Alita X Sarah | Kensington Sessions
March 13, 2017
This shoot was a collaboration between myself, Alita Rose and Sarah Lucciantonio. Alita is one of my fave people to work with because she just knows. Sarah is a designer who makes outfits, and makes people who wear outfits look dope - so we went around and tried some looks.
I came into this shoot pretty agnostic to what was going on, I just knew we would be outside. I kind of wanted to approach it from as little info as possible, so I could test what I came up with on the fly.
CAMERA: Canon 5D4
LENS: 135 F/2, Nikkor 35 f/2, Nikkor 85 f/1.4
LIGHTS: Natural + Bare Strobe Flash
So this shoot is all Alita + Sarah. I think this is the takeaway from this week’s efforts: you’re only as good as the people you work with. I’ve photographed a lot of people and collaborated with a lot of people over the years, and it’s remarkable how different the outcomes of a shoot are depending on who is involved.
The design + clothing that Sarah brought to the game was jaw-dropping, and even more-so with Alita rocking it. Photography and modelling is in general a pretty weird thing, so to have someone like Alita just dominate the street with her moves and confidence sets the tone for the type of stuff we can get.
We got into the groove of things a little more and Alita just kept killing it. Striking poses like it’s nothing, subtle but entrancing. She’s a gem. From my end, I tried to contrast the neutral tones of the outfit with some vivid colours and of course we found a colour palette like no other, in my back alley.
I’ve been using manual focus lenses for the last (x) amount of shoots, and it’s been difficult nailing the focus at f/1.4 but with time it get’s very intuitive. All of these photos were manual focused.
Sarah crushed these outfit choices. I’ve been on a dirty dancing tip for the last few weeks (months?) … These shots I used a flash to separate the background from Alita. I didn’t do a big set up, just a 1/8 power flash burst, localized to the area directly behind Alita. The walls were super textured so there wasn’t a big need for soft light, and I imagined the directional and spotty light would work well - what do you think?
I usually pick up to 20 photos per session, but I just can’t with this one. So many good looks and vibes. Lots to play with in the colour spectrum and again Alita is crushing it. Toning / Colour Grading was a very important part of the shoot. I’m thinking about doing a before after series, outtakes from one of these shoots one day - if you think that’d be cool send me a comment!
Last bit of stuff before the next series -
Check out Alita’s Instagram + Sarah’s Instagram + My Instagram and give us all a follow, and if you like the shots share the love. Also for any photogs (or anyone) trolling this page, I’d love your thoughts/feedback, leave some comments below.
