A New Day, A New Town.

Nicole
Originally uploaded by Cody Lee Dopps

So, in December I moved to Tulsa. I left the magazine work that I loved so much to be closer to the girl I love even more. An easy trade off. But what this means as a photographer is that I have to start all over again. Knowing no one.

Here's the plan: I thought that while I'm getting settled, trying to find a day job, I would offer up my services to a certain group of people that might could use a hand. (might could... heh) Musicians and Actors. I decided to do this for a specific reason. One, I've been wanting to work with musicians on promo shots for quite a while, but there are no musicians in Enid, and now that I'm in Tulsa the time is neigh. Two, these groups of people kinda come it three sets. 1. Those who don't need help. 2. Those that no amount of help will help. 3. Those who are just on the brink and a little push might get them a leg up.

So, I put an ad in Craigslist offering free promo/headshots to bands and actors. I have stipulations and I think I've turned down more than I've shot. No cover bands (they make more money than any other kind of musical act), no live shooting and they must be somewhere less than known. AND I must kinda like it, if I'm going to do it for free. Actors kind of fall under this title for me too. But not models, there are a million shooters out there that would love to work with models. If you are even a slightly good model, you won't have any trouble finding work at a local level.

One of my first responses was from Nicole. She is an aspiring actress that has done some work in the past but she needs an updated headshot for some audition coming up in the near future. We met at Cherry Street Coffee and talked about what kind of look we wanted to go for. We talked around a shot that looked like it would be for "Twilight". Right when she said that, I pictured this place that I saw downtown that has these great vines climbing this wall. So, we headed out there.

On most all of my other shoots I would carry around my light kit. A large duffle bag (more or less, maybe a little less) with stands, umbrellas, snoots, lights, cords, clips, softbox and on and on. It dawned on me that this might be a bit overpacked because I pretty much use one stand, umbrella and a reflector for most of what I do. So I took those three things, bungied them together, put a strap from an old camera bag on there and now I have a perfect little sling that I can carry anywhere and it doesn't weigh anything. I have the strobe in my camera bag anyway, so why not?

It worked perfectly. I am so glad I did that. I could go hiking with a set up like that without issue. That's one of the things that I love most about doing this, realizations about the way I do things and the way that things should be done. Always learning, even if the lesson is a long time coming and sinks in very slowly.

Senior shoots

Robbie
Originally uploaded by Cody Lee Dopps

Well, jeez.

I keep meaning to blog out what's going on but I never actually sit down and do it. It's not that hard and it doesn't take that long but in my mind it's a huge task that I would rather leave till some other day. I will try to be better about it because I've got a lot going on and someone should be writing this shit down.

I will have to go back a ways and try to catch up in steps.

In or around the end of November I was asked to do a senior shoot. The client had seen my work at the gallery and really wanted me to work with their son who just came back from basic training in the ROTC. Initially, I wasn't all that into it but the more I thought about it the more I thought it might be fun. I've met Robbie before and I knew that he wouldn't want to do the "hugging the tree" pose that most seniors do.

I met with Robbie a few days before to talk about what he liked and disliked to get a better feel for who he was. I really think that this is a critical step. No camera, just talking. It makes the shoot go so much smoother if you develop some sort of relationship before hand. Common sense, right.

He really wanted to do some shots in his camo fatigues and his class A's. I was cool with that.

On the day of the shoot, I picked him up at his house and we drove thought the country. I had some area's in mind for a nice outside shot but I thought we would just drive until we saw something cool.

Here we stopped, on a dirt road, because of this little group of trees on a small hill. We didn't even have to jump a fence or anything. We walked into the thicket a few steps with my camera, SB600 strobe on a stand with a white umbrella and I told him to crouch down like his laying in wait. A few shots for exposure, stop down, then dial in the light and bam! The sun acting as a kick-ass rim light tops it all off for me. An awesome shot, in my opinion.

After this, I am more than willing to take on more senior pictures.