Alaskan Photographers Travel to New York for Photo Shoot with Sam Villa

Feb. 11, 2013 - PRLog -- We’ve just wrapped up a whirlwind photo shoot in New York City with the Sam Villa team. I had the pleasure of joining Shalem Mathew of Shalem Photography as his photo assistant for the shoot.
Day 1: Model Call
We held a model call at Reel Creative Studios to find the perfect subjects for the shoot. One of the challenges of shooting this week was the proximity to New York’s Fashion Week. At the same time it was so cool to see the caliber of the subjects we were working with. Some of the agencies represented included Fenton Moon, Elite, BMG, IMG, Major Model Management, and Click  Many of the models we booked were also walking the catwalk for a variety of designers, including Project Runway.
Day 2: Prep Day
Photo shoots often require extensive preparation for all involved. For the prep day and shoot we used the Day Light studio at Go Studios, 2400sqft of photographic bliss. Our ‘band’ used inspiration boards to get everyone within the team on the same page creatively. On prep day the hair team cut and colored the hair pieces for the shoot, wardrobe is discussed, and space organized.
Shalem and I used this time to take a trip around the block to B&H Photo Video, aka paradise. While we originally went there with the intention of purchasing some gaffer tape, and a pair of umbrellas, we ended up leaving with some new toys tools: a Nikon D800 and Canon 5dmkiii! We spent much of the day learning the new features, and testing lighting.
Day 3-5 Shoot days
Each day the team worked with 3-4 models in a variety of looks, and in the end produced over 30 finished images. During the shoot we shoot ‘tethered’ which means Shalem’s camera is connected to a nearby computer to display full size previews during the shoot. This is absolutely imperative for a shoot of this scope as there are many people paying attention to different details. I can not wait to share the photos that were created, stay tuned for more posts as they are published.
Shoot Credits
Hair: Sam Villa, Geneva Cowen, George Garcia, Andrew Carruthers, Tina Calzaretta, Mary Urban
Makeup: Paula Dahlberg
Photography: Shalem Mathew, Mitch Kitter
Video / Behind The Scenes: Erik Braund, Chase Mallen
Wardrobe: Pascal Sauvageau, Jeremie Cote
Day 6 Fly Home (Or try to anyway)
Winter storm Nemo wrecked havoc on East Coast travel. Some of our team’s flights were delayed and ultimately canceled. One of our lighting bags was lost for a while, but fortunately our flight was right on time!
Check out the Sam Villa Blog for some great behind the scenes photos and more info about the shoot!