A nineteen year old wants a photo for his album cover. This is no awkward teenager but a professional image maker and for four hours I photograph him.
Like any performer, and like me as a photographer, he needs to warm up - I use the poor light of a rainy day that filters through the open window to give him confidence, educating him, involving him by explaining as I shoot how I am sculpting the light on his face. I want him to understand that any request I make is to enhance his image, not mine.
In his first photos he almost looks like a boxer, silent with a white towel. The natural light is a challenge, it makes me slow down, makes me interact with him. Initially we need to work together but soon he'll gain enough confidence to do his routines without any encouragement.
As I show him the resulting photos he gains confidence and the showman in him begins to come out. I do little to encourage him as I working with the light and he with his image. Sometimes I don't see him as person but as a living reflector and absorber of light. Occasionally I direct him when something he does catches my eye - his hands at one point, another is his ottaman look as he wears his baseball cap sideways.
Once he is self-assured, I move on from natural light to flash - two umbrellas and strobes. Using flash can be tedious since it is such a controlled and predictable light and if I am not careful, I go into autopilot and switch off but because I have set the stage, so to speak, he is by now very engaging from his sheer self-confidence.
In his initial shot you can almost see him psyching himself up before he goes onto the stage, a white backdrop.
Then I steer him a little, suggesting he pose "for the ladies".
I use a 42" covered umbrella very close to him to exaggerate the mirror sheen of his body with a secondary open 32" umbrella acting as fill.
At the end he is tired, reflective, his performance has drawn his energy.
