Self Love Photo sEssion: Paul

Jun 1

Happy Pride Month! I wanted to open up this year’s Pride with a special self love photoshoot with my client Paul. For his 30th birthday, Paul commissioned me to create portraits of him that honored his journey in life. He wanted images that celebrated self love, his queerness and his professional accomplishments. Paul works in Higher Ed and recently started a position at a new university.

Paul let me take control as far as the creative direction went. Since this was a custom portrait session, I was able to try out a few different lighting setups for Paul and we shot multiple outfits. I wanted to create classic portraits that Paul could use professionally and also some fashion-inspired shots that captured this moment in time.

For my custom portrait sessions, I build the shoot based on my client’s personal style, vision and of course any inspiration that they bring to me. I like to tell all of my clients to look through my portfolio both on this website, and my beauty photography website. This way, they have a good understanding of how I shoot and can know what type of style their photos would be. Of course, I love to draw inspiration from other artists and works of art, but I’m not a copy machine, so I have my own visual aesthetic.

Paul and I had a pre-shoot call the week before the shoot where he showed me some outfits and we talked about how his photoshoot would go and what he needed to bring. Since Paul was really open to my vision, I let him know that I’d base the lighting and backdrops around the outfits we chose. I like to begin my shoots doing the clean and neutral photos first. Then, as we get warmed up, I can build on lighting, change backdrops and make more dramatic choices. I also make sure to work in succession that logistically works. Whether that is due to lighting & set, makeup/hair changes or even just outfits, there’s always a plan in my mind.

Some clients just want me to take full control and tell them what looks best. I do love to have a collaborative session, but taking the lead really allows me to get creative and photograph my subjects in how I see their beauty. For my own creative process, I like to have a basic structure and then fill in the details as I see fit. Not only do I take on the role of Photographer, but I almost always assume the role of Art Director on my portrait shoots.

I had a ton of fun with Paul - he ended up selecting these images and we both couldn’t be happier with how they turned out. I loved how Paul was fearless throughout the shoot, he moved so well and gave me a lot of confidence in front of the camera. I could tell that Paul had really worked on himself to get to this point and it was beautiful to witness!