Shoot Date: July 22, 2010

My shoot with Joshua Chu was on the unusual side, simply because he had me in hysterics the whole time! It was somewhat difficult to shoot through all the laughter. :)

I was excited about our decision to have him pose with his car – cars being props I had been meaning to explore. I love the lines created by his arms, legs, the paint on the pavement, the horizon, and the car itself.

Josh had a concept for a shot, and I think it was quite clever. Haha! Look! It’s me in the sunglasses! ;P

It’s important to me that the photographer and the model collaborate as artists. Models are not my mannequins, though there are times I will give direction for a certain pose… but there’s an energy that can exist in a shoot (similar, I think, to that in a play, where the audience and actors’ energies bounce off of each other) when the model participates just as much as the photographer. I like it when models feel free to suggest image ideas, and I am lucky to have worked with so many great models!

This was one of my favorite shots from the day. I had pictured an image just like this when we planned the shoot, and I absolutely adore the lighting on his face and on the dashboard in the back:

Josh is a model who is definitely comfortable in his own skin, and enjoys entertaining others. At one point during our shoot, a car pulled up and stopped right next to us, and a woman shouted out some encouragements, like, “ROCK IT, BABY!” He totally hammed it up and started dancing around in front of the camera for the audience, which -of course- I had to capture. Sadly, he made me promise not to post that photo. Luckily, he did give permission to use the following photo:

All in all, it was a very fun shoot, and I hope to see Josh on the silver screen sometime soon!

More images in the slideshow: