Cedrick Dbn came to me from Paris. Well, not literally. He happened to be in town visiting from France for a week and really needed some updated images for his modeling agency. Photographers in Paris are a dime a dozen, Cedrick wanted an American photographer to shoot his images because we often have a different eye. He requested a European style (obviously) with the clothing, but with an urban edge. I knew just the stylist, my good friend Will Lawry couldn’t say no. I purposely choose Georgetown as the shoot location because the forecast called for rain. I knew an ideal spot where rain wouldn’t even be noticed... under the K Street bridge.
This was a very small shoot. Cedrick. Will. My D3/1.4 85mm and me. No reflectors. No lights. No rain. It was a bit of a tough shoot in that Cedrick's English isn't perfect. Soooo shouting, “look to the left” or “chin down” proved to be difficult. My French is pretty much limited to saying, “oui oui, stupid American” while pretending to ash a cigarette. Speaking of trying to be somebody I'm not, whenever we get cool clothing at a shoot I always like to try it on. You know, just to see if I can make the clothing look as good as the model does. Of course, it never plays out that way and I always end up looking inferior. See below.
After the shoot was over and we lost daylight, we headed over to the studio for a few clean body shots, something Cedrick was very familiar with. Speaking of body, his is offensively perfect with seemingly little effort. While breaking from the shoot, he ate exactly two bowls of dry Fruit Loops, 3 pieces of bread and a handful of Smarties. Not to mention the Burger King he told me he had the previous day. Life is just not fair. C’est la vie.
Overall this was a very smooth and easy shoot. I think it proves that you can do a lot with little resources. A good model, great styling, a little planning and you’ve got yourself a shoot!
UPDATE:
Just got a thank you email from Cedrick. Found out that his agency loved the images and he just got booked for a Calvin Klein job. Not too bad! I have also decided I’ll be visiting the Eiffel Tower in January and will probably shoot some models while there. Need to visit RosettaStone.com, quick.
Below are some of the shots Cedrick added to this portfolio.
