I had travelled to Bogota, Colombia to stay for a awhile at the end of last year and into this year. I had visited the city once before and it really surprised me. The cooler, rainy climate makes for a different culture than most of Latin America that I had visited. I guess it was a Grunge feeling that someone my age could appreciate. As I looked around I saw that they had a tattoo culture that was thriving. So last December I bought a one way ticket and arranged to rent a room in an apartment that I shared with roommates. That was the start of what would become a 6 month stay.
I found a hopeful that wanted to shoot right away. I was packing light. I had no lighting. The cloudy, rainy days made the hours I could shoot indoors to be in a few hour period during the day. Word of mouth and social media exposure quickly spread and there were more models wanting shoots than I could schedule.
Early on a friend of a model that I worked with was interested in becoming a hopeful. We had to get the contracts, etc finished before I could shoot and with the scheduling issues months passed.
I finally met @ailura at a session with her friend and we talked about doing her set. She was young and had never done a shoot before so I tried to explain everything about what to expect. I asked her to bring a friend to the shoot so she would feel more comfortable having someone she knew there (something I recommend because just meeting a photographer in an unfamiliar location and doing a SG session can be a little scary for someone new to everything). My impression was that she was really confident, pretty, and a little spunky. She'd make a great hopeful.
Just shortly before I left Colombia for Minnesota, we got the session all scheduled. I walked to the bus stop to meet with Ailura and her friend. I saw her walking out with her purple hair and this awesome purple coat and right away I asked if we could use the coat in the photos. Prince had recently passed and as soon as I saw her, the connection was made. Darling Nikki was playing in my head. We did a simple shoot with lighting from one window. Her eyes were catching the light perfectly in the small living room. It was a really exciting session to shoot. I knew she looked great and although a little shy to start, she killed it for her first time ever doing a photoshoot. I wanted to leave some of that innocence in the first shots and capture the moment as I was seeing it. The last of my Colombian Sessions was something that @ailura could be proud of, and as a sometimes photographer that is the ultimate goal. I hope the SG world welcomes and gives lots of deserved love to the lovely @ailura. Her set "My Confession" will be in member review tomorrow night!!!
