Shelby Syed
Shelby is a long-time friend of the family. My daughter Emily used to babysit for her mother when they were both younger. My wife and I saw Shelby at Jamba Juice a few weeks ago and I was amazed at how beautiful she was and how distinctive her features were. I asked her about modeling and she indicated that she was interested.
Roll forward a few weeks and her mom calls Kay to find out if I was serious. She confirmed it with me but didn't have a date yet. On Christmas Eve Kay and I didn't have much planned, so I invited Shelby over to our house for an impromptu photo session. Her mom brought her over. I set up some lights in the living room and we got started.
At first Shelby was a bit nervous because being just barely 16, she had never modeled before. Her poses were a bit stiff and she was acting more like the pictures were for school rather than for a modeling portfolio. I just kept encouraging her and telling her "these are NOT senior portraits". I encouraged her to act like she does in front of the mirror when she is dreaming about being a model, just do fun poses and don't worry about what anyone thinks. After a bit she loosened up and got into a groove. Although she would laugh at what I was asking at times, she kept working on being serious and before long she was giving me pose after pose that were just stunning. She had some awesome looks and all I had to do was adjust the lighting, keep encouraging her and periodically show her on my laptop what we were doing so she could see and understand.
I have included lighting layouts for some of the photographs. Our living room was cramped for space and we had to move some furniture around. My primary light was a Photogenic 1500 monolight with either a large softbox with a grid, or a strip softbox. Fill was a white or silver reflector, and sometimes on SB-800 for a hair light. This was very impromptu and nothing very formal, so I didn't want to drag out of ton of gear, we just went with simple lighting setups.
I am certainly looking forward to our next photo shoot! 
