So you’ve lined up your FIRST EVER photo shoot with a professional photographer and you’re so incredibly thrilled you could literally fly to the moon and back in a rocket ship fueled by your excitement. You might have even shelled out $200 plus for this shoot even! You have this amazing vision in your mind and have even created beautiful Pinterest boards for inspiration to share with the photographer. So… What now?
Before you rocket ship off to excitement land (which is total blast, you’ll love it there), your first photo shoot is going to be an incredible experience and an incredible undertaking. The fact that your even here, at your first photo shoot with a professional photographer is amazing and you should be really proud of yourself for saving up, finding the right photographer, coming up with a concept and in general rocking the blogging world. Go you and virtual high fives all around! When Melissa and I did our first shoot with a professional photographer, we were about 3 months into blogging and learned SO much from the experience! Of course we had shot ourselves before, but don’t be fooled ladies, your first shoot with a pro and multiple looks is waaayyy more of an undertaking than you might think! Today, we’re going to share with you what we wished we had packed in our photo shoot kit (we didn’t even have one until after this ha!) and is now very much a part of our handy-dandy shoot survival kit now. We’ll even share some of our “how to survive your first photo shoot and get everything you want out of it” tips lol.
First things first, get organized.
Planning out your looks a few days ahead is crucial as it’s going to affect what you need to bring and how much of it. The last thing you want to do is be running around your house 30 minutes before your scheduled shoot, sweating up a hot hot mess while tearing apart your closet looking for that nude bandeau or your sticky boobs! Like seriously, don’t procrastinate! If you’re pulling from a boutique, take notes with every outfit and don’t rush yourself. Sit down, stand up, walk around in the outfit and make note of anything that would need to be addressed for the shoot. For instance, if when you lift your arm up for a pose, does the strap fall off? This might be the difference between packing double-sided tape and flashing your new photographer. Once you’ve tried on all your looks, now determine your make-up plan. This might also sound like “uh, what? a make up plan?” but really, if you are wanting to change-up make up looks for each look, you’ll need to bring some more makeup essentials than the bare minimum that should be in your photo shoot kit. Compile all these notes in a list somewhere like your phone for safe keeping and so you can access it on your next shoot!
Our Essentials:
Below is all our essentials that we pack in our photo shoot survival kit. We’ve done about 5-6 shoots so far with professional photographers and for the most part our kit doesn’t change too much between shoots. BUT, one thing that isn’t listed on here, is a change of clothes. When you’re down with the shoot or before the shoot, you don’t want to be wearing the clothes your going to shoot because well, what if you spill your water on yourself? Also, you probably want to have a change of clothes to change into (it can be the same outfit you wore there) after your done so that you can hang up all the clothes you shot immediately afterwards (this also means you won’t have to re-wash and iron the clothes to wear them again! Score!).
Of course, the kit changes a bit based on season too, but not really. When we first shot with the amazing photographer Todd White , I also didn’t bring extra outfit options! Rookie mistake big time! Luckily Melissa had and so I borrowed a few pieces from her and was able to shoot a 4th look. But DEFINITELY bring extra outfits, even if you’re pulling from a boutique, bring an extra from your own closet too! You never know if the photographer will finish your looks early and you don’t want to not use up the time you paid for! I mean it’s already paid for after all. Build your own photo shoot survival kit in our shop the post section below! We also want to take this opportunity to give a HUGE thank you to our favorite Austin photographers who have given us the amazing opportunities of working, collaborating and just plain having a blast with them! Thanks Todd White and Carlos Barron ! Y’all are amazing!
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“I said to my mother, ‘When you see my name in ‘Vogue,’ I will have arrived.'” – Mario Testino
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