The Runway

A few stories back I posted how nervous I was about shooting on a runway. I was super nervous that I wouldn’t get the pictures right, that the models would hate the pictures and the designers would just think I’m a crap photographer. Yes, the self-doubt kicked in as it always does. I drove to Los Angeles, CA with nerves all the way. I double and triple checked my equipment before I had left my home, and made sure everything was working before I arrived at the place.

My SD cards were formatted.
My flash was working.
I brought my bag full of AA batteries (yes literally I was carrying a bag full of them, you know, just in case).

I arrived an hour early and some of the other photographers were already there. To my surprise a lot of them were really open about shooting and sharing their experiences. As we waited around for the event to start, we all scoped the runways, to check our lighting and this is where the “fun” began.

We found out that there were two runways that night. One would be outside, which didn’t make sense to me because NONE of the outside lighting was ever turned on so we were dealing with the sunlight going down…As far as the other one, that was inside so I was less worried about that one.

I got a pretty decent spot in my opinion, to the right of the house photographer who would be taking pictures of the management company that was running the whole event. After taking some test photos and seeing how the lighting would be, I prepared myself for my job. Little did I know that things would be a let down for me for my first experience on shooting runway models.

The models, were not that good. No, no, don’t get me wrong, they were pretty and what not, but I could tell right away that they didn’t really have any experience in walking down a catwalk. They were supposed to pose in front of the photographers, maybe about 10–15 away from us so that we can get good photos of the designer’s clothes. That didn’t happen.

They stopped about 20–30 ft back. Nearly in the middle of where the chairs had been setup and a lot of didn’t get the shots that we wanted for the photos. I can hear the disgruntled sighs from the photographers who were constantly trying to compensate for the changing light, the models who stopped for half a second, and overall for the first part, it was subpar for me. I had been to this event before and I was excited to see that they opened up the whole building for 2 different runways, but I didn’t expect it to be like that.

I just kept telling myself:

“Ok just focus on the clothes, that’s what the designers want to see, just work with what they’re giving you.” (And really, it wasn’t a lot).

That lasted about a good hour and the next part of the event was more unsettling. Lighting was everywhere, models were still doing the same thing, only about 30% of the chairs were filled up and yet the event was sold out.. On top of that the photographer next to me who I met at the beginning of the night was just trying to copy me. The whole time he would ask me what was wrong with his equipment, what settings I was shooting at, how I was taking my whole photos and everything. “Chimping” is what this is called. He had shot several runways like this, and I’ve even seen his work and it’s really good. I don’t normally get annoyed and I’m just thinking to myself:

“You’re more experienced than me on shooting runway, and you keep asking me and the other photographers on what to do…”

That was probably the most frustrating part aside from what the models were giving us. I did my best and I gave the photos to the designers. Fortunately, I got some comments from the other designers saying they liked my photos the most, especially since it looked the event was full and they liked the angle I was taking the photos at. I’m happy I went through it and now I just look at it as an experience that I know will help with future shoots like this.

I just got to keep on shooting and getting better.

___________________________________________________________________

Feel free to connect with me on my other social media accounts. I love photography and business so don’t get me going on those subjects! Or if you feel like you want to just simply say hello, i’m all eyes and ears.

www.justinzalameda.com
IG @bboyzala and @jzalaphotog
FB www.fb.com/bboyzala
Snapchat: bboyzala
Twitter: bboyzala