Shooting a Naturalista ft Rache Josey
Most times, when shooting a client, they often start by saying, "Now I’m not a model, inferring that they have no idea what to do or that they won’t appear as beautiful. I believe that as a photographer, its ones job to make every client look and feel good. It's an art to pull something from the average person and make them appear in a whole different light. Such was the case with Rache.
When we first met up for her consultation, the first thing I noticed was her natural hair and I asked if it was all hers to which she replied, “yes” but she seemed not to care too much for it. I was shocked considering it was so much! She took it down and I knew right away that I would focus this shoot around her hair. I had a makeup artist and hairstylist who wanted to work on someone natural not taking away from their skin or hair and Rache was perfect.
She asked about clothing and I didn't want anything too fussy, I kept things simple; a summer dress and I liked the idea of overalls. I wanted a summer theme in a garden photoshoot. My client, Caribbean Landscape graciously lent me their premises to complete the shoot. This was a great shoot, natural, effortless and free.
Enjoy the images and the cinematic BTS video below.
Model: Rache Josey
Photographed + Styled by: Scharad Lightbourne
Hair: Ryen Fox
MUA: Raven Forbes
Grips: Kenton Ferguson
Video: Sherard Campbell (iFocus Films)
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I jumped at this opportunity to work with twins!!
Clients: Santia and Anaya Dean
Photography: Scharad Lightbourne
MUA: Ruth Rolle
Hair Styling: Whitney Miller
Hair Provider: Amani Hair
Grips: Catina Ferguson and Rayandra Nairn
When MUA (makeup artist) Ruth Rolle approached me about shooting natural look, I was excited because she’s a very talented and passionate MUA and she’s someone who is always excited about her work. Initially speaking, she expressed that she wanted to shoot something different, natural, with clean looks, very little distracting elements and she wanted to shoot twins! What photographer wouldn’t jump at a chance to work with twins and a professional makeup artist?
Now, the challenge would be finding twins worth photographing and I remembered that a colleague of mine, Lavado Stubbs knew twins but freakishly upon visiting his Facebook profile to find them, in the friend suggestions panel, there in my face was one of the twins! I wrote her a note and the next day she responded with a “yes, sure, we’d love to!”
Now, this is a tricky subject because I am absolutely terrified of approaching people to photograph them because I’m always afraid to hear the words “no, thanks.” and yes its happened to me before but Ruth really liked their look and so I took the risk of asking.
We had a production meeting and kept things simple. Ruth wanted to do a “dewy” look on the twins, keeping the making light and minimal. She said, “I want their skin to look flawless and moist keeping the tones smooth and even.”
We shot in studio and I used 1 LED light on a 5ft Octobox, keeping the lighting consistent to match the even skin tone of the twins. Whitney Miller, my hair stylist is really good with natural hair textures so she styled the girls and added more volume by sourcing pieces from Amani Hair. These inexperienced models were great in front of the camera lens and my team worked well.
Please enjoy the images.