I was editing these photographs in a coffee shop when a guy walked past me and said, “Wow, tough job you’ve got.” Sure, I could see how being a straight male that takes photographs of beautiful women a lot of the time could be seen as a dream! And don’t get me wrong, I’m super grateful I get to do what I do and I love meeting these beautiful souls but just for the sake of context I’ll say this, it’s pretty f**kin’ intimidating some times.
It’s like going on blind dates all of the time. The initial introduction is easy. One person contacts the other and we send messages back and forth discussing details and scheduling a time to meet. Both people getting excited by the potential of the interaction and eagerly waiting for the day you get to see them. Then you have the first face to face meeting which I still get nervous before. Partly because I take what I do seriously and always want the shoot to go well, but also because I am far from immune to the charm of a beautiful woman, even if it’s in a professional context. So big smiles and hugs, I ask how their drive was, and I do my best to ignore the not-so-quiet hope that she laughs at my jokes. But I’m resilient and a confident photographer so I push through the small talk and do my best to create some chemistry. Eventually the nerves slip away and I can focus on making some quality photographs while having fun in the process.
I’ve heard horror stories from other photographers working with divas who’s egos were way over inflated by their four thousand followers on Instagram, but I’ve been lucky so far. Natasha here was a gem and super fun to work with! She laughed at a lot of my jokes and we hit it off from the start. On top of that our aesthetic styles matched perfectly and resulted in these awesome photographs! It’s experiences like working with her that make me feel more and more confident in cultivating an easy going environment for my shoots and motivate me to continue photographing beautiful strangers.
-Tyler
