Brace yourself... this is a long one:
Let me start by saying that I will happily shoot either, or both, of these girls again. They're both beautiful, and easy to work with, yada, yada, yada—but boy, let me tell you: I would love to have a do-over of this day!
We were originally scheduled to shoot on a Thursday, and the shoot got bumped until the following weekend; that's fine, rescheduling happens. We were going to be shooting both girls in Sarah's apartment, so I was especially willing to be flexible in this case. (Natalie lives in Arlington, and Sarah is in Dallas, so I was very happy to have a fairly close location to shoot them both.)
Originally we were going to start around 1:00 and shoot for 3-4 hours (because there were two girls, and my shoots generally run 1 1/2 - 2 hours), but they asked if we could start around noon and try to end by 2:00. Well, that was cutting it too close to my 2 yr old's naptime, and this was a TF shoot, so I said I'd be there as close to 12:30 as I could, but I couldn't promise any sooner. They were fine with that.
I confirmed the new shoot date and time a few days before the shoot. The morning of, Natalie emailed me to confirm that we were still on. Half an hour later, she emailed again, saying, "if it's closer to one, that will be ok... wink wink." Works out for me, because of nap time and all, so I don't mind that they're running a bit behind. I told her I would call when I left the house, so they'd know more exactly when to expect me.
I called when I left the house, around 12:40, and got Natalie's voicemail: I left a message saying, "I'm on my way! See you in about 25 minutes!" I assumed they were getting ready, and had loud music on or something, so I didn't really think anything of it.
Rather than calling me back, she sent me an email—which there was no way for me to read, since I was, as she knew, driving to Dallas at the time—asking me if it would be a problem for us to start around 2:00, instead.
Since I obviously didn't get her email, I continued driving to the apartment. When I got there, I called both girls, getting no answer, and finally texted Natalie to find out which apartment to go to.
She replied with an apology, telling me it was probably going to be another 30-40 minutes. Apparently, they had run out of gas in Arlington, and were waiting for roadside assistance to come help.
When they arrived, an hour later, neither girl was ready. It took almost 45 minutes for them to do hair and makeup, so we didn't actually start shooting until almost 3:00.
Also, Natalie wasn't able to get a sitter, so her five-yr-old son was there as well. (To be fair, she DID warn me, a few days in advance, that she might not be able to find a sitter; I told her Sarah could watch him after I was finished with her, and figured that would be okay. However, instead of shooting them back-to-back, as planned, I ended up alternating them to save time. It was rushed, and not fun.)
I did not start this shoot in a good frame of mind, and I know that colored my vision, and kept me from shooting as well as I could have.
As long as I'm being honest here, I have to say that if/when I shoot either of them again, I'll either do their makeup myself, or make sure we have a makeup artist.
We finally wrapped things up around 5:00, I think, and I got home just in time to help with dinner. I didn't get nearly as many good shots as I wanted—again, probably mostly because I wasn't in the right frame of mind—but I got a few that, for me, made it worth all the hassle.
The pluses:
- They had plenty of outfits to choose from: an entire laundry basket filled with pretty lingerie.
- there was lots of gorgeous light coming in the big windows in the living room
- LOVED the red couch
- both girls were friendly, and fairly peppy; they seemed to be enjoying themselves, which always helps.
- Natalie's son occupied himself, in another room, with a handheld video game (and Sarah's dogs, who were in a crate)
- Both girls were beautiful, and posed nicely; they both took direction well.
My faves:
Final Note:
I would NOT shoot these two together again. In fact, I don't think I want to shoot two people together again, period, unless it's a shoot where they're posing together.
A little explanation: I've worked with Natalie before, and I was very surprised at how insecure she seemed on the day of this shoot. Turns out that she has decided to get her nose 'fixed,' and that, coupled with having her friend there (who she obviously feels is prettier than she is), made her very unsure of herself. She still managed to pose well, and I got some good shots, but I KNOW I would have done better with her on her own, because I've done it already.
Also, I discovered that it's harder for me to connect with the model when I'm having to switch my focus away from her to try to connect with someone else, and then try to switch it back again. That's actually very consistent with my personality, so it shouldn't have surprised me as much as it did.
Lesson learned....
