Hey Ryan and Gianna! I’ve been cultivating a little moodboard, because I’m in a bit of an inspired mood recently. And so, I’ve gotten some reference photos to look at for poses. It might be helpful to also break down a few elements of COMPOSITION and GAZE and POSE that would be nice to keep in mind too! The goal is to make all of this less mysterious, less scary, and more natural for you guys :)

None of these photos are mine LOL; they’re mostly screenshots from Instagram. I think I’ve got some sample photos somewhere if you like. Not every photo contains a couple in it either, so I’ll trust you guys to get the *vibe* of it, especially if it’s contextualized by couple-imagery. Also, none of these incorporate the location(s) we’ll be going to, nor does each one have similar lighting, nor weather, nor time of day. Which means what we shoot will likely be different from all of this, but I guess what’s important is the vibe these people are giving. 


CLOSE UPS


These are images that are close-up on the couples’ faces.
MOST don’t involve a kiss! So there are gestures of intimacy that aren’t so literal. These also feel close up, even if they might be a bit wider (you’ll see the next category), because part of the face is cropped. At best, we see ONE person’s eye, which tells us that we’re in the act of seeing a moment that is not...visible...if that makes any sense. It’s more feeling than visibility.

In terms of lighting, most are taking place either in the shade, dusk, or are backlit (aka shade). Which is helpful for me to know, and helpful for you guys to understand that it creates a sense of softness without a giant lighting setup.



MEDIUM-CLOSE-UPS


Honestly, these might look similarly-close as the ones above. But the images are a bit wider; they show body along with face. 
I think you get the vibe. They continue to use a tight lens, which might determine that they’re “close ups.”

Here’s a note for something called GAZE. While most of the photos above have couples looking at each-other, like this -> <-, (the exception: in one of them, and in another), some of these images contain more complex gazes. I guess the question becomes “what type of intimacy is suggested through the gaze?” I’ve added Ryan Pfluger’s queer photos at the end of this list, where all these queer couples are staring right back at the camera, which in my mind is a bit piercing, and a gesture that we can bring to the hetero-world if we want. 

Also we will do the running photo, absolutely, no questions asked.




MEDIUM: SKY


A subcategory of the previous one, and a good transition to wider-ish shots, here is a style of image that is clearly a trope, and that gives us coming-of-age vibes. Subject in front, sky in background. Similar to a backdrop, this one isolates the subject. In this case, YOU TWO will be the subjects. The cat at the end suggests a sort-of irony to this.



MEDIUM-WIDES

EVERYTHING ELSE GOES HERE: less prescribed, the subject is in much more of an evident relationship with their setting!  Anyways, this is where we get the mood.

We can break these down further, but some words to describe these might include hugging, running, walking, being cuddly. Most of these look “natural,” which is to say that we forget that the camera is even there. And so the best stuff to prepare for this is honestly to forget I’m there, if that’s possible. 



FINALLY: LOCATION

I went to Ortega Highway and took some shots. I think we might focus more on the images that I made bigger, and then play around with the other options. Some spots definitely require a different lens/lighting: I went an hour earlier than we’ll be there, with a lens that gives us more width than most the the photos above. Dusk will also be a definitive PLUS for all of these scenes. I’ll bring an off-camera flash for dusk, if there’s no wind and it won’t blow over & am currently seeing if I can grab a friend to hold the stand :)