The Fabulous Ms. Tia

Woke up Sunday morning to the sound of hail hitting the bedroom window... geez, was it that cold? Good thing I was having an indoor photo shoot today with Tia. I have been following Tia's blog to see how her California trip has been going so far. She's worked with some amazing photographers and I wish I was as adventurous and creative as them. Adventurous in the sense that I could scope out scenic locations rather than work indoors in a studio with seamless paper (more about seamless paper).

The shoot wasn't until 2pm, so I had time to get my gear and set it up at the studio. Got out of the house before noon so that I had enough time to set up and pick up Tia in San Mateo. She had a shoot at 11am that morning and figured she'd be done by 1pm.... I was on road when she rang me at 12:50 to let me know that they were done. "Great - I should be there within 15 minutes," I told her. Finding the house in San Mateo wasn't too tough - thanks to my GPS. So off we went back across the bay to Newark... I figured she hadn't had lunch yet, so we stopped by Chipotle to grab something to eat.

I got to know Tia a little bit more... a very sweet, soft-spoken girl from Ohio. I was fascinated by her history, and how she had gotten into modeling. It gave me an insight and appreciation of what her life was all about. She talked about her first shoot and the circumstances that led to her meeting her boyfriend (another great photographer, btw) and then.... something she said caught me off guard. She mentioned in one of her shoots that she hated seamless paper! Great... and what do I have set up for the shoot - seamless paper!

I think that comment through me off guard..., all of a sudden my confidence as a photographer diminished. I set her up for a few head shots just to get me warmed up and figure out how I can salvage this shoot. (I think I was playing for time trying to figure out something creative to do other than seamless paper.) Next up - I tried to do something with this sheer fabric hanging from some support stands.. (it didn't work out too well). So I decided to unroll the white seamless paper and recreate this one pose that was used in one of the ad campaigns of "Oil of Olay". That series turned out really well - thanks to Tia with her poses.

This was a great learning experience from me. I was really glad that I got to work with Tia because she made my job easy. I wish I had been more prepared and had more ideas and concepts in mind for the shoot, but somehow my creative self was a no-show. Heck, maybe even my technical self was absent! But I was able to capture some good shots of Tia and that's all that mattered. So it's back to the drawing board for me.... my thanks to Tia for lending me her talent and time. I hope it wasn't a waste of her time...