I woke up to a “Hey Jay I’d like to shoot with you to begin my modeling portfolio” email bright and early on a Friday morning. Being a photographer, this isn’t what you’d call super out of the ordinary, but this particular Friday morning came after a Thursday night of being inspired and wanting very badly to create some portraits. I responded to the email asking if we could communicate over the phone. A few hours later Zhae and I were meeting for the first time to make some magic.

Zhae arrived with a willingness to learn and to create. I love that. During our session, she asked me about the lighting, how long I’d been shooting, how to get better at posing, and other things that gave me the impression that she was very excited about her new modeling pursuit. We chose some straightforward wardrobe choices and begin working through lighting setups. By the session’s end what was originally scheduled to be a 1-hour portrait session actually lasted for 2+ hours because we were having so much fun. Check out some of what we created below!