DIARY 15: JANUARY 2026

Building confidence through repetition and pushing yourself outside your comfort zone

I kicked off January with a few shoots for my client, Dear John Denim. They’re the sister brand to Another Love, who I shot for last summer and earlier last year, and this time they brought me on to shoot for their main denim line. There’s something so special about landing repeat clients—it takes so much pressure off. You already understand their aesthetic, expectations, and workflow, and the opportunity almost feels like it drops into your lap. There’s trust built in, which makes the entire process smoother and more enjoyable.

For the first shoot, we shot exclusively outside on location in Riverside. I was shooting 35mm and averaging about three looks per roll. With roughly 36 exposures per roll, that comes out to about 12–15 frames per look. We worked with two models and ended up shooting around 15 rolls total. One of the things I love most about shooting film is how it slows you down mentally—every frame feels intentional—while paradoxically speeding up the shoot itself. You’re moving quickly as you have a finite amount of shots. Having strong models is absolutely essential here; they need to be able to adjust their posing fluidly and give you variety within a short window so you’re not burning frames on repetitive shots or outtakes.

We also got really lucky with the light, with clouds throughout the day giving us nice, soft light. I always bring a small skrim just in case, but we didn’t end up needing it all!

The second shoot for this client came a few weeks later. This one took place at a house in Burbank and was also pretty seamless. After seeing photos of the house I knew we would need some interior light, so I rented my trusty Aputure 600 last minute and it worked out perfectly. I feel like I’ve really locked in my approach to indoor shoots. There was a time when lighting felt stressful and intimidating, but now I have a simple system that works. If I’m ever in a space that feels a little dark or lacks enough natural light, I bring in an Aputure 600 and bounce it directly off the ceiling—no diffusion, just pure power for a soft, natural effect - it floods the room with even light. I pair that with Portra 800 indoors, and the results have been consistently great.

The next shoot I had was for my repeat client, Just Black Denim—which, if you’ve been following along, I shoot for quite often. Lately, they’ve been experimenting with more remote-style productions. Their producer, Taylor, is now based in London, so she produces the shoots remotely—handling the location, creative direction, and styling—while I’m on the ground executing the shoot with an assistant. In these cases, my role shifts slightly; instead of just showing up to photograph, I’m also helping with pickups and small production tasks as needed.

This particular shoot was a half-day downtown at a studio we use regularly. The day before, I was tasked with picking up flowers. Taylor gave me a budget and some inspiration, and I headed to the flower market, where I spent about $150 on beautiful florals. The shoot was for a small Easter / Spring capsule, and it was honestly really fun—I hadn’t been to the flower market in ages, and it felt nice to do something a little different as part of the prep.

On the day of the shoot, we did run into a bit of a snafu. I had also picked up a backdrop from Schmidli Backdrops, a go-to in the industry known for their beautifully hand-painted backdrops. They have hundreds of options, and they really elevate the production value of a shoot. The only catch is that they’re heavy—literally thick painted canvas.

Unfortunately, the studio we were shooting in had very old, partially broken C-stands that just weren’t functioning properly. We were really struggling to get the backdrop set up safely and securely. In a typical scenario, this would be something the producer would troubleshoot, but since it was just me, the model, and our assistant, I had to step into problem-solving mode. Thankfully, after working in LA for so long, I’ve built a solid network and rang up a colleague of mine who has a studio directly across the street. He happened to have two proper working C-stands and sandbags, so we rented them on the spot and got the backdrop up in minutes.

The start of the day was a bit stressful, but once that hurdle was cleared, everything settled into place. We were shooting both digital and film stills—no video—which helped keep things moving. Once we found our rhythm, the shoot went pretty smoothly overall.

One thing I did notice, though, was that I struggled a bit with on-the-spot direction. That’s an area I know isn’t my strongest, and when doing a multitude of things on a shoot, it can feel a bit overwhelming if the model is a little stiffer. Each look had visual and pose references, but once we ran through those, I felt myself feeling a little stuck. Despite that, I’m really excited about how these images turned out as they very much align with my personal taste and the visual aesthetics of my portfolio.

As I was nearing the last week of January, I finally had a free week without any shoots, which I was quite excited about. But as the freelance life goes, I got two last-minute gigs. The first was a shoot with an influencer/chef Elenore Toulin, who I was connected with through a mutual friend. It ended up being a really easy, sweet job, and I’m hoping it turns into an ongoing working relationship.

The second was a shoot with the one and only Karlie Kloss at the Chateau Marmont for an event with Estée Lauder — which felt like a big step for me. As I prepare for my move to Paris, I know the type of work I do is going to expand. I’ll be moving markets, becoming a little less picky, and leaning into new categories. Celebrity hotel shoots —especially around fashion weeks feels like a natural and realistic source of income, and something I’ve been curious about breaking into.

The project was confirmed the day before, and I knew I needed to have my bases covered lighting-wise since the lighting would be varied and unpredictable. Flash photography is something I vary rarely use so I set out to learn everything I could with the help of Youtube and Chatgpt in a matter of 24 hrs.

I previously had an old flash that barely worked with an awful recycle time, and luckily in December, I finally decided it was time for an upgrade. I decided for this gig I wanted a few different options, however. I ran to Samys and bought a trigger so I could use my hotshoe flash off-camera as well as a small dome diffuser from Magpie. Then I forced myself to sit down and actually understand what all the settings meant on the Godox V863.

I also ended up renting a Contax G2 so I could get some easy, crisp flash film shots. I also borrowed my friend’s Canon R5 so I could try out some natural light shots by bumping up the ISO. It was definitely the most nervous I’ve been for a shoot in a long time. I knew we’d be moving really fast—celebrities have such a limited window and notoriously are always behind schedule. Then with all the variables of lighting, I knew that I’d have to think on my feet.

After the shoot, I walked away feeling both exhilarated and completely exhausted. I’m an introvert, and events like this are incredibly overstimulating for me. (On top of that, I was clearly fighting off a virus because I got seriously sick the next day.) But all of that aside, it was such a valuable learning experience.

I definitely made a handful of mistakes, but one of the gifts of this job is that the client doesn’t always need to know about every misstep along the way. You’re there to deliver the final images, not to narrate every internal panic.

One of the biggest mistakes I made was with white balance. I had it set to around 5600K, but because we were constantly moving through different rooms— the Chateau Marmont had really warm, yellow-toned lighting in the hallways compared to bathrooms or hotel rooms—I should have either been adjusting it constantly or just left it on auto. Realistically, though, we only had a few minutes in each spot, and there wasn’t time to be tweaking settings nonstop. I ended up having to heavily correct some images in post, and a few were so far off that I converted them to black and white. In the end, shooting both flash and natural light really saved me though—if the natural-light frame was unusable, I often had a flash image that worked.

Another small mistake was bringing one of my vintage Polaroid cameras. It was more of an afterthought and not part of the brief, and with how little time we had, we barely touched it. I took two shots that ended up being product-focused, and neither came out. I think perhaps the film was likely expired, so next time, if I bring a Polaroid at all, it’ll be one of my newer, more reliable ones.

The biggest learning curve, though, came down to lack of experience with manual flash. Once Karlie moved from her hotel room and the hallway down to the actual event, I struggled to dial in my flash quickly enough. TTL was consistently too bright, but when I switched to manual flash, I often missed the shot because I didn’t have time to test and adjust. In those fast-paced moments—especially when she was interacting with other guests—I either blew out the image or underexposed it.

I did manage to test my manual flash briefly in another bathroom downstairs using Karlie’s Brand Director as a stand-in, which helped, and those were the best shots of the evening. But the reality is that I need more practice getting close to the correct settings instinctively. Even with a diffuser dome attached, TTL was still incredibly strong.

I also took a few frames on my Contax G2 at the party. I wasn’t able to prioritize film as much as I wanted, so we only got about 17 frames on a roll, including a few atmospheric shots of the event itself. One thing I noticed the next day is how easy it would be to leave the lens cap while shooting. On my way to the lab the next day, I decided to finish the roll by shooting flowers around my neighborhood—and that’s when I realized I’d taken a few shots with the lens cap still on. The Contax G2 viewfinder doesn’t reflect the lens view directly, so it’s easy to miss. Thankfully, the stakes were low, but it was a good reminder to always double-check.

All in all, I covered a lot of ground that night, delivered what the client needed, and walked away with a long list of lessons. It was exhausting, humbling, and incredibly valuable—and exactly the kind of experience that pushes you forward.

That’s all for Jan. Thank you as always for reading. Work has slowed down a bit in February so the next diary may be a more personal reflection rather than trials and tribulations.

xx
Heather