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.