Once you’ve made the decision to get into modelling, the next thing to do is to get some good photographs shot.
I’ve shot a few first folio sessions for models and it’s always a fun thing to do, seeing the model go from being nervous to really enjoying themselves and relaxing into it. Especially when they begin to display a real flair for being in front of the camera as Adam did.
We ended up keeping it simple, partly because no agency wants a folio that is full of over complicated shots; it’s all about simple head-shots, some good full-lengths and that’s it. Nothing too fancy.
We met up in Asakusabashi because of the mutual convenience of railway lines from Adam’s place in Chiba and mine in Omori.
Plus, Asakusabashi has some great light, good long straight streets [for depth], some grungy backgrounds and it’s quiet and sort of out of the way. My eldest son, Joe, came along to help.
I’ve walked past a series of old railway arches with great, grungy old shuttered doors on many times. I’ve done a little ambient light shooting there with models but nothing with flash.
We started there, against a nicely textured old shutter door, with one big light into a large umbrella. Worked nice.
In nearby spots we worked a few angles in the middle of the street.
Around the rest of the neighbourhood we shot a mixture of flash setups and sets just with natural light and the big aperture lenses I’d taken with me: 135mm f/2, the 50mm f/1.2 for the Nikon and the 80mm 2.8 on the Hasselblad H4D-40.
Once done, the three of us had some food and Adam and I had a couple of pints. Nice afternoon out, some good shots. He’s a nice lad, Adam. He’s a good looking lad, too. His first application to an agency has gone in and we’ll see what comes of it.
Once the weather warms up, I’ll be aiming to get him out to do some portrait and fashion workshops with me.
Here’s a few of the shots we got.
