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Shoe Catalog Shoot: The Day of the Shoot

Finally! It was time to shoot the catalog! Needless to say, I couldn't sleep all night and had no problem waking up early to make sure I was in San Francisco for my call-time, which was 8am. I drove to the hotel where the crew and client had set up (most of them came in from the LA area the day before) and had valet park my car (the client was paying for all meals, parking and other related expenses).

I met with Jay, the photographer, and he took me up to the rooms where I met the casting director in charge of the shoot, as well as the other 1-2 people there representing the shoe company.

There were two rooms: one filled with all the shoes we'd be shooting, wardrobe (which they provided although we were asked to bring some basic supplemental items) and storyboards that detailed the times, locations and looks that needed to be shot that day. There was also a table with food for us to snack on in between shots.


After checking in and signing a model release form, I went to the second room down the hall where hair and makeup was. The two gals doing hair and makeup were so cool and we all were instantly chatting and joking away. After a few minutes, the other two models, Jenna and Oasis, arrived and we all did our meet and greets then settled back into the routine of getting ready.

Once the three of us were camera-ready, we got into our first outfits of the day and headed downstairs to walk over to Union Square in San Francisco. We were instructed to mainly do candid poses and just interact with one another naturally. From time to time, Jay would call out for us to look at the camera. The "story" being told for the catalog was that we were 3 BFFs on a road trip to spend a day in San Francisco. We did on-location shots of us walking around the city, window shopping, sitting at a cafe drinking coffee, etc.

We also did a shot where we acted like we were packing our luggage into a car for our road trip. For that shot, we carpooled and drove to a really fancy neighborhood in San Francisco and posed in front of a house that was supposed to be one of our houses, according to the storyline.

There were group shots with all three of us but we each also got our own solo moments as well. My solo shots took place early in the morning, while the other two models were still in hair and makeup (I got there early so I had the advantage of being camera ready first). We shot across the street from the hotel and kept it simple: I walked towards the camera and also did some posed shots against a decorated wall.

The images from that particular set are going to be used for advertising "point of purchase" materials in Dillard's and Nordstroms in the fall. So I'm super excited because once those printed materials are ready for use in-stores, the shoe company is going to mail me the actual posters/ads. Score! Of course, once the ads are in the stores, I'm going to have a complete geek moment and go there so I can take a picture of myself next to them, LOL.

It was a long day (with a delicious lunch break at a Japanese restaurant) but we finally wrapped around 7pm. We were shooting with natural light so once the sun started to set that was it. But we all worked well together, had an amazing time and got a lot done. The clients were happy with what they saw and I made a load of new friends, who I still keep in touch with.

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