Virtual Shoots
Feb 2021
This is were we are, middle of the second wave of Covid in the UK and well into the third Lockdown. Photography has become an outdoor activity, preformed in masks that hide half of your facial reactions. I’m sure this is fine for reportage, sport or still life photographs, but for a portrait - where some contact and trust between subject and photographer is essential - it’s hard.
So when I got asked to do a virtual shoot for Grazia with their fashion editor, Laura Jordan I was happy for the change of environment. We had a pre-shoot, where we tried to find the best place for the portrait and arrange the best lighting. The story was about dressing up for Zoom, so Laura called in some fantastic outfits and the shoot was done on Zoom and FaceTime, as they wanted to see the laptop and home surroundings in the shot.
What is really interesting about this type of shoot is the energy that it requires. I was certainly at my most exuberant and was explaining to Laura what I was after and what was working or not, projecting my energy through a small window. No peripheral vision, no wide view and only a small amount of adjustment possible. But at the same time, this small window created a real sense of intimacy - I had been let into someones home and was just hanging out there chatting and laughing for a while. In person shoots have a flow and generally end with me and my team packing up the gear and putting the furniture back, while saying goodbye and apologising for taking up so much time. But here, somehow, it was all much more relaxed and even though it was more than two hours, we were just trying stuff out and changing outfits to see what would work best.
Of course Laura was a big part of this as she was happy to collaborate, and patient with my vagueness.
I had done several virtual shoot before - a canceled Mexican wedding shoot for a friend - but this was the first commercial one and was really quite fun!