The Last Shoots of 2024 - Brennen and Joey (Brennen First)

After my last shoot with Nancy, I moved my lights to the back of the studio, packed my gear, and took a week-long break from shooting. I did a bit of editing, evaluated what I had recently shot, and ordered a new background. I also broke out a few more outfits for my next couple of shoots, prepped shoot plans, charged batteries, formatted storage cards, and printed the necessary model releases. 

When shoot day arrived, I packed my gear and headed to the studio. Floofie had informed me that she would be shooting that morning, and she was wrapping up her shoot when I arrived. The Christmas background still hung as Floofie was using it for her remote shoot, so it took very little time to set up for the first model on my agenda, Brennan. 

Now, if you know Bree, you know that she is hilariously outspoken, brash, and brooks no nonsense. She's a very experienced model with a heart of pure gold. I try to shoot with her whenever she's in Portland. I don't always get the chance, but I've shot with her enough that we work very well together, so we got right to it.

I had a plethora of outfits to shoot with her, and she even brought a few of her own. Because we've shot so often, we actually ran through the outfits pretty quickly and finished our shoot a bit early. Bree kept a running conversation going throughout the shoot as is her wont, and I really enjoyed catching up with her. She had a shopping trip planned with Floofie, so when we finished she headed off to see her, while I swapped out the background with the new one for my next shoot with Joey. 

The lighting setup for all my shoots this month was similar. My normal lighting setup is a beauty dish with a diffuser sock as a key light and a 60-inch umbrella as a fill light set about a stop lower than the key. I usually add a hair or rim light on a high stand to separate the model from the background. Sometimes I'll use my Newwer LED panels for lighting, but only to supplement the ambient light from windows. 

For all the shoots in December, I decided to go with much softer light to better emulate the weaker winter sun. For this setup, I used a 60-inch octobox with an interior panel as a key light, a 30x60-inch softbox for fill, and a 10x36-inch strip box on a high boom for a rim light. You can decide for yourself if the lighting worked or not.