How I ended up shooting photos at NYFW, & my quick journey from 0 to somewhat experienced..

As soon as the curtains opened a violinist delicately walked up to the front of the stage. The room with 300 people or so was quiet – then drops Roddy Rich + The Box. And damn the artist starts going ham! No other way to put it!

Lets get into it though, I was able to shoot at the iconic NYFW early in 2020. What makes it even more unique is the fact that for one, it seems many noteworthy designers held out in anticipation to put on their shows in other cities. London.. Paris. This is the year of the Coronavirus, Co-Vid19 whatever.. Its getting old, we hate it. Maybe most of us.

I somehow found myself shooting digital photographs at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. And as a first time attendee I did a great job at masking my excitement. I was just trilled to be there and albeit with my boy Deshon, who in his spare time plays for the Baltimore Ravens. They had put us up in a pretty cool hotel (shoutout to the Romeo Hunte team).

Feb 5^th 2020 – and Deshon had needed someone to come up to NYC with him to shoot photos and I had the relationship and had showed my value as a photographer and creative already through my Instagram. Thus the opportunity was ripe. 

Flash-forward to the show, models elegantly strutted across the stage, down the stairs and throughout the audience allowing all of us a first hand to see everything which encompassed the fabrics and textures. This show by the way was an ode to Romeo’s mentor Tommy Hilfiger who from his personal archive delivered 12 individual pieces for Romeo.

“Opportunities tend to fall into place if you are prepared” – we have all heard it before. Now myself, hearing it as someone who ‘did not have goals’ as opposed to then hearing it & ‘having clear and attainable goals’, was when everything changed. It makes sense. It 'clicked'. I always wanted to be a photographer. I began shooting October of 2018 and by February of 2020 I had achieved a goal I had set for myself. CHANGE LANES, within the context of photography. I had really only ever shot pictures at rap & house/edm shows around the DMV.

Now changing lanes is either something that you have already done or will do. Regardless of whichever boat you fall in, if you plan on turning a hobby into a passion or if its time to get more serious – changing lanes is key to what I’ll be coming back to just below.. For me it was getting into fashion photography. Maybe next I’m thinking portraits, wedding?

Though my relationship with Deshon is what propelled me to be here in this case, ultimately I had put the work in and he valued my hard work and experience – I started to realized the people around me were noticing too.

My learnings:

1. Be Prepared – Know your craft. This is something I assume all of you have done if you are researching “How to shoot at NYFW” or maybe its just curiosity. 😊
2. The most important formula: Relationships + value = opportunity. Did I just make that up? Yes, but here’s why it makes sense. Throughout my year and half of taking up photography (part time) I have been able to shoot artists including the likes of Jeezy, Dababy, Gunna, Alice in Wonderland, Zeds Dead, San Holo; comedians such as Adam Ray; and a number of pro athletes who. The primary reason is relationship.
3. Change lanes

The next element: VALUE – Relationship alone wont get you the gig. Value is what will get you the opportunity. Now, I shot shows for free for a year to hone in on my craft. I provided free content for promoters of the shows just no lie with flat out forming organic relationships. I did my research and found out who are the people to know and built a real relationship. Some people may call me vain but at the end of the day value is what we trade time and money for. We trade family for. Friends for. So don’t underestimate value.

Now this = opportunity & opportunity is the stage I am looking at. I myself am in the changing lanes and opportunity loop. One day I hope to become an expert.

An updated version would actually be Relationships + value = opportunity

                                                                                                           ↕

                                                                                                     learning

I am still going back and forth from opportunity to learning and back to opportunity. I have many days where I can’t drum up the energy or focus needed to grow my side hustle but I work on it for 15+ hours / week, so its not nothing. I work full time and I think of all of the other successful entrepreneurs who have already paved the road. You and me and everyone else are just driving along it (not ON it). Subtle but it matters.

The organized chaos of being backstage was full of peaks and boroughs and i'm not kidding there were times we were just bored. But the high times came quick and its exciting to be around the energy. Now you know what else I was doing while Deshon was getting fitted? Makeup, ect. Meeting everyone else, meeting anyone I could. We ALL know its about “who you know not what you know”.. Obviously its both but more importantly who you know.

MY PHOTOGRAPHY LESSON FROM NYFW 2020: Be more selective with my shots.

Life Lesson: More traveling! Also brings me better perspective of the world. 

Oh of course dare I forget celebrity appearances. Ayesha Curry & others were in attendance, like Saweetie:

I recommend following Jodi Jones, I found her through her blog. Here’s a snippet of how insightful she can be. Follow her here.

“When shooting a long runway show it's best to have a very fast lens which is something like A 70 - 200 f2.8 IS lens w a rotating monopod/tripod ring. If your lens is slower like a 5.6 in speed it's just gonna be a little bit more difficult. A fast camera helps too. If I'm shooting the big runway shows that are professionally lit with million-dollar lighting then I usually have the following settings: 640 ISO, f4, at 250/sec. Always always always manual settings. If you find that it's too dark or too light then you can easily change and either make your shutter speed a 200 or bump up the iso to 800 on any of the advanced low light cameras. Or if it's too bright, can you can always make a shutter speed faster. I find if you go over 500th of a second shutter speed, you get the models in really weird expressions. I also never hold my finger down and just let it rapid-fire.  I see a lot of professional photographers from the biggest organizations doing that and I understand why they're doing it but I always prefer to shoot for the moment. Part of the fun is about anticipating what's about to happen a second before it happens live and getting that perfect timing of the front of the foot hitting the ground. It's what makes it exciting and artistic. You anticipate that moment when her hair is going to bounce or you sense the beautiful flowing fabric of her gown is just about to move in a way that is just extraordinarily beautiful and that's when you take a shot. And these models do this on purpose... they know how to use their body and their arms to create magic. It's the excitement with the music when they're walking down the runway and timing that shot. Don't be lazy and just take every single shot. Be creative!”

More coverage + shots below

https://www.essence.com/fashion/nyfw-romeo-hunte-fall-winter-2020/