Still Photography Studio

Today I visited Kaburagi studio, a photography studio close to downtown Tokyo. A friend of mine, who is currently working on a monthly traveling catalog, kindly invited me to the still photo session of the cover page.

The experience was a blast. It was just like everything I've seen on TV. The studio, studio staffs, model and people from agencies.

I was surprised to see how professional the model was during the photo session. Though she's a young vetran actress, every pose, every smile was just so natural. I am sure the professional photographer had much to do with the beautiful outcome of the photos, but it was very impressive nontheless.

While I was watching the photo shooting, I kinda fooled by the photos. I had trouble identifying the model in front of me and the photo that just came out on the screen. It's the same person but felt and looked different between real life and still photo. That was the second thing that amazed me today. If I bumped her on the street, I wouldn't be able to tell that she's that actress on the screen. But maybe it's just because I am not familiar with her. I really felt how a person can look so different in real life and in photos.

To me, the model was like a tool. Everyone prepared her well for the photo shoot, the hair stylist, make up artist, lighting director and etc. We had her for an hour, and we wanted to get the best out of her in that time frame. Same thing I felt during the video shooting of the dvd project I am currently working on. We had everything scheduled for the day, and we needed to get as much as we can in that one day of time. Even if there were obstacles, like bad weather, we still needed to figure a way out to cover up the unexpected.