What Shooting Actually Feels Like

People ask me what a shoot day is like and I always have to decide which version to give them.

The Instagram version: golden hour, everything clicked into place, I looked incredible and I knew it. That version exists. About 3% of the time.

The real version: I shot for six hours yesterday. My feet hurt. The light I wanted lasted maybe twenty minutes. I took 400 photos. Three of them are what I actually wanted.

The gap between the idea and the image

There's always a gap between what's in my head before a shoot and what comes out on the other side. Sometimes the gap is small. Sometimes it's enormous and I drive home feeling like I wasted a day.

Then I look at the three frames and I remember why I do it.

Three frames that are genuinely mine. That nobody told me to take. That feel like something real happened.

Why I keep going

I'm not chasing perfect. I'm chasing the thing that feels true. Some days it comes easy. Most days it doesn't. But every time I get it, I remember it's worth the 397 bad ones.

The good ones go to Patreon first. Always. That's the deal I made with myself when I started this - the people who actually show up get to see the real work first.

x Seri.