If you've been following me lately, you know that I've been experimenting with virtual portraits during our recent Stay at Home orders. While portraits taken via FaceTime were something I never would have considered before our current pandemic, they've been a really great way to experiment creatively and to stay connected with others. It's also provided me the opportunity to shoot with people in other areas of the world. There are many new technical limitations, but location is no longer a constraint (as long as there's cell service).
This shoot took place in sunny Florida with Gina Menichino, a model you've seen before if you follow me. Gina is a professional dancer usually based in Los Angeles and she has become one of my favorite people to work with! Finding models who are willing to take creative risks can be difficult but I've been really lucky to find a team of them over the years. Gina in particular has this way of reaching way, deep down into her soul and pulling out the most pure emotions. It's a skill that is readily obvious when she dances and offers so much variety when shooting stills.
For this shoot, Gina's brother was kind enough to help us out by holding the phone. He was so patient moving the phone little by little until the framing was perfect - we couldn't have done it without him! It was interesting though, I switched from my computer to my phone about halfway through the session and every image from that point on saved in a strange crop format. They were skinnier than an Instagram story and I'm still not totally sure what the glitch was. I simply decided to roll with it and create some fun carousel posts for Instagram.
Gina is currently staying with her parents who live in a beautiful home on a golf course. Our first location was on the cutest shaded bridge near her house. We shot in the middle of the day so the lighting was too harsh for the most part but the few shots we got in this location were some of my favorite from the shoot (the first three images in this post). Next we used the area around the pool which was an equally fun location to play with. I loved the reds on the couch cushions, it really makes her eyes pop! When we moved away from the shaded couches we had to deal with much harder light. I've slowly come to love harder light and have learned to embrace the intense shadows it creates. In this case I really love the contrast the light created with Gina's epic swimsuit (borrowed from her mama).
Gina and I had so much fun with this shoot and we hope you enjoy our creative experiment! Would you ever try a virtual shoot? Which outfit was your favorite? Let us know in the comments below!
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