Aiming for Magic
Trying something different and jumping into the unknown
I used to set up photoshoots based on what the end result would be, and I would be thinking in camera settings, time of day, background, and composition.
While I was shooting, it was a constant comparison to the images on my camera and the results I wanted to achieve; I’d wonder what I could change to get closer to the vision I had in my mind. There’d be an imaginary ticking clock counting down the closure to this window of opportunity to the photo that I wanted to get.
If there was someone else that I was shooting photos of they would be lost. I would be so consumed within my own space that they wouldn’t know how to help or if what they were doing was moving in the direction we wanted to go.
Just typing out and rereading that experience started to give me anxiety. Especially knowing that I used to approached much more than my photography that way.
Instead of continuing down that timeline, let’s look at what happens when we approach a photoshoot from a different direction: one with open possibilities, confidence in one’s self, communication with others, and wild creativity.
In this photoshoot we found a common frequency of aiming for magic.
Looking back at the image now it looks less like a backyard in Florida and more like a mad science lab to capture someone’s energy on the backdrop behind them.
To some extent that’s exactly what we did.
Finding a Frequency
I enjoy finding subtle clues from the universe that it’s time to shoot photos of someone.
In the case of this shoot it was discussing a shared similarity of listening to Sylvan Esso’s - Hey Mami over instagram. There’s just something about how that duo of a band plays that song live. Watching them play it it’s as if they’re actively chasing after it and channeling it through them.
When they lean into that song it’s as if they’re jumping into the unknown. It sounds different each time they play it. The equipment is set up differently and it feels as if that experience is only going to last for that singular moment.
With that imagery running through my head, I asked her what she wanted a photoshoot to aim for. She responded with magic.
Magic to me feels like something completely unexpected.
If I thought the result could happen, then it wasn’t magic so much as it was cause and effect. To me in a creative context, magic is trying something new and a different.
With that in mind, we set a date in the future to shoot photos and when the time came I decided to take my setup outside for the first time.
going outside (the unknown)
Day of, I gathered my equipment and took it out into the back patio. It was one of those winter days all Floridians cherish and snowbirds travel thousands of miles to enjoy.
It was a relief from a brief run of cold days. Warm in January, surreal.
The studio backdrop outside felt like it was creating new energy around it. A good warmup for a first photoshoot with someone.
Now, a few minutes later, the space felt ready to jump into the unknown. To find out what the guide mark of magic would lead to.
We took a pause and I mentioned that I wanted to add more colors to the scene. Have one Red, Blue, and Green flash to create the full spectrum of colors but separated individually.
In a similar idea she pulled out the next outfit she wanted a wear, tie die with all the colors of the rainbow.
Now the scene felt less like a slightly warm winter day in Florida, and more like an eruption of magic contrasted against the dull world outside.
Where photos in studio give the opportunity for someone’s aura to fill the room. This environment gave the feeling that it could fill the entire gulf coast region.
Expansive.
There was new joy that came about from just being continually rewarded with the unexpected. Without any idea of how the spectrum of lights were going to work out we just played with it rather than trying to force it down a particular path.
The multicolored flashes felt less like technical equipment and more like finger paints.
The space transformed into a sandbox for playing with magic.
Each moment captured gave a new opportunity for lights to interact differently and create a new singular moment in time to capture. It gave it that magic feeling of knowing that it couldn’t be replicated, in order for that to happen there would have to be that fresh feeling of the unknown again, and that would have to be found somewhere else.
For now though, we could enjoy the simple culmination of events that created a fun creative dynamic.
We traversed through the unknown and got to enjoy the unexpected gifts that came with it.
My hope is that you’ll trust your communication with your intuition more to take you to unexpected places and interactions and that you have opportunities to jump into the creative unknown with a playful like exploration to enjoy the rewards of the magic that comes from it.
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