For my final for digital images last semester, we were given an open-ended ask to photograph a subject, tethered, and retouch their features in photoshop. For this final, I loved the idea of doing an Adidas-themed campaign and had reached out to an acquaintance that wanted to get into modeling. The morning of the shoot, I received an “I was feeling sick all day yesterday and won’t be able to make the shoot text. We were shooting on a crunch schedule, and I was worried about tethering. I discovered the week before the shoot that my Lumix cameras don’t tether to any outside source, but I could maneuver it to connect to a light room if I look back at iPhone photos.
Instantly felt high anxiety. I cold-called my friend Max who constantly has people nagging her to shoot for free & come up with fun concepts. She posted on her Instagram story, asking if anyone was available for a shoot with me today with photos from my mood board. Within minutes I had 15 people in my DM’s, one of which was a student of UW and one of the prominent club members of the MESH fashion club. My shoot didn’t work with her schedule. But, she re-posted Max’s story to the MESH’s Instagram, and from there, I not only had several potential people to shoot in my DM’s but also found a model I met at a content creator networking event six months ago prior. We shot. She was chill and easy to work with.
How would it have turned out with another model or using a different camera? I don’t know, but I got the opportunity to connect with someone new who allied better with the version of myself I’m striving to become.In the end, everything felt tied up in a bow.