This photoshoot was a fashion portrait slash male modelling portfolio shoot (yes you can just book me for these). I have an outdoor location that is very versatile that I use for these photoshoots that provides everything I need. The process goes like this. Someone just like you contacts me by phone or email about doing a shoot. We have a talk about what sort of pictures are required and if we are a good match, we organise a time and the place. Then, a few days before the shoot we talk again and go over the outfits the sitter, that's the model, has put together so we can be sure we have the looks we need to get the shots we are after.
This process has been working well for me and my sitters/models/clients for years. Discussion on the phone, good weather, versatile location, great shots - perfect! Everyone happy, smiley face emoji, excellent. On the pre-shoot call, with guys, I talk quite a bit about pants. That's trousers, jeans, even shorts. I'm not joking, this is all part of the photoshoot process. The reason I do this is as I wrote above, it is to be sure we have a good mix of clothing for the shoot to get the shots we want. And... once upon a time, one of the guys I was shooting a portfolio for turned up with only one pair of pants. We still got the shots, but my day at the office was a little more difficult. So now I do tend to double down on that information before the shoot.
Now in my mind a fashion portrait, model portfolio has to be fashionable to some extent, but it's not a fashion shoot. And it's not a portrait shoot either. Especially if we are thinking model portfolios. A portfolio shoot is more of a product shoot with you, yes you as the product (because that is how fashion photography works). The new model is you.This is serious and it is important. You are important. So I shoot for fashion but I'm not shooting the fashion, it's about photographing your attributes as a fashion model, I'm photographing what makes you you in a fashion photography sense of what makes you, you.
Photographing guys is usually quite different from photographing women. There is definitely a different dynamic, different concerns, though the desired outcome is the same - a great set of pictures. On this shoot with Gary I was a little caught out by his choices of clothing - which had not been apparent during the phone discussion. He has a great sense of personal style and brought some really distinctive fashion items to the shoot like the shirt above with it's unique bamboo leaf appliqué on the shoulder. This was anything but a generic shirt for a fashion portrait slash portfolio shoot, this shirt would not be a background item. Blue jeans and a white tee-shirt are still, a perfect modelling portfolio choice, a kind of industry standard - neutral and well known, and in that outfit, your uniqueness will shine.
So for the first time in quite a long while I was a little flummoxed, this gear was more nightclubbing than garden party that was for sure. And here we were in a big Gardenesque park beside Sydney Harbour. What was I going to do?
