simple but being an information junkie, watching youtube and following all these dope photographers on Instagram, you can’t help but to aspire. It takes not only understand the editing software you are using but also when and how to apply techniques effectively. I was all over the place because i wanted that perfect look. I over edited everything. lol. To me it looked OK but to others who are in the industry knew it wasn’t. I had good people around who would chime in with their 2 cents sometimes and i had the support from people like Cristina who would despite how the pictures look they would still post. Trust me i am way off and still learning but if i knew then what i know now i would have done a whole lot differently. Thanks Cristinaaaaa!