Styling with Alena

I always like to have a plan for a shoot. Even for something like headshots at a chiropractic office, I map out exactly how I plan to light my subjects and note every piece of kit I need for the job.

But sometimes I only have a vague concept or mission in mind, like wanting to try a certain type of lighting or posing. And that’s when having a great collaborator can make all the difference.

On this day, working with Katie (and her partner Gregg, whose input is always terrific), I only had two vague ideas in mind, and we’d only shared a few photos as reference.

To be perfectly honest, I don’t think I managed to pull off exactly what I had envisioned. But I also wasn’t encumbered by that vision, and some of the results went beyond expectations.

As is often the case, I stubbornly insisted on shooting a roll of film, which I made even more difficult with a roll of expired Kodak Plus-X film. I don’t recall the expiration date on this particular roll, but Kodak stopped making it in 2011, so it was at least old enough to have a Bar Mitzvah. The black and white images below are from that roll of film, which held up beautifully over the years.