Hey Derek! I have to admit I have a severe industry crush on your work, and really enjoy what you do. I am a recent graduate of graphic design and photography, and have discovered that I really enjoy boudoir type shoots and fashion type sessions. I strive to beautifully capture images but also add a personal touch of grunge/edge to them as the designer in me is just a bit more dominant. I’m looking for some help on how to really get the model into the zone, as I deal with amateurs. Any thoughts?

Hello hello!! That is a super good question and one that I am pretty sure I’ve asked people before. Before I answer your question at the end there to your first part I would say don’t “try” to find you personal touch. Just look at tons of work all day every day, as I am sure you do with design, then as you shoot you will start to see things come through. Unifying characteristics that will become your touch once you notice them. I personally couldn’t say what my personal touch is to my work. I just ONLY shoot what I like. Not what I think I should shoot. Its just like design, you do it long enough and you will come out of it and once you notice that “signature” then you can find ways to help pull it out even more. At least thats my 2 cents on the subject.

As to how to get a model in the zone, well, the trick is to inspire them. In my mind if I am working with someone that isn’t super experienced I like to find what they like. The music they like. The fashion they like. Find where what they like over laps with what you want to do and then thats what you should shoot. Also you need to bring the energy to the shoot. If you’re not excited why should they be? Get into it. Get excited. Also, and I firmly believe in this one, have some way you can look at stuff right away. If youre shooting film then have a polaroid/instax or a digital camera. That way when you nail that first great shot show the model to get them pumped. Show them how good its turning out. Build that energy and it will really go from there.

Overall have fun and that will show through in everything.

Hi, I’m one of your new followers on tumblr but I’ve followed yours and your girlfriends Instagram for a while. How did you two meet? I’m curious whether she was always a model that you shot and things progressed from there, or if she was the stylist at a shoot and progressively you started to shoot her? Infact, the most curious question I have is, did you first shoot juiceyj before or after you two were an item?

Howdy! People ask me how we met a lot. Actually none of the above. We met through a mutual group of friends. We met and I was shooting and I wanted her to be involved so she started styling my shoots. I take pictures of everything in my life so naturally I started taking pictures of her too. Slowly the two worlds merged together and we’d do shoots just the two of us if we were feeling inspired. Lots of times we shoot to test something or simply because I have a camera and shes gorgeous. So we were an item LONG before we started shooting together seriously.

The Various Tangled Webs Of The Interwebs.

There are a few other places you can find me and my work, and here they are:

Derek Woods Photography on Facebook – Here I keep things on the safe for work side of things. No full on nudity. However its a great place to message and chat all things photography.

DerekWoods on Instagram – Pretty much the catch all for my visual life. If I took a picture of it, good, bad, dumb, tasty or ugly its there. Censored erotic posts but lots of dog pics.

Other Tumblr – This is my first Tumblr that I reblog from and also post my instagram to on occasion.

Derek Woods on Vimeo – The center for all of my video work. Some crazy videos, some Lego time lapse, and some other music video stuff.

Derek Woods on Zivity – Really just getting started over at Zivity. Testing out how I like it.

Lastly but not least Flickr – you can find all my photography work in one place.