Pico’s Pictures: Studio COR3 Light Night

I was invited to join a friend to visit Studio COR3’s Light Night Event. It was good to get out there to practice my photography and meet some people.

Event Experience

The event started near 7pm but after socialization and a presentation, I don’t think we had cameras out until after 8pm. I didn’t have any expectations going into the event besides taking some pictures, but I didn’t have all the information I needed before going to the event. Content creation was for members only while everyone else was welcome to mingle. I got the rundown on the rates and benefits of membership and was allowed to take pictures even though I wasn’t a member so that was cool. The only option to sign up was for a monthly membership that is just not in the budget for me right now. I wanted to pay for the single session as I appreciated having access to models and the sets but ended up not signing up because I didn’t want to have to deal with cancelling immediately. The subscription comes with a couple of hours of studio time a month but I’m not in need of a studio right now. If I was looking for a payment plan that would best fit me, it would be 4 Light Night events a year for $200 or $60 at the door. The value is there for the sets, lights, models, and socialization. Overall, I had a nice time.

Challenges

I had challenges with the lighting. There was a lot of backlight and colors using hot-air balloon material which was nice. The direct lighting of subjects was fairly dim and folks were not using flashes. My favorite photos of people are close-up portraits, so not having good light means it is hard to capture the details of the eyes which is important to me. My second challenge was working with models. I’m not experienced in doing so and it took me a long time to loosen up and express what I wanted. For me, I just wanted a few quick portraits and felt obligated to make use of their time. I’ll be better prepared next time. I have a script for expressions that I want to capture and I’ll work through those. There was also competition for space with the other photographers and models. It was a little warm in the building too and I was drenched in sweat by the time I was done shooting which was only 9pm! (I’m old)

Failure!

My ability to build a network of contacts was non-existent. I should have gotten the contact information for each person I worked with. Lesson learned. If you find yourself in one of these photos, please reach out to me so I can give you proper credit. Fortunately, my friend is better at it than I am and I was able to get a couple of references.

Model 1

Amanda Kippe Instagram. Some quick portraits in the best light available in the studio for the event. Close portraits are hard to take with moving subjects. I’m hoping to be able to give a lot more instruction next time.

Model 2

Javi — This next young man was very nice to work with. Very polite.

Model 3

Dante Roughton-Kirori Instagram. My final subject of the evening was also a very nice young man. He had a lot of energy and was hard to keep up with! But his energy made me start getting more creative.