Macho Makeup Part 2: the photoshoot

Before you click a camera, know this: why are you creating the images? The success of a photoshoot hinges on your answer. Even if it’s just for fun, set a goal or purpose and stay focused to attain good results, otherwise, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel—you might get a nice photo, you might not. The reason you are creating images also dectates the critical organizational phase when you assemble people and materials you need on the set.

Macho Makeup’s goal was to showcase the everyday man wearing makeup---no highly stylized hair and no classic posing and show men nobody imagines with makeup. I started asking around, does anyone know a cool first responder?  How about a firefighter? Once I had a name, I would ask them about their lifestyle—what are they into? Why? We had no wardrobe budget, and communicating with the models gave me a quick peek into their closets and told me how to best show them to the camera. Here’s how it went down:

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Jason Ashkenazi, www.jasonashkenazi.com, team hairdresser, sent me a photo of his client, Ricardo Esquivel, a certified Reiki master educator/practitioner and life-long student of Ayurvedic health practices. He looked great, but who was he? I needed to chat with him. Why? Since the men were not professional models, the camera would capture more than looks and naturally magnify their kindness, nerves, fear, and, of course, confidence.

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Catie Fisher, www.sirenskincare.co permanent makeup diva, sent me photos of Macenzy Duggy and Mason Zuniga. After speaking with each, I was convinced Macenzy was a Viking in a past life. He is married, and has an incredible kid that’s a miniature version of him. He is a manufacturing programmer who owns a fitness company called Laws of Motion.  Mason is an amiable 27-year-old University of Arizona graduate with a bachelor’s in Nutritional Sciences Dietetics, an aspiring actor into video games.

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When the day arrived, the team set out to create an Ayurvedic healer, a space-age gamer, and a Viking. The models rotated between hair/makeup and Kevin Robinson’s  www.blackdressphotography.com/ camera and onto a live monitor for us to review. The click of the camera was like music to our ears. Time floated by quickly searching for that one photo, the one that best told our story, the one that’s a killer look.

When it was over, I remembered I forgot my Stoly in the freezer. A toast was appropriate because, without fail, every photoshoot enhances the bond of friendship. We made it to the finish line and liked what happened--and even liked each other. We hugged goodbye like long-lost friends. Driving home I thought what Margaret Mead’s once said is so true, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

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Carlos Valenzuela is a raconteur, success coach, ex-salon & beauty school owner, author of the award-winning novella, Letters to Young Carlos, about a gay boy’s struggles growing up along the US/Mexico border in the 60s. Visit his writing at carlos-valenzuela.com

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