Personified
2021 was an amazing year of growth for me. Growth in some relationships, my understanding of my strengths in my creative process, and being honest with areas I need to improve. 2021 was all about
“how would I handle it if I was thrown into that situation?”
Am I ready to pitch for bigger jobs? Am I ready to give good direction and build teams that lead to success? Would a client trust me with a vision and execution? My dream is to do jobs on the big stage, working for brands and people I love and care about. I hate to use the word “dream” because its the easiest way for me to get my hopes up when things don’t work out. Working, keeping my head down is the only thing that helps me maintain sanity… Hence the WORK after TFV. TFV.WORK is my symbol for hustle and creativity. My life fulfilled thru reality, not dreams. Every project I learn so much not only about myself, but about technical things, people, all of it. Preparation and timing is so key, I dont want to miss my chance when I do get tapped and its my turn to show what I can do. It’s only 1 chance for a first impression.
It’s quite poetic, that the last shoot of 2021 I do is with the same team that my first shoot of 2021 was with. I love these people so much. Hanna and Tori are both amazing human beings and talented people that I only always hope the best for. A few months ago I hired an assistant Jinnah and she’s been an amazing partner in crime.
This last shoot of 2021 was actually inspired by Jinnah. Hearing her story and listening to her journey, past work experiences, her struggles with her art and creative vision, her self confidence, family drama, her own self-perception, all of this encompassing was the inspiration behind the theme of this last shoot we did. Halfway thru the editing, however, I chickened out of sharing the full concept on IG because I couldn’t find a way to really break down what I was feeling in a simple, palatable way that would help you fully understand, and my own insecurity of the concept being too basic and not creative enough. Either way, the photos turned out fucking magical so here we are… on my blog
The original name of the shoot was titled “mood shadow”. This was more just a name for the lighting inspo. The concept was later changed to “Breaking out of my shell”. Really basic naming convention, but descriptive of our potential goal in what we are trying to achieve with the look. These are words taken directly from the email I sent Tori, Hanna and Jinnah:
I bought a very large plastic sheet from home depot. It's translucent, and very long. The first shot I wanted to wrap Hanna in the plastic sheet and turn it into a dress. We often internalize what oppresses us and dress it up. Make it fit within our life and we try to make it look as pretty as possible. I wanted to try and make it look like a long flowy evening gown, but with hard, high contrast light.
Inspo from mood board. Photographer, model unknown. Grabbed this off Pinterest.
Our execution:
Lighting scheme:
-2 lights behind white V-Flats for background.
-Fill light is large umbrella at a 45 degree angle on left of camera.
-Key light is small 7” reflector with grid (forgot what degree) right next to large fill source.
-For the black background shots, we turned off the background lights.
Jinnah did all of the styling of the plastic dress. I had no intention of stylizing a “gown”, my idea was to just wrap the plastic sheet around Hanna and to have her work it while I shot away.
Tori wanted to do a black eye shadow and tie her hair up. Hanna has really unique clavicle bone structure and I like to show them in photographs.
I wanted to give notice to the AMBUSH duck boots Hanna is wearing. Shout out to Yoon Ahn, Korean-American designer.
The story continues. More exerts from my email with the team:
As we tell more of the story we see Hanna start to change form and have the "Shell" take over more of the body. It starts to cover her as she furthers her journey into more self discovery. She is facing what is holding her back.
Inspo, photographer model unknown. grabbed from Pinterest.
Inspo, photographer model unknown. grabbed from Pinterest.
Inspo, photographer model unknown. grabbed from Pinterest.
Our execution:
Lighting scheme:
-2 lights behind white V-Flats for background.
-Fill light is large umbrella at a 45 degree angle on left of camera.
-Key light is small 7” reflector with grid (forgot what degree) right next to large fill source.
-For the black background shots, we turned off the background lights.
More email exerts:
The next phase is becoming self aware of what is holding her back so she begins to retaliate and try to break free from the shell.
This was the first image I saw that lead all the creative behind the shoot. Photographer and model unknown. Snagged off Pinterest.
Photographer, model unknown, snagged off Pinterest for inspo.
Our execution:
Lighting scheme:
-2 lights behind white V-Flats for background.
-Key light is small 7” reflector with grid (forgot what degree).
I feel like the above could have been executed better. Make-up was getting everywhere and the lighting isn’t exactly where I wanted it to be. Rather than go for the soft silhouette like lighting from the inspo I tried to do the opposite and go for hard flash. The more I look at our results the more I wish I went for a soft light setup for this shot. I like what we did, but I do think it could be more refined. I wish I had set up this scene to be more of a mystery rather than it being so blatant. This is no knock on Hanna, Tori, and Jinnah. They crushed it. Granted, when the images were coming in we were all feeling it at the time… these are more my after-thoughts.
Final exert from our emails:
After a tough battle and intense introspection, our heroine emerges from the battle broken, but optimistic. This part of the story will be expressed with makeup that is smudged, looking like she has been crying.
Inspo. photographer and model unknown. snagged off Pinterest.
Inspo. photographer and model unknown. snagged off Pinterest.
Our execution:
Lighting scheme:
-Large umbrella.
These last images are prob my fave from the whole project. I love how Tori did the makeup and hair. I love how Hanna really help capture the essence of what we were trying to convey.
There are a million different ways to light things, shoot things, process things. Lots of my fear is my peers catching something I did not see or doing something unoriginal. The concept that inspired this whole shoot is subject matter that has been touched on a million times over. Something we all fight every day is ourselves. Some more blatant than others. Much of what is said thru these images are things that have been expressed creatively before…. but should all of that stop the execution? Should it stop me from sharing my thoughts? Truthfully it was a lot of these fears that almost held me back from sharing this project with people. The basic concepts, are these images really popping out of the screen when you look at them? Fears that most people have when sharing their work.
This is the final layout as I presented it on my IG:
I thought of the name “WRAPPED” for this series because… I thought it was cheeky and more fun than this whole long drawn out thought. 2021 was an amazing year for me. So much learning… so much growth. Excited to get back into the lab.
My love to you Hanna and Tori. Thank you for standing by me and giving me motivation when I needed it most. Thank you to Jinnah for pushing me to write this blog and for sharing the concept. Thank you to my wife Jennifer for always having my back in EVERYTHING I do.
