Hello again, it’s been a little over a month since we last met and a LOT has happened. Fall arrived in full swing, Halloween was a blast, I experienced my first musical performance recording, I was introduced to the most aesthetic general store, I broke into a new genre of photography with fantastic responses to it, and I attempted to go back to a genre I love but ended up empty handed. It’s been a crazy month to say the least, and as the years been coming to an end, I find myself wondering where things will head in the months to come?
Real quick, before we get into everything. I just wanted to share the photos I took using my Canon A-1, shot on Ilford XP2 Black and White film, that I captured while out with my daughter Chandra around Seattle. Also, this is going to be a long post (intended to catch you up on everything that’s been going on), so I just wanted to say thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the photos and videos throughout.
Just before Halloween, I was invited to go out to a local pumpkin patch with a couple of my family members. No expectations of taking photos, but I brought my camera and a couple lenses with me anyway, since I knew a couple of my younger cousins would be there. We all walked around, looking for the “perfect pumpkin”, which I’m pretty sure the kids found about 7 or 8 times, while I talked with my aunts and helped load the “perfect pumpkins” in and out of the cart each time it was found. I snagged pictures along the way, enjoying the just barely chilled morning and my nice and warm coffee. Having no reservations about what to capture, and just being able to stroll along while enjoying the company of my family, is always a welcomed event. As we were heading back to the front to pay, I snagged pictures of other families, having fun on their own hunt for the “perfect pumpkin”. I’m not sure what sparked it, but I was definitely aware of the fact that day felt very reminiscent of when I first started shooting photography. No goal or real purpose in mind, just there to enjoy the day and come away with whatever I could get.
Not long after my day at the pumpkin patch, I was tasked with a recording that honestly made me the most nervous I’ve ever been since I started working with True Northwest Magazine, I recorded a musical performance. There’s a lot that I’ve learned since September of 2021, both in photography and in recording videos for YouTube, but I’d be an absolute lying ass hat if I said I’m a professional at anything I do. So to be tasked with recording a musician for the 1st time ever, and also be for the TNW YouTube channel, I was having a mini heart attack almost daily. I thank all the luck in the world that I had, as we got the chance to record in an actual recording studio, which made sound management so much easier. It took me an alarming amount of time to get everything set up (lights, cameras, audio, monitoring, and positioning), but once we got started it went “reasonably” smooth, only having a few hic-ups during the performance. I spent days, literal DAYS, researching the best way to edit audio, and came away with a decent video in the end. I have so much respect for audio engineers (both before and after doing this), and I can confirm that it won’t be a profession I seek out to explore. In the end, Anthony and HilaryAnn did a killer four song set, I had fun learning something new, and everything worked out in the end.
In addition to recording the musical performance for TNW, I also got to do a photo shoot for Petrikor, a modern general store located here in down town Everett. Petrikor is a beautiful store, filled with artisan goods, drinks, and eats. It’s also hands down the most aesthetically beautiful store I feel like I’ve ever been to. The owners and the staff are beyond friendly and inviting, the store itself is comfortable and inviting, and I ended up spending over two hours at Petrikor because of that. On top of having a blast getting to know the owners and staff, taking pictures and browsing the items, my assistant bought me a bag of artisan kettle chips (which I am now addicted to). Thanks Phong. Check out the latest issue of True Northwest Magazine ( https://www.truenwmagazine.com/ ), and get to know Petrikor and Anthony Brock music group a little more.
One of the goals in my photography career is to be as diverse as possible with the work that I produce, and in the few years that I’ve shot photography (and getting linked up with TNW has helped out a lot too) I’ve done a pretty good job at exploring tons of genre’s and testing them out to see if it’s something I want to pursue more of. One genre that has eluded me though was boudoir photography, a genre that honestly and understandably requires a ton of skill as not to turn it into porn, and a ton of trust that the photographer and model are comfortable with each other, as the model is required to bring forward the portrayal of intimacy and romantic emotions. Boudoir is typically intended as a gift for the models partner, but in doing a light bit of research I found that there is another common reason for one to do a boudoir shoot. The confidence boost that can be gained from a shoot of this genre can be immense, even overwhelming in certain cases, and after doing two shoots for two beautiful women, I was shown what boudoir photography can do (and I also felt a powerful draw toward wanting to continue to give that confidence boost to more individuals).
From the start of put myself out there, and reaching out to people to see if they’d be interested in doing a boudoir shoot with me, I knew I’d have a certain level of difficulty that I’d need to be understanding about and continue to figure out how to navigate. Luckily enough I have two friends that are relaxed and confident, to which led them to reach out to me immediately to book a shoot.
Wanting to give boudoir, and my friends, the best outcome I could try to, I put together a template for the entire “experience”, from the scheduling and planning of how the shoot would go, all the way through how I’d handle the distribution of the photos afterwards. Both sessions went great, with both ladies letting me know that I did a fantastic job of making them feel comfortable, confident, and that I was a great help in posing instructions as well. When it came time to distribute the photos, each of my friends had different needs, but it was my second friend (Crystal) that had the biggest impact on me.
Crystal had reached out to me to do the shoot, because she had always wanted to do one (a bucket list item as she put it), but had previously lacked the confidence to fully take the leap. Finding this out during one of our conversations leading up to our shoot date, I wanted to help build up her confidence even more than she would be able to imagine. I took my time in getting her posed and instructing her on how to bring out emotion, making sure that she was comfortable, and moving her to different compositions to “tell a story” instead of shooting for singular compositions. After our shoot I of course edited the photos (picking out the best ones) and put them all in a file to give her, before moving on to the other “gifts” I would present to her. While I was editing the photos I came up with an idea, “why not utilize the Media aspect of Grimlock Media to present her with the photos?” So that’s exactly what I did, I put all the photos into my video editing software, added different music for the different parts of the photo sets, and created a photo collage video that I could present to her. Going one set further than that, I also had the idea of putting a small photo book for her as well.
The day I went over to Crystal’s house to present her photos, I was excited and nervous. I hadn’t known Crystal all that long, and we’d never officially met in person until the day of the shoot. I didn’t have a clue if she’d like video or book I put together, or if she’d even like the way I did the edits of the photos. But when I started the video for her, and saw the expression on her face, I knew she was in love. In love with how the edits turned out, in love with the fact that I went above and beyond her expectations of what she’d get out of the shoot, and most importantly she was in love with herself and how she looked. She didn’t say much throughout most of the video, but she didn’t have to, her emotions radiated without a single word.
Since that day she’s expressed that she wants to continue to do more shoots, exploring different locations and poses, all while continually building confidence. To which I’ve replied “I’d love to, and it’d be my pleasure”.
It’s always bewildered, and more often than not frustrated, me how life is far from a straight line. There are highs and lows, multiple paths, and dead ends. So it didn’t really come as a surprise that with all the highs I’ve been having lately with my photography, there’d eventually be a “fall flat on your face” moment.
Those of you that have been with me from the start of my photographic journey, know that some of my first experiences in photography was to go out late at night and shoot. I called it “midnight photography”, and I fell head over heels in love with it. I’d go to down town Marysville, Arlington, Bellevue, and even wander around Pike Place at midnight or later. I’d snap shots of the interior of business that sat still and empty, waiting for the next days customers and staff to fill it’s walls with hustle and bustle. I’d find and take shots of the late night workers, that on most days no one even knew existed. But my favorite of all to capture was the environment itself, capturing an area or buildings that people recognize, but at the time it was captured it had a look and feel of abandonment. That feeling that I captured was typically loved or hated, there never did seem to be a middle from people.
Being that I’ve been so busy the past couple months, and been driven to explore more genres as well, I hadn’t made it out to shoot a midnight session for almost a year. But last night the itch to go back out and give it a go again was just too strong, so I packed up my camera gear (camera, 50mm, 85mm, and a 135mm just for fun) and headed down to Pike Place. I got there a little before midnight and started my way down the main road. I started out with the 50mm, and snapped a couple shots here and there to try and get the feel for shooting in that style again. Walking up and down the road, up the hill and back down the other side, I was looking everywhere only to take a couple shots after almost a half hour. By the time I came up on an hour and a half of being out, I realized that I wasn’t really finding or composing anything that I liked. I’d change to my 85mm for a little bit, walk all around and snap a couple pictures, not like most of them, and then change over to the 135mm, only to have the same outcome. I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t get back into the groove of things.
I spent 2+ hours out, and I barely scratched 30 photos. To say I was frustrated would be an understatement, but more accurately I was scared. While driving home I had come to the conclusion that I’d been so far out of practice, and been shooting such drastically different genre’s, that I should’ve expected to come away with little to nothing and not been surprised. When I got into photography everything was a wonder, everything stuck out like a neon sign, because it was a whole new way of seeing the world (through a lens). It sucked not being able to feel that wonder and excitement again, but even though it was a dip in the road, I’m still looking forward to going back out in the middle of the night, and trying my hand again and again. If there’s one genre of photography I never want to lose, it’s the one that I started out my journey with to begin with.
Hey, this has been one hell of a long one to write (and read). I wanted to say thank you for taking the time to get through it. I don’t expect that most will take the time to make it this far, so if you did, you’re definitely one of the great ones.
I hope you enjoyed catching up, that you have a great rest of the year, a fantastic holiday season (if I don’t happen to sit down and write another post), and that you experience more “life ups” than downs.
Catch y’all later - Andrew Hoyle
