Viking Inspired Photo Shoot with Wolfdog Rogue in Shasta CA
Okay, this session is 8 years old, but it is still one of my favorites. I was definitely drawing inspo from Vikings and Game of Thrones for this project…. Funny that the whole team driving up from Sacramento ran so late the sun had already set by the time we got started. I had to shoot this whole series in about 15 min with a single light because my second one decided to not work (I’ve since gotten Profotos and haven’t had that problem again), and we were running out of light. But, as a professional photographer, you gotta roll with the punches and make it work. Rather than just giving up, I simplified my set ups and poses and mainly focused on the wolf dog and let the models pose themselves once placed where I needed them. The results ended up being far better than I thought going in, and it encouraged me to step outside my comfort zone and embrace more dramatic lighting and ease into longer exposures to bring in the sky and background. The wolfdog Rogue was the star of the show, and he only worked for cheese!
As a full time event photographer, I like to set up these little TFP shoots to play with concepts and practice different techniques to become comfortable enough to utilize what I’ve learned with real clients. The studio I used to work for discouraged a lot these fun shoots unless there was money involved, but to be honest most of my favorite shots come from these play dates. Sacramento has a diverse range of creatives, but I tend to pull from the same small group of weirdos that align their vision with mine, or at least see where I’m going with it. For this shoot, we obviously had Rogue the wolfdog and models Alexandra Biscotti and Austin Davis (who’ve recently gotten married!), hair by Jonathan Cheek and make up by Lamira Watson. Wardrobe was a group effort from all of us pulling together what we had, hence it’s not exactly accurate for any time period, lol!
These photos are not AI, I did not superimpose the wolf into the shot. The only additions I made to the photos is the snow overlay, blood splatter and adding some pink and texture to the sky in one shot.
