Portrait work outside of the actor 'headshot' —feat. Actor Arika Mabota

When I’m getting paid for being a photographer, 90% of the work is headshots. Being an actor and being a part of the Seattle theatre/film scene, it’s easy for me to find clientele with little to no advertisement or self promotion. I like headshot work. It’s straight forward, quick, and I get to give back to artist in my community.

Left: Actor Megan Cooper, Right: Actor Sara Falaro

However, I sure do miss shooting portraits. As embarrassing as it sounds, I miss being 17. I miss not working two jobs, having the free time to go out with my camera, a friend wanting to model, and making my hometown suburbs not look like the suburbs. I miss willingly being able to give my time away to shoot and be adventurous with my editing for hours on end. I still believe some of my strongest portrait work was when I was a teenager—but that’s only because I have to go that far back to see when I was actively shooting portraits. The self portrait challenge of 2018 was in response to this. I wanted to rebuild my love for portrait photography.

Ya’ll ain’t ready for 2019 portrait challenge, there is already too many photos of me laying on the floor.

Then here comes Arika. She sees my self portraits and says, “I want to hire you to shoot portrait work of me as an actor for up-incoming patron project”. I was so incredibly honored that someone saw my very personal work and wanted to hire me because of it.

Re-entering portrait work as a professional photographer is still very much a whirlwind time for me. For those who haven’t booked a session with me, I don’t give much direction on posing. I love candids and I enjoy having conversations while shooting. I like encouraging people to fake laugh at something until it becomes funny.

If you want to book a session with me for the summer, please feel free to email me or use the contact page. A huge thanks to Arika for booking this session. If you live in the Seattle area, go make it out to her theatre performances or even better, become a patron for her! You certainly won’t regret it.

Best,

Laura

Full on Mitski’s ‘Washing Machine Heart’ vibes.

Self Portraits from 2018 — What I learned from taking weekly 'selfies'

We’ve made it friends! For the first time ever I have finished a photo challenge. I ended the year with 52 photos and only two camera selfies. There are some photos I’m really proud of, some that don’t show me in great light, and some that I shot in the last hour at the end of a long week. Overall, I’m just so happy I kept it up as long as I did. I wrote a short clickbait list on what I learned taking a photo of myself for an entire year. Enjoy and Happy New Year!

1. Learn how to pose yourself

I identify myself as a portrait photographer, but posing myself in front of a camera I am not holding is incredibly hard for me. In a lot of these you’ll see I’m making myself laugh. Encouraging myself to smile and giggle at nothing helped me to become comfortable with standing in front of my camera in a posed but candid manner.

2. You are going to miss that day you looked great

And you’ll have to accept that. I went to an award ceremony in a phenomenal dress as the photographer for the evening. And guess what? I did not take a single photo of myself that night besides a quick camera selfie. This happened a lot during the year. I knew I was going out on Friday so I didn’t bother taking a photo from Monday-Thursday. Friday comes around and I want to focus on getting ready to go out rather than setting up a shot. In the end, I would get the ‘late Sunday night’ shot—which isn’t always bad. But I could have saved myself a lot of late night stress if I settled for average looking me on a Tuesday afternoon.

3. Settle for the mirror shot

It’s the most basic selfie out there. It’s going to happen. Just let it.

4. Let someone hold your camera

Having either a tripod or a stack of books hold my camera up was a rule I broke early on. For the most part, I did try to avoid someone taking the shot for me this entire challenge. But sometimes, you just want the nicer shot that only another human can help you with. Rely on them as a tag-team portrait.

5. Go outside to take your shot

If you have the time during the week, push yourself to go on a walk for the picture. Make yourself uncomfortable with you and your camera in public. Let people stare at you and look indifferent. Make the portrait an excuse to look nice for no one else but yourself.

6. Your ‘studio’ apartment

I lucked out that I lived in three different places this year to give variety, but making my apartment a make shift studio helped me on days I didn’t want to go out for the shot. Turn the flash on, take the photo in different parts of your house, do close up portraits to make it look like you are totally wearing pants (when in reality, you aren’t)

7. No matter what, don’t miss a week

You feel over worked and gross? Take the shot. You feel really emotionally drained? Take the shot. You are drunk from a concert at it’s 11pm on a Sunday? Take the shot. Photo challenges are to build routine. I imagine healthy routines like going to gym and keeping a diet are similar to this. You do it no matter what. It’s your routine—and you can’t break any more New Year’s Resolutions!

There was a lot of personal growth for me this year and I’m so happy I have something silly like this to document it. If any of you are considering doing a photo challenge for next year, feel free to ask me for any advice or join me for 2019. I don’t want to give this up just yet.

xoxo, Laura

Happy Birthday & Bad Self Portraits

At the beginning of 2018, a good friend of mine challenged me to do weekly self portrait challenge. This isn't my first time attempting this. Since I started shooting at the age of 14 (holy crap that's 10 years ago!), I've attempted multiple 365 photos or daily documentation challenges. I always make to March until the entire thing falls apart. But this year I've made it to May! Fingers crossed I keep going.

Today we're in week 22. Today I turn 24.

So here's to the bad self portraits, the good self portraits, and to being my most photographed model. I hope you enjoy this collection of self absorbed celebration.

May 24 be as good to me as 23 was.

Cheers,

Laura

Tasmania, Day Three

Day three? Are you releasing your story halfway through the plot like the original Star Wars trilogy? Damn right I am. Besides, it seems like the best way considering this is my first blog post and I'm over halfway through my travels. 

"I'll start my blogging by making it all out of order. This is how I'll build a following like all those other cool travel blogs. Someone will give me free stuff for this. I'm a genius."

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The teaser photo.

For day three of our trip, Susan and I had two goals on the itinerary: brunch and beach. Our Airbnb was in Hobart and all of the 'good beaches' that were recommend were over two and a half hours out. So after a well deserved vacation sleep in, we hopped into the rental car and went for a drive on the left side of the road. (Meaning Susan drove and I DJ/navigated. As most people know, I still don't have my license. Shame, shame, I know. I promise it's the only thing I care about on my 'New Years Resolutions List 2018')

Our Airbnb had this beautiful sunroom. I tried to take a cool traveler selfie, but I just look bored. What's new?

Shout out to this market place that gave us a ticket because we needed a pass to park there. Even though there was no signage about this.

When we were 45 minute away from our final destination beach, we found this beach that reminded me so much of Hawaii except the water was freezing. After all, it's the closest we've ever been stepping in the Antarctic Ocean.

Peed in a bush? Cool. It's time to go to our final destination. Bicheno beach.

I may have grown up with Hawaii beaches, but the beautiful untouched white soft sand and clear water of Tasmania was starting to win my heart over.

From here, we began to walk through four inches of the clearest water to a little island just off the shore. Cue the birds flying away from us.

Climbed over a few rocks and...

Is this even real?

Of course I had to strike a cooler traveler pose to replace my boring ones from the morning. I thank round sunglasses and a half a bottle of wine for giving me the confidence and belief I could pull it off.

I tried to do a timed photo with Susan and I both in it, but I didn't make it in time. So here is me trying to poop next to Susan.

The sun was starting to set. And with that two and a half hour drive ahead, it was time to go back.

Bye for now Tassie beach.

Highlight from the drive back was seeing wild wallabies hop away from from us. You can't really make it out, but it was a movie magic moment even though they didn't want anything to do with us and our cameras.

More travel post to come soon! 
Just give me the will to edit them.