Behind the Lens: My First Day of Shooting for the Magazine Brief

 1. Setting up the shoot:

The location of my first magazine shoot was a basketball gym called Pickup USA. It's a nice gym with a few courts and gym equipment, great for everyday training or gym needs (I'm not sponsored). To set up my shot, I first had to go at a time when there weren't many people so that I could convince them to give me the court for a little while. Once I got the court empty, I set up my phone at a low angle, looking up at the basketball hoop. Around it were some lights to give direction, but the main light source was from interior lights already there. This aligned mostly with my original vision, with just a few uncontrollable variables like people, time, and space.

2. Capturing the Right Shots:

I took a lot of still shots like a portrait. I used a low angle but kept the object/subject in the middle because with an object like a basketball hoop, it looks best centered and brought out. These techniques allowed me to create an ideal shot for my magazine. It follows the same theme of my magazine and will become a great fit in the long run of actually creating my final product.

3. Challenges and Adjustments:

Some unexpected challenges were brought up before. Things like lighting were smaller, lesser problems though. The bigger problems were the timing, people, and space variables. These actually made me reschedule my photoshoot plans because I originally went, and there wasn't enough time or space to get the shot I wanted, so I had to go back another time. All in all, I didn't run into any problems I couldn't handle.

4. Creative and Technical Takeaways:

The photography techniques I played around with are things like lighting, depth of field, and various angles. Some unexpected shots that I am considering using instead of my original photo use an angle to create a cooler shot and things like a portrait shot that focuses purely on the subject and blurs most of the background out, creating a cool effect. Overall, I think that once I start to implement some of my shots into my layouts, whichever shot I choose for the final product will fit perfectly into my vision.

5. Looking Ahead:

For the future, I need another photo shoot that will showcase a person as a subject. This will be more challenging because I have to coordinate a lot more variables, but in the meantime, I will work on producing the things I can, like text and layouts, and put the photos I have already taken into those layouts until I can get into that gym to take more shots. I will also double-check that the quality of the photos will be good enough and that the overall theme matches my magazine.  

Final Thoughts:

This photoshoot has given me a lot of insight on how I should proceed with future photoshoots and gives me a great background to learn from mistakes that can help with quality and efficiency in the future. This also gives me admiration for all of the people, time, and effort that go into magazine-making to create something so small but common in everyday life. I've learned lots of unique techniques and some helpful tips that make magazine photography and visual storytelling so much easier, and I can't wait to learn more that will help in the following photo shoots.