Photoshoot RECAP: Melissa (pt-1)
Posted under: Well this was really my first pet project photoshoot. I came up with the concept/idea for the shoot a few weeks back. After a whole night of photo processing, I was laying in bed with my camera going through all the photos. As my camera didn’t have autorotate on, some of the images came up in the wrong orientation and something clicked. “If i have the model laying on the ground…and then I rotate the photo…it could just look like the model was lying against the wall!”
A simple concept but things snowballed…I can play with gravity and make it look as if the model had wind blowing in her face with her hair flying behind her and other concepts. All these ideas started pouring in at 4am, and as excited as a little boy on Christmas morning, I started blasting emails to all the hairstylists, MUAs, designers and models, hoping they will understand my whacky idea and play along.
Fortunately, Melissa (model), Sherritta (hairstylist), Salsabil (MUA), Natasha (Stylist) and Diallo (Designer) all got on board for this idea and the location was the wonderful alley just outside the DC Photo Coop studio. Hit the link to read more about the shoot and see photos.
The shot above best conveys the vertical walking up the wall idea I had. Melissa is actually sitting on the ground (bricks) with her feet and hands on the wall (corrugated metal). The idea was that she will be in a bit of a olympic runner start position with her hair blown back because of gravity.
As with my luck, the day of the shoot turned out to be fantastically freezing. Poor Melissa had to wear such skimpy outfits which I doubt provided any warmth since most parts were essentially thin silk. Furthermore she had to sit on hard brick ground and put her hands on cold metal. I can’t wait for the weather to get warmer so that it will make life easier for everyone.
Sherritta did an amazing hairstyle. I think I initially described the hairstyle I wanted as a cross between Princess Leah bob(yes, star wars) and a long flowing braid. And Sherritta came up with something fantastic. I watched her working through the hair adding so many different pins and clips…I’m simply speechless.
It was my first time working with Salsabil, who’s an experienced MAC artist. She did a phenomenal job creating flawless skin and subtle yet powerful eyes. Love it.
Needless to say, this was my second time working with Natasha and her choice of earrings really made the above headshot pop. I love the colours!
This is actually just the first outfit from the shoot. There is a second outfit which I’ll start processing soon.
For those of you interested in the lighting setup, here is a photo of the actual setup.
I used two softboxes and one blue gelled grid (in the back). I was taking the photo near the softbox on the ground. Melissa was sitting on the towel.
More to come. watch this space once again.
these turned out great! that last picture with the actual set up makes it even better! Nice collaborations on this one bo!
The last shot is really beautiful Bo. Love the gravity concept too, the first shot really blows my mind!
You’re the bomb!
Amazing! Such a nice idea^
OMG! it all turned out well…. it was a pleasure working with you! I really wish you the best, and cant wait to see the whole story line
Great job, keep dreaming…
omg I love how those ones turned out!! Can’t wait to see the rest!! and as soon as I get a model mayhem, tag me!!
[...] up and she did an amazing job once again. I had worked with Salsa on the shoots with Melissa (part 1, part 2, part 3). [...]
[...] idea of climbing up the wall. The idea worked rather well in my opinion with Melissa in the first outfit. As we changed to the second outfit…a few things didn’t work as well, as the new wall [...]