My friend AJ is a bit of a fashionista. So throughout 2015 whenever we ran into each other (usually at a job site) we would have an impromptu photo shoot. Though we never spoke of it before meeting, I knew he would inevitably open with, "Lachance! Yo, can I get a Lachance photo?!?"
AJ, always the charmer...
What was unique about the majority of our shoots was that the photos had to be full body length and in a 1x1 format. Being quite dapper, AJ was always dressed with impeccable style and wanted to show that off on his Instagram account which only accepted 1x1 ratio at the time. This was a challenge for me at first.
To start, I wasn't accustomed to shooting my subject so wide. Since the shoots were always spontaneous I only ever had my Fuji with a 35mm prime lens on hand. Using such a wide lens I wasn't able to isolate AJ like I would with a telephoto lens. This meant the environment took on a more important role in each image. In some cases this was challenging, in others it worked with ease. Additionally shooting in such a confined ratio wasn't something I was accustomed to, and sometimes compounded the challenge of incorporating the environment in the frame. But these became obstacles were overcome largely due to AJ.
A good model has you chasing them, and once we decided on the location and feel of the photo it was up to me to keep up with AJ. Offering minimal direction, I was free to focus on the technical aspects of the image, and we would usually get the look we both had in mind within a few dozen frames.
Below are a few of my favourite images, but you can see more and some with different edits on AJ's Instagram account as well as check out his fashion photos and videos.
