The Perils of Posing

I'm finally feeling comfortable shooting in manual mode, and actually, I've come to prefer it since I have complete control over the composition of the picture, which is great for a control freak like me. I've even gotten to the point where I'm not constantly thinking about and over analyzing the settings, I'm just doing it, and if it it works, YAY! If not, I figure out what I did wrong (Ah ha! I metered for the building behind the people rather than the actual people. Silly me.) and move on.

So now I feel like that next huge hurdle I have to overcome is posing.

Realization Moment: Not only do you have to figure out your camera, you mean you have to figure out what to do with the people too?! This is getting harder...

Luckily, I've come across some great tidbits of information that are a little more helpful than my previous standard of telling people to "look natural or act like you love each other, while sitting awkwardly on this really uncomfortable rock/itchy grass/ice cold sidewalk." Which is usually followed by their look of "is she for real?" I, immediately sensing their sense of apprehension, quickly alleviate the situation with the always assuring, "don't worry, it looks great... completely normal...I promise." Yikes.

So, to help with the serious awkwardness of the posing situation, I now scour magazines (Vogue, InStyle, Southern Weddings Magazine), catalogs (J.Crew, Anthropologie), the classics (photographs/paintings/sculptures in my favorite museums) for inspiration. I'll then add these bits o' inspiration to my very own look book. A day or two before the shoot, I'll scan through them. I find that once I'm actually at the shoot, I tend to have forgotten the specifics of the exact pose, but the general idea remains, so I create something that's my own - for better or worse.

"pondering posing" pose

Thanks to Kate Nordstrom for the photo. You rock.