05/18/2026
This past week, I was invited to speak at a STEAM event for young aspiring entrepreneurs & career-driven students 🎓✨
I was with the future photographers 📸, so it turned into an evening filled with amazing questions, great conversations, and lots of inspiration.
One question that really stood out was:
“How much do you plan for a photoshoot?” 🤔
I told them honestly… I used to plan everything before a shoot. Every detail. Every pose. Every idea.
But now? I really don’t.
This photoshoot was for a cheer company in a gym I’ve photographed in before 📸🏟️
The first step was exposing the background exactly how I wanted it. That meant darkening it down quite a bit.
Let’s be honest… most gyms aren’t exactly beautiful 😅
Other than the hardwood floor, I wasn’t interested in having much of the gym visible in the final image. I warmed up the color tone of the gym floor to match the color tones of their uniforms.
Next step: adding two hair lights behind the subjects to match their uniforms 💡✨
Thankfully, I had both yellow and pink gels ready to go. After a little color matching in post-production, I got the tones to match perfectly 🎨
Once the background was set, all that was left was exposing the model correctly — and the shot was complete ✅
This process is the same at every shoot 📸✨
Start with a vision.
Then tweak the lighting, the angles, the mood, and every little detail until everything matches that vision perfectly. 💡
That’s really what photography is for me — creating something in your mind and bringing it to life step by step. 🙌
