13 Mar Portrait Session with Wesley
There are some people you vibe with right away. You know the shoot will be awesome ahead of time and that you and the client will nail their desired shots. This was how I felt when I started setting up a shoot for Wesley. Wesley reached out to have a shoot done to showcase his amazing Asian inspired tattoos and his physique. He was very organized and prepared for the shoot. He knew exactly what he wanted and did his research ahead of time. He had a bunch of inspiration portraits ready and from them I knew exactly what to do. His inspiration portraits were amazing! I was super exacted to do this shoot.
His inspiration was a variation from naturally lit portraits and studio. In cases like this, I always start with natural light portraits. The reason for this is simple, I can take the studio portraits at any time but natural light has to be when the sun is shining. We work around the sun’s time frame, not the other way around. We started mid day so the light was perfect when he arrived.
As you can see, Wesley is very handsome. He was initially worried when looking at my website because I have a lot of models on my page. He doesn’t have the experience as professional models with being in front of the camera. I reassured him we can make equally as awesome portraits of him and he didn’t need to be a model. I said this before knowing what he looked like. It wasn’t until I showed him the back of them camera that he felt he could believe me. It is a photographer’s job to get the portraits that the client desires. We are responsible for posing, framing and getting the expression from our subject. Models may get to the pose quicker than a non-model but with a little work anyone can get great shots. Wesley was actually a natural. He did great at following directions and was a lot of fun to work with. I find if the client is excited for their portraits and about the experience everything will fall into place. Attitude is everything.
Wesley had a great variety of wardrobe options which is always amazing. More clothing brought to the shoot the better. There are times when an outfit that you love doesn’t photograph well and you need to try something else. The portraits that Wesley desired wasn’t really focused on the clothing but he did bring a great selection of clothing that matched the look he wanted. I was impressed.
Wesley did an great job with expression. The two photos above are all about attitude and he really nailed the shots. You honestly wouldn’t know that this was his first photoshoot ever. When he received the photos he said “Wow they look even better than I imagined!”. There aren’t better words to hear as a photographer than that. I am so happy he trusted me to do his portraits.
I really enjoyed my session with Wesley. He is a great person and the camera loves him. He is moving Toronto to be a firefighter. I wish him all the best in his future endeavours.
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