Wisconsin Fashion Week 1

When I heard about Wisconsin Fashion Week a couple of months ago, I thought, gee, I bet they hire photographers for that event. How do I get to be one of them? So I found out who the event coordinator was and contacted her. She in turn put me in touch with the fellow who was in charge of photographers. I received an electronic application. A week or so later I was notified that I was "in" and was to shoot two events. One was a behind the scenes shoot of models being prepped for a show and one was a runway show featuring models with different-than-normal abilities. Sounded great to me. The first played to my strengths and the second would be really good experience in a unique and interesting setting.



I also learned that there was no pay. Darn! Well, it would still be a good experience. It would also be a great way to make local contacts with models and other creative businesses. And finally, it was an interesting way to fill out my resume and portfolio.



Then a change in circumstance meant that I got bumped from shooting the runway event (they only allowed one photographer). Now I was going to give up a 3-day motorcycle ride for only one hour of interesting shooting. Rats. Well, I made a deal so that is just the way it was going to be. I went, and took many shots of the model preparation (perhaps a subsequent post will feature those shots).



As it turned out, since I was already there, I was told I could stay and shoot some of the afternoon runway events if I wanted to. Yes sir, you bet! It was a fantastic opportunity to shoot the finished product, get some experience shooting a runway - it was difficult - and have no pressure since I was not an official photographer. Sort of a No Lose scenario.



After the runway portion was officially over, a few of the models lingered and let us shoot them at greater length - again a win-win opportunity for them and us. It was a fantastic experience, and perhaps some subsequent (paying) work will also come out of it.



These images are all pretty much straight-from camera with no editing other than maybe a crop or tweaking brightness. The agencies and models all get free access to the full-resolution images - that was the deal - and if I want to get artistic in Photoshop I need to make a duplicate and still provide the unaltered image as well. I am sure I will post some edited images in subsequent posts. In the meantime, here is a link to the whole (small) set so far:



Enjoy!