Taking fashion to the max

In The Wild

Mar 12, 2020

We caught up with Washington D.C.-based style blogger The Glossier, Tasha James, as she traded in her DSLR for GoPro MAX-a camera enabled for 360, traditional and vlogging footage-and headed to the United States Botanic Garden for a shoot. She challenged herself to shoot something super familiar with a new tool, and the results are stunning. We'll let Tasha take it from here!

For as long as I can remember, I've always loved capturing my personal style on any camera I can get my hands on. It's the reason I started my blog The Glossier 8 years ago. Whether I'm using a point-and-shoot, professional DSLR, film camera or something super small and compact, I've always been able to produce images I love.

Recently, I've been interested in shooting more with my MAX. I know it's a great camera for capturing action, adventures, and amazing scenery, but what about fashion? I almost never see it used strictly for portraits, and I thought it would be a fun experiment for myself to test out.

Something I love about GoPro footage is how exaggerated the subject can turn out, depending on how you pose or where you position the camera, you're going to get drastically different images each time. Movement, of both yourself and the camera, is extremely important when shooting. You want to be as dynamic as possible. I found this was easy to achieve with MAX and the go-to settings I describe below.

Location is also a huge factor, because this camera picks up such a wide field of view, especially with the new MAX SuperView digital lens setting, you can expect to get a lot of scenery in the frame around a subject. So picking somewhere visually interesting is a must. This is why I went with the United States Botanic Garden, here in DC, where everything from the plants to the structure itself are grand and stunning.

I almost always shoot with another photographer for my blog, but in this instance, I wanted to shoot some self-portraits. MAX has many great features for easily achieving this, like voice control, and remote shutter on the GoPro App. Being able to use my phone to compose my shots, and to start my Time Lapse Photo made shooting alone so easy. Also, I can't recommend shooting in Time Lapse Photo mode enough; you can move around as much as you want, for as long as you want, so you can take your time to ensure you get a variety of shots you'll like.

My go-to settings for this shoot:

Mode: HERO

Shooting Mode: Time Lapse

Format: Photo

Interval: 1 second

Lens: Wide

To add a personal touch, I created some black and white images in post-production; this is one of my favorite editing styles. I think black and white shows off the lines and composition a bit better and can make things look really graphic and bold. This stems from my background in branding; whenever I was creating a logo, I always started in black and white. The idea is if your composition or idea is strong, it should be just as easily conveyed in grayscale as it is in full color. That principle has stuck with me in photography.

Shooting with MAX was also very liberating. The unique, low-profile set up is not something I'm used to for shooting fashion. For one, the field of view on MAX is ultrawide-even when in the second-to-widest digital lens "wide." Max SuperView is the widest, and its crazy how much of the environment appears in the shot. Plus, MAX only has one focal length, so it really forced me to be more creative on the spot.

Second, MAX is so discrete, even when positioned on the MAX Grip set up as tripod. I quickly fell in love with the small size and how its not fussy to shoot with. It was perfect for being in a tight space like the Botanic Garden-not having a huge camera and tripod to worry about people tripping over was a relief.

The small size also made the shoot flow much easier in general. I could quickly move myself and the rig around without worry and just focus on shooting. I think the sign of a successful shoot is when you can get comfortable in front of the camera, and lose some of your inhibitions-going smaller feels less intimidating, and truly allows your personality to come through. I have been to the Botanic Garden dozens of times, and this shoot is the first instance where I found myself dancing in it-that should tell you something.

It not only ended up being fun, but the shots came out phenomenal and unlike anything Im used to seeing in my portfolio. I think it shows that if you're willing to question the definition of the "right" camera for the job, youd be amazed at how creative you can be. Think outside the box and mix it up, and you can make magic with any camera, especially GoPro MAX.

Catch Tasha on her blog, The Glossier, or follow her on social @theglossier.

LINK:	https://gopro.com/en/gb/news/shooting-fashion-with-max...
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