Paul Barrios Photography

A while back my friend Carolina asked me if I would do portraits of her mother, Marta. She wanted to have fun pictures of her mom and the family done as a gift to her mother.

As I have shared in the past, it is very important for new photographers to get used to, and comfortable with, giving direction to your model. As artists, we photographers have complete control over the look of the pictures. I have really worked hard to work on my direction during a shoot because I want to make sure that I provide the best images possible for my client. Let's not forget, however, that direction alone will not accomplish this. We must also aim to find a way to build trust with our models by connecting with them on a personal level. Emotions will be communicated through our pictures so why not aim to bring the best out of a person?

How do I do this? Spend the first 20-30 minutes talking with them about who they are, what they do, and what their passions are. On this particular day, I found out a lot about Marta including the fact that she used to run her own Modeling agency years ago. This made working with her very easy. I also used it as an opportunity to learn a little bit about working with models and how things are done in the fashion world. I definitely learned a lot and valued her input.