Jason Tag Photography

Well, Here we are again. a new year and my first shoot for 2008 went smashingly. I must say that I don’t like it when a model has to cancel but I was able to turn it into a good thing by calling Sara and seeing if she was available.

Let me also say that the model who had to cancel did reschedule for another date. I’m not bad mouthing her nor will I say anything negative about her. I will also not reveal the circumstances of the cancellation so don’t ask. Suffice to say she is on my good side and that’s that!

On to the shoot…

Working with Sara a second time was wonderful. I really enjoyed working with her the first time and we had talked about working together again. We make such a good team and shooting with her is really easy and fun. A few times I caught myself thinking about how easy it is to photograph her.

I also felt like because I knew her, I was a little more comfortable. I was even amazed at how comfortable she was with me. I also noticed that because I knew her and knew how she moves, poses, and how she thinks, I was able to get better angles and ultimately better shots.

What I tried to work on for this shoot was the issue of manual focus and exposure settings. I felt better about my use of manual focus however I didn’t like how much it slowed down the shoot. I also felt that my exposure settings we’re better this time than on my last shoot with Sara. It didnt feel like I was constantly chasing the exposure. Once I got it for a particular shot I left it there and took a bunch of shots. Then moved, checked exposure, then shot a bunch… etc. That seemed to be a much better system than checking exposure for every time I pushed the shutter button.

A few times I wished I had a photo assistant, whether it was to hold the reflector or hand me a new memory card. I found myself fumbling around in my camera bg for cards and stuff. It just felt awkward and an assistant could have been a big help. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to hire a friend of mine to be my photo assistant soon. This is going to be a huge step for me. Because it’ll mean that I can do things that I can’t do right now and that is very exciting to think about the possibilities I am working on the concept for a shoot right now that I will definetly need an assistant for so Ill need to start looking into it.

Another thing I learned from shooting with Sara a second time was that I really like to results of my long lens. The short lens is fine but shooting with the long one offers that great depth of field effect that helps to separate the model from the background. I finally felt comfortable using the long lens and I think it’s the first time I have since I started shooting nudes. The only problem is that it puts me so far away from the model. I like giving the models feedback about the poses and the work as we shoot. It’s already difficult to talk to a model with a camera in your face, now try doing it from 30 feet away. Maybe I should invest in a shorter long lens.

This shoot did show me one thing I need to work on. I still am having a hard time asking for exactly what I want. An example is that during the shoot with Sara I saw a rock formation that was in the water and I thought it would be a great shot if she posed on it. Of course it meant that she would’ve had to climb down some rocks then cross a shallow area of water and then climb up some very sharp looking lava rock. I didn’t ask because I was afraid that she wouldn’t like the idea. Later in the shoot she brought up the idea of going out to that rock and that’s when I new my instincts were correct and I should have listened to them. I got the shots and they came out beautifully. So from now on I will listen to my instincts and go for it no matter how weird it seems.

To summarize, Sara and I had a great time and I think that this one was more fun than our last shoot. It seemed as though I was more comfortable working with models and communicating my ideas. I feel as though I’m really on to something. I think I”ll continue doing it for a while and see what happens… what do you think?