Memoirs of Steph

Do Not Delete

Added 2022-03-15 21:04:21 +0000 UTC

I was just starting out in strobe photography years ago. I was planning several shoots with Steph with the idea of building a fashion portfolio to pitch to local dress designers since I was coving several fashion events as a staff photographer. The position was unpaid but allowed me to meet several potential clients, some of which I secured and still work with today. This particular shoot, I ordered a dress, hoping it would fit Steph, which it did. My idea was to capture motion, using strobe. I wanted to highlight the color of the dress with her porcelain skin.

These photos are admittedly bad on my end... I am almost hesitant to present these. In fact I did not use a single one of these photos from this shoot to share with designers. Steph was amazing and pretty as always but I was frustrated with my technical and directing abilities, so put the gallery aside on my hard drive not to open it again for years...

One thing I never do is delete any of my personal work. After a client project is finished I usually hang on to the raw footage or photos then delete after 30-45 days. For personal projects I made a rule never to delete. Looking back on past work is inspiration alone, even if it is really bad work. I came across this gallery recently, and rather than look at it as a project to pitch to designers, I looked at it as a fun creative shoot capturing Steph in a pretty dress. While technically the photos are really bad, I like her playfulness. This is another example of when mistakes turn into fun or useable photos. I remember getting kinda upset when she jumped up and her dress flew up revealing everything. I figured she was not taking the shoot seriously. But looking back, I should of just relaxed, enjoyed her creative drive. The shoot was a bust, but the mistake photo turned out to be the best shot in my opinion, had I just framed it right it may of been worthy to put in the archives.