my favorite locations: three tips

I often have students or other photographers message me with questions about photography, and I welcome that!  I get one question so frequently, I thought it might be a good idea to do a blog post about it - WHERE.

"Where do you find such cool locations?

What are some of your favorite locations to shoot at?

OMG where was photo XYZ taken??!?!?!"

(Okay, now's the time to to fess up - the headline of this post is a little misleading.)  

My answer to most of those questions is usually, "Nowhere cool."  I have kind of a mantra that I end up repeating to people who ask these types of questions: It doesn't matter.  It's not about the location.

I promise!

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I got a lot of messages about this shot from people wanting to know what cave we were at and how to find it.  This is actually just a boring ditch to the side of the road on the way to my house.  It's not a cave and not particularly exciting during the day, but I figured that lighting it from underneath at night would make the rocks look cool.  We parked on the side of the road, scrambled down into the ditch, and I kicked off my flip flops and stood knee-deep in the creek for this one.

Part of what makes this job fun and unique is that it forces you to use your brain in different ways.  You have to learn to see light differently from other people, to look for different angles, and to figure out how to turn nothing into something cool.  In fact, it's one of my favorite challenges to look at a bleak, boring, or uninspiring location and figure out fun ways to make it look awesome.  Beautiful backgrounds are awesome, but simply sticking some people in front of a beautiful background does not guarantee an artistic image, or even a good image.  Just sticking a person in front of the Eiffel Tower or a cool wall is not what's going to make you a great photographer.

It's not about the location.  We have to be magicians and illusionists - we have to learn to use the tools at our disposal (angles, lighting, posing, color, creativity, etc) to make something look like something else.  A LOT of my "favorite spots" are literally just off to the side of the road somewhere... and it's often a busy, boring road and not even a scenic road :)

TIP #1 - IT'S NOT ABOUT THE LOCATION, IT'S ABOUT THE LIGHT

The most important advice I can give you: There are no good locations, there's only good light.  The coolest wall or the most beautiful garden could look totally terrible in the wrong light or with the wrong equipment.  If I'm shooting at morning vs. afternoon, I end up guiding clients to very different types of spots, because I know which direction the light will be coming from at that time of day.  Some spots have great light in the morning and don't work well for my style in the afternoon.  I always carefully place clients in good light, pretty much regardless of what's in the background.  This also really requires you knowing how to manage your equipment properly and efficiently in all types of lighting conditions - they might change at any minute.  Get out of auto mode and learn how to shoot in manual for maximum control of your light.

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Underneath an overpass in Denver.  I saw a small window of super cool, semi-diffused, all-natural light and we jumped in it.  About three minutes later, the sun came out fully through the clouds and it was way too bright to keep shooting there.

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Super cool light and gorgeous model, but Annette is just sitting on a plastic picnic table in Denver.

TIP #2 - IT'S NOT ABOUT THE LOCATION, IT'S ABOUT THE ANGLE

Very rarely is some kind of epic landscape going to be laid out for you, where you can just show up and click the shutter without any thought and have your image look stunning.  You will have to look up, look down, kneel down, lay on the ground, stand on something tall, shoot through that bush - whatever you have to do to make where you are look like something worth looking at.  This part takes some practice and some effort.  This is why I rarely wear nice clothes while shooting (I'm often laying in the dirt) and I usually wear flip flops (I can kick them off, roll up my pants, and step into the water or scramble up into a tree, etc). 

Often, you can use angles to your advantage to cut out parts that don't fit your vision for the image.  Sometimes, by lying on the ground, you can make power lines disappear, or fake a different horizon.  By standing on something tall and shooting down, you can eliminate the sky and the horizon line if it doesn't fit with your vision for the image.

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On some back access road behind some buildings.  All natural light; only edits are minimal skin retouching.  We had technically finished the shoot and were heading back to the car, trying to outrun this crazy storm that was coming in.  I saw one last little ray of sunlight and placed Cece carefully.  I knelt down and shot from below to include more of those super dramatic, ominous skies; if I had had more time, I would have changed my own angle slightly so that big pine tree wasn't right behind her, but this cool light was fading super fast.  And yes, we got totally drenched about 5 minutes later :)

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Not the Carribbean, but by shooting at a certain angle, I was able to eliminate the things that make the viewer think "Colorado".

I would recommend TOTALLY FORGETTING what you've seen in other photographers' work, especially if you're shooting at commonly-photographed locations.  If you're researching commonly-photographed locations, you'll see the exact same angles a hundred times, which results in hundreds of almost-exactly-the-same images. It seems like lately, I've seen a lot of photographers talking about wanting to go to "THAT location "to get "THAT shot", and by that, they mean that they pretty much want to exactly duplicate an image that's already been photographed by someone else.  "I'm so excited to shoot in front of THAT graffitti wall / on THAT overlook," they'll say, and then line their subjects up in exactly the same way that another photographer set up.

Sure, it's easy to throw your client into that same spot as everyone else and snap the shutter, but then, what's going to make your work stand out?  We can do better than that, and we can be more creative than just copying stuff we find on Pinterest (or copying what you've seen other local photographers do).   So switch up your angles, shoot the same cliche location in a new way, and think for yourself rather than copying stuff you've already seen so you can stand out and help people see the world in a new way!  Aside from the fact that being a copycat isn't cool, shooting new angles will turn boring old locations into, "OMG where was this taken?!?"

Along these same lines, if you really want your work to be unique and remarkable, avoid asking other photographers for location recommendations - many commonly-photographed locations are crowded, busy, and overused.  And besides, you want your work to stand out and be different, right?  To create your own cool, unique, images, find your own cool, unique locations!  Do something that hasn't been done!

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Some people who saw this set on Facebook were worried about Tess' safety.  No worries, guys, I would never ask clients to do anything reckless or unsafe.  We were only about 3 feet off the ground, but I wanted it to look more dramatic, so I scrambled up onto the rocks with her and then changed my angle to make it look more like a cliff.  This is another one where we were just randomly off to the side of the road.

TIP #3 - IT'S NOT ABOUT THE LOCATION, IT'S ABOUT THE COLORS

A lot of the images I get asked about have more to do with good use of color than actual location.  For maximum impact, I try to match or coordinate colors of outfits with colors that appear in the background.  It doesn't matter WHERE you can find these colors, as long as they work within the frame of your image.

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In an alley, with a bright orange electrical cone to her right and a dumpster to her left.  Good thing Faith trusts me!  Haha.

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Another shoot I get asked about often.  This was just a few shrubs in the median of a parking lot on the industrial side of Longmont.  The vibrant colors of the foliage echoed the colors of the produce in her basket, and made her coral skirt stand out.  I'm standing on the curb.

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Busy downtown Denver, against a city planter box on a sidewalk, at a stoplight.  I chose this spot because the flowers in the background coordinated with the color of her earrings.

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Also not the Carribbean.  The storm clouds made the sky look really dramatic, and the water was reflecting the colors of the sky.  Zoe and I were actually freezing cold and paying close attention to the approaching thunder, and the wind was whipping her hair around like crazy.  The water looks lighter closest to the camera because the wind from the storm was churning up the waves into mud.  I told her the images would be worth it and would look sunny and happy, which I'm sure was really hard to believe at the time.  Her pink dress helped solidify the tropical feel of this image.

Nowhere cool.  Just a storefront of a store that was still closed.  I loved the way the oranges of the lights in the store, and the reflection of the sunrise in the window, coordinated with her coloring.

LOCATION SCOUTING

So, when you actually go location scouting, here are a few tips:

- Go at the same time of day that you'll be shooting at.  This helps you figure out what the light will be like at that time of day.

- Go do the footwork yourself, rather than just asking someone who's been there. Take a day, hop in your car, and drive around and explore!  Figure out what types of locations work best for your particular style and shoot, and then check them out for yourself.  Then, get out of the car and walk around : maybe some place looks gorgeous from a distance, but when you get right up to it, you'll realize it's all marshy, and if you put your model there, they'd be standing up to their shins in murky water.

- Be aware that many, many locations (especially in the Boulder area) require permits to shoot at.  If you get stopped by rangers, which happens frequently, and you can't show proof of your permit, you may get ticketed and forced to stop shooting.  I hear that those fines are around $500 bucks, so make sure that if you're shooting professionally (or even with professional-looking gear) that you have your required permits.  Also I should remind everyone that shooting on train tracks is illegal, dangerous... and stylistically overdone anyway :)  Totally not worth putting your life or your clients' lives at risk.

Hope this helps you go out and create something totally unique!

a sense of style

When I first started my business three years ago, I had NO idea what I was doing.  The Cedar House studio had been around for many years and changed ownership a few times, and I was flattered but totally terrified when the owner offered to sell the business to me.  Thankfully, she was kind enough to walk me through the paces, answer tons of my questions and share her business experiences with me.  I had never run a business before or even really established a personal budget. I was (and still am!) so grateful for all the help and advice I received while getting started, but I was so worried about doing things the "wrong way" - paperwork, shooting, posing, post-processing, everything! - that I relied entirely on the previous owners' experiences and advice without figuring out what worked best for me.  Actually, it took me about a year and a half of business ownership before I started coming into my own and reassessing what sort of business I wanted to run and what my style was.  Because of this, I joke that I've only "really" owned the business for a year and a half rather than the (almost) three that it's been.Which leads me to a confession: while I was in the process of developing my style and figuring out my business, I copied other photographers.  I started out doing things exactly as the previous owners had done.  My clients would suggest selective color or glowy soft-focus shots (shudder) and I would do it, without thinking about what sort of  personal "style" I was going for.  Then I went to a conference taught by the Sallees and started adding texturing to most of my images.  Then, I fell in love with Yervant's high-fashion posing.  Then... then... then...

The photographic world is overflowing with people of amazing and unique talent, and I still love looking at what other photogs are doing for inspiration.  However, since getting into the nitty-gritty of business ownership, my mentality has changed.  I want to create my own style and not be a knockoff.  I want people to hire me because 1) they like me as a person and 2) because they like the fact that my work is different.  I'm not elegant and simple enough to be Jose Villa, I'm not hip enough to be Noa from Featherlove, I'm not cute and quirky enough to be Axioo, I'm not edgy enough to be Angelica Glass, I'm not insanely brilliant enough to be the guys from MangoRed, and I'm not urban enough or trendy enough to be Jasmine Star (some of the other photographers I regularly check out for inspiration).  But that's okay.  While I LOVE looking at their work, I'm not trying to be any of them anymore.  I have my own style that is totally different and unique, and the more I develop it, the more I like my own work.  And, it seems, the more my clients like my work, too.  As soon as I stopped trying to be someone else, everything changed for the better.

I try SO hard to come up with new, unique, and original ideas that are "me", and I tailor each of these to my specific clients.  Look to others who have gone before you for inspiration or advice, but don't go out and buy the exact same props they have, call up their clients to try to "steal" their locations, or copy and paste text from their websites to use for your own (all things that have happened to me since I started my business).   Everyone - clients, other photographers, and most importantly, yourself-  will notice if you blatantly copy someone else, and not only is that totally cheap, it won't look like YOU.  Trust me - everyone will know.  It will look forced and will have no heart, since it's not coming from your own heart but from someone else's.  I'm realizing lately that my style is truly reflective of who I am as a person - my personality, the experiences I've had in life, the music I listen to, the movies I watch, the places I've lived and visited, what I think is beautiful.  My photographic style has become so intertwined with my own self that intentionally trying to shoot like someone else would be the equivalent of trying to BE someone else.  When you come across images that inspire you, be inspired!  But try to figure out what, specifically,  about that image you like.  Is it the lighting?  The fact that it's in an unusual location?  The way it makes you feel?  Then try to cultivate that in your work - in your own way.  If you work in a creative field like I do, we got into this business so we could be creative,  so let your own sense of style take root!  You'll be able to be truly proud of your own work, and you'll love it so much more when you're true to yourself and doing something that comes entirely from your own heart.

And because I just can't post a blog with no images, here is a quick sneak peek of my lovely friend Danica from a fun conceptual shoot I did last week.  Isn't she gorgeous?