From a BTS Concert to a Calvin Klein Inspired Shoot With Dana

Sometimes I save things on Pinterest knowing damn well I have no idea when I’m actually going to shoot them.

I have SO many photography ideas saved.

Poses. Lighting. Weird little concepts. Editorial photos. Ads I want to recreate in my own way. Things I see and immediately think I need to try this.

And lately I’ve been trying to stop just saving everything and actually DO IT.

Which is basically how this shoot happened.

I met Dana on August at the BTS concert in Toronto.

I went with my mom and Dana happened to be there too, and somehow we just started talking and ended up hanging out throughout the day.

And she was so cool.

Honestly one of my favourite things about being ARMY is randomly meeting other people who love BTS as much as I do and immediately having 900 things to talk about 😂

And that entire day was just...

I don't even know.

That concert was genuinely one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

I love BTS so much and I have so much respect for how hard they work. As someone who is constantly trying to get better creatively, watching people put that much work and intention into what they do genuinely inspires me.

They make me want to work harder.

Create more.

Try things even if I don't know exactly what I'm doing yet.

So somehow it feels very fitting that I met Dana there and then a little while later she ended up in front of my camera.

I basically asked her if she wanted to be my guinea pig

After the concert we followed each other on Instagram and I eventually asked Dana if she wanted to come model for one of my little creative experiments.

Thankfully she said yes.

Because the thing I need most right now is honestly just people who are brave enough to get in front of my camera and let me experiment.

I don't necessarily want every shoot I do to have some huge purpose behind it.

Sometimes I literally just want to see if I can make the picture that's been sitting inside my head.

And I already had a couple of shots and poses I wanted to try with Dana.

So we kept everything really simple.

Jeans.

Tank top.

T-shirt.

White background.

And lighting.

That's it.

Trying to get better at studio lighting

One of my biggest goals right now is getting better with flash photography and actually understanding my lighting instead of being scared of it lol.

I'm still learning.

And I think that's something I want to show more instead of waiting until I'm magically "perfect" at everything before I share it.

Because I'm not.

There are already things I would change if I shot these again.

But that's literally the point.

I used my Sony A7 V for the photos.

For lighting, I used my Godox V1S off-camera flash with my Godox X3 trigger, and I also brought in one of my Godox SL60W continuous lights as a hair/accent light.

Then I edited everything in Lightroom.

And this is what we got.

Honestly?

I'm happy with them.

Not because I think they're technically perfect.

They're not.

I'm happy because I can see myself learning.

And every time I do another one of these shoots, I understand my lights a little bit more.

That's enough for me right now.

Then this accidentally became a fake Calvin Klein campaign

This was the really fun part.

For legal purposes Calvin Klein has absolutely no idea who I am.

This is not sponsored, commissioned or affiliated with Calvin Klein in any way.

Although Calvin Klein, if you ever happen to find this...

Hi. I would love to work with you someday. 😂

I wanted the photographs to feel really simple and stripped back. Especially once I converted them to black and white.

There are colour versions too, and I like them.

But something about the black and white ones just feels right.

Those are probably some of my favourites because they make the whole thing feel more like an actual campaign instead of just portraits.

And obviously I had to make a video too

Because apparently taking photos isn't enough for me anymore 😂

I'm also a brand ambassador for Camp Snap, and I have their digital Super 8 camera, so I brought that into the concept too.

We filmed this really cute little Super 8-style Calvin Klein ad with Dana.

Again...

Calvin Klein did not ask for this.

I just wanted to make it.

And that's actually becoming one of my favourite ways to create.

Instead of waiting for a brand to hire me to make something, why can't I just make the thing I wish they would hire me to make?

So I did.

You can see the finished video on my Instagram @laragracecreativestudio.

I want to do more things just because I want to

I think that's probably the biggest thing I'm taking away from this shoot.

I want to play more.

I want to open my Pinterest boards, pick an idea and actually figure out how to make my version of it.

I want to get weird with lighting.

Try poses that might not work.

Make fake campaigns.

Make little films.

Learn flash properly.

Make mistakes.

Look at the photos afterwards and figure out what I could have done differently.

Then do another one.

Because I can watch tutorials about lighting for 400 hours but at some point I actually have to turn the light on and take the picture.

And Dana trusted me enough to stand there while I figured some of that out.

Which I'm very thankful for.

Especially considering we literally met because we both love seven Korean men. 😂

Life is funny.

Anyway.

Here are some of my favourites from our little Calvin Klein experiment.

And hopefully this is the first of many more shoots where I stop saving ideas for "someday" and just make them.