patryk kott

Yulia pt. I

Published: December 15th 2024, 8:33:41 pm

INTRODUCTION:

I found Yulia on instagram, don't even know how but it was meant to be because we created another set that has to be divided into two parts and I actually love when it happens, I love having a lot of beautiful photos to chose from and I love that I have a platform to post them all because each frame I pick feels somewhat special to me and I hope you do like that as well!

It's been a while for me since I shot at someone's place and absolutely love doing it! I love it when people are letting me in into their world, a place where they feel at peace, it's their home, place where they feel comfortable with themselves and now you're part of it. I think it's this magical aura around it that makes my home photos so special. We shot at Yulia's small but very spacious apartment and with beautiful natural light! It definitely wasn't one of those where I have to almost stick to the wall to get anything in frame even though I shoot with quite a wide lens.

I knew I wanted to create this set mostly in black and white but as always some of them were asking to be in color, haha! I don't know I just like going to the shoot knowing what my main them is going to be, maybe some other photographers don't think about it but I like to picture everything in my head beforehand, colour theme, framing, angles, ideas and clothing. Everything except posing, I always leave it to the model because I believe it's the connection we establish when we meet and then it develops through out the shoot that allows the model to behave or act in front of camera the way she or he does. I think it's this connection that's making model to be silly, playful, serious or sensual in front of me. There's absolutely no way a model can be really silly or playful when she feel the connection is a bit tense, dry or just off in general. That's why I started taking some 'warm up' shots before I take them seriously, that allows me to establish this connection, boundaries and overall mood! I think they're also important for the model as they can see what they look like, what to fix, what it looks that I do etc, and after that they get erased and we start working for real! So lets get to it!

ABOUT THE SHOOT:

We started on the couch as this was actually a prop that I have built my whole mood board around and I actually wasn't sure if it's a good idea to start there because I know photos usually get the best later in a shoot but I think it just felt like the best place to start because other places to chose from was kitchen (what, where we suppose to start a shoot by holding a mug of coffee in a cosy jumper?:D), bed in her bedroom (I think that would be actually weird to start in bed) and bathroom (also a bit weird and too much for beginning).

I have no idea if Yulia ever modeled before for anyone except selfies for her instagram and videos on TikTok (she's actually super popular on TikTok with almost 1m followers doing ASMR, which personally drives me crazy hearing all those sounds) but she quickly switched into different character! I was actually super impressed and shocked how good she looks in camera and how natural she is in front of it! Just super chill like she did it since forever, lol. We went from boring sofa shots to really incredible ones as you can see on the first couple photos (I kept it just so you can admire the switch too and if wouldn't realise it I just pointed it out and you can go have a look! haha) I love when I don't have to tell model what to do except little things like hold the pose or let's do that pose again and she did almost that, all I had to do was correct her a little or give her small hints when I saw she's going the right direction.

Photos from behind the window on her balcony was a bit spontaneous idea. I just spotted that you can go outside so I did, had a look around and told her to be as close to the window as possible and through out the whole time she tried to offer me slippers (I was bare feet) or at least put the coat on haha! I thought photos overall looked cool there. Buildings that reflected on the windows reminded me a little bit of a big city or a hotel vibe and that weird red thing made me think of Tokyo and their colourful city so I tried to place it on her face as best as I could to make this photo a bit more interesting :)

Finally, bedroom photos. They're the most intimate of them all, I just wanted to roll a little in her bedding and maybe to be a bit more towards a fun side but as I mentioned before I leave the mood to the model and I have to say they came out better than expected! I think they are very romantic and intimate, colors go very well together, well almost all white so it was easy to set a mood for those photos with white balance. I chose to make them look like this. My personal favourite ones are where she's sitting on the corner of her bed, it's the eyes, the hair, the overall pose and movement that are working for me. There's just so much emotions in those photos.

Photos from the bathroom I will upload next!

Let me know what are your thoughts about this shoot so far!

Cheers,