I’ve always been a fan of the music of the 60’s and 70’s; a taste I probably acquired from my father. Among the many artists in his rotation was one of my favorites, Neil Young. The inspiration behind this photoshoot stemmed from the sound of Neil Young’s music. Here’s how sound became sight.
The first step was brainstorming. I already had the initial inspiration of the feel I was going for from Neil Young, but I needed to figure out how to create this feeling visually.
For the set, I wanted to create the room of a traveling folk musician. All that she owns can be carried in two suitcases and a guitar case, the rest of the objects in the room left by previous occupants. The overall color pallet I wanted to be warm toned, like that of old photographs. I knew I’d incorporate my father’s guitar and it’s case, which has a golden colored interior. I also wanted to accessorize with a green hat I had recently purchased for myself. I chose a red backdrop because I knew it would pair well with the gold and green accents I was planning on using and I knew it would create the warmth I wanted.
The outfit I wanted to keep neutral in color; brown tones seemed fitting to emulate a nature hippie feeling. Remembering that this is the 70’s though, I had to add a little bit of fun to the clothing. That is why I went with the faux fur vest and bell bottom pants with exaggerated slits. To finish off the styling, I asked the model, Catrina, to come with a natural hair and makeup look.
The next step is putting it all together. This includes shopping, building the set, and the photoshoot.
Here’s where I I found all of my props and attire:
- Fabric for Backdrop - Walmart
- Rug - Home Goods
- Shirt and vest - Macy’s
- Pants - Aritzia
- Radio - Warehouse 2639 (local secondhand shop)
- Hat - Paloma’s Jewelry Shop
- Chair - Facebook Marketplace
- Faux wood flooring - Angelina Jones Photography Studio
- Suitcases - Angelina Jones Photography Studio
- Guitar - My Father’s Yamaha
- Neil Young Guitar Songbook - My Father’s
This set was fairly simple to build once I had all of the components. My mother helped me by sewing the fabric for the backdrop together to make it large enough to cover the background.
It was a three light setup with a Godox AD200Pro for a hair light with a strip box, a Godox AD600Pro for fill with a softbox, and a Flashpoint Speedlight as the key light with small octabox.
The shoot day was lots of fun! Having already shared inspiration pictures to Catrina, she arrived prepared and on the same page as me which made things run smooth. I pulled up a page of poses I had compiled to give her an idea of the casual feelings I wanted her to emulate and then we were off to shooting.
In the end, we got a lot of great images and I believe achieved the overall look and feel I was going for!
