Flights Portrait - Behind the Scenes

Behind the scenes of a public photoshoot is chaos; elements of public are uncontrollable, there is no 'nice' place to do an outfit change, and it requires genuine focus from both the photographer, that's me, and the model.

Luckily enough for me, I have a dedicated model named Amber who really adapts to the surrounding elements. Between broken glass, lots of stairs, wind gusts, to cat-calls from passerby's, Amber is steadfast and prepared to go the extra mile for photos. Like this one. Boom.

But behind the scenes of it, Amber is full of laughter, witty jokes, and sarcasm that flows from her tongue. Amber has no issues hopping into the backseat of my vehicle, stripping down and baring it all to Jesus (quite literally) to get ready for the next shoot. On top of it all, when doing a public shoot and make up change is required, you have to get a little bit crafty. So either Amber does her make-up on the way to the next location or we set up a mirror in the trunk of my car that she can stand at and get ready with.

While on the Flights photoshoot, we opted to get in and out of the cities as fast as humanly possible; this meant that Amber was doing her make-up on the road. Between pot-holes, sudden stops, and random lane changes (because I may or may not have gotten a little bit lost), Amber had more to touch up than she began with. But in typical Amber fashion, she handled all of it with a smile. And maybe a little bit of sass.

Probably the funniest part about Flights shoot -in my opinion - had to be the riverbank shoot.

Amber was all dolled up in her 90's outfit (pictured right) and we strolled down under Hennepin Ave. Bridge and set up shop right on the Mississippi Riverbank.

We had just begun shooting when Amber froze up on camera and said that there was a goose behind me. While I couldn't care less, Amber does not like geese. Amber proceeded to fly up off the riverbank to safety. The goose followed. As I captured some shots of Mr. Goose, Amber talked fighting words. When Mr. Goose finally got bored with us he went on his way.

Flights was one of those photoshoots where we just had to bare the elements and laugh about it. As pictured below and to the left, Amber is laughing because a driver has pulled into the alleyway we were shooting in, and despite holding up traffic, he allowed us to continue to shoot.

At the end of the day, we walked away from Flights with some killer shots. Any time Amber and I decide to head out just the two of us and do a shoot we know we're guaranteed of a three things: good music, lots of laughter, and good photos.

Toodles 'til next time.