Anatomy of a photo assistant

I had been intrigued by my friend Joshua from the moment I met him. He is one of those humans who have gathered a vast body of knowledge about a multitude of topics. Many people achieve that, actually, but Josh does that while also being super laid back and having a great sense of humor! 

He didn't even think it was weird when I proclaimed my intention to capture his essence via the photographic arts. It was a tentative plan. Sometimes tentative photo shoots fade into nothingness, but when I saw Josh sporting his HAT one day, the tentative shoot became an urgent priority. (AS YOU CAN SEE!)

Josh joined me recently on a saturday photoshoot marathon of sorts. It was morning when we met up. He helped me load gear, then we carpooled to pick up our first model of the day, Tatiana. She is a constant collaborator-- always a good sport. She connected us with a local record label owner, and our first shoot consisted of creating fashion images of the label's merchandise. Despite having never done it before, Josh snapped right into gear helping me use a combination of flash + continuous lighting techniques. He even fixed a broken light!  Images to come from that shoot later.

After that shoot, we left Tatiana and arrived at our next shoot with an awesome local yoga teacher Nicole Hamic who teaches at Urban Yoga in Phoenix, AZ. We shot epic maternity yoga images at Piestewa Peak. Josh became an architect with light, using a reflector to expertly deliver the sun's life-giving golden light exactly where it was needed. After this segment, we moved on to our final location: my home studio set up. It was here that Josh stunned me with his tour de force. He helped me set up this white backdrop with such finesse. I could have sworn I saw him cure the fabric of all wrinkles, simply by WILLING IT. 

But seriously, I was so pleased by his work. 

When this studio segment of the maternity shoot ended and Nicole left, it was FINALLY time to fulfill the prophesy: we created a few portraits of Josh.