London test shoot – Vitoria

Hi everyone, hope you’re doing okay! Days go on with not much going on here, since I’m not doing any personal/editorial/test work at the moment until more restrictions are lifted. But I keep myself busy as there’s always things I postponed before. I’ve been catching up with blog posts and I do have another London test shoot prepared for you.

I’m also finally working on a proper business plan and on my brand identity, which is something I never did and it seems silly now. I think I just hoped “my work would speak on its own” which is really not enough and not a good way to look at things. And the reason I’ve probably felt stuck for so long and not sure where to go next. If any of you have done this, do let me know what helped you and any tips you have.

Shooting smaller

I’ve also only been mainly doing tests and smaller shoots the last few years and not the more creative story based editorials I used to do. There were many reasons for that which I might write a separate blog post about. But I had to start small again, have no pressure and re-learn to just enjoy shooting. I used to put so many expectations on my big shoots and my team and when something would go not quite as I wanted (and it almost always did), I couldn’t handle it. My perfectionist tendencies became my biggest weakness and finally stopped me from shooting altogether in 2016-2017. But now that I’ve been shooting smaller things for awhile, I do feel ready to plan some dreamy stories again. As that was what used to feel the most me in photography and probably made it the most unique.

These small shoots did teach me a lot. I think certain things in my photography and especially editing style also really improved the last year or so. So I think whatever you do or feel comfortable doing at the moment, it can all be a learning experience. Even if it’s not your best work ever. Lately I’ve been just repeating to myself every day “done is better than perfect” and it is helping me to move on.

London test shoot with Vitoria

That leads me into one of these smaller model test shoots I did in London in the beginning of 2020 (a year ago now! shock-horror. how naive and full of hope for that year I was…) We had some glorious sunny winter weather that week and when you live in London, you HAVE to use that. So I got in touch with The Squad agency who I love to work with, and when I saw that a Brazilian model Vitoria was in town I knew I should shoot with her if I can.

This was actually a really quick test shoot. I think I had 4 possible outfits prepared, but it turned out that Vitoria only had an hour or so to shoot before her casting. Also it was super cold even if it doesn’t look it with this sun. So in the end we basically did just 1-2 variations of an outfit with the same coat. (I never want to freeze my models). Considering how quick we had to shoot, I feel like I still got a variation of shots and I do like so many of them. It was hard for me to not just shoot all portraits as Vitoria is just stunning and has such a strong face.

Do let me know what you think in the comments and which setting is your favorite!

If you don’t follow me on instagram yet, I post there the most often and started to do some behind the scenes reels too.