This image features two personalities from the VH1 reality show Black Ink Crew (original cast NYC) photographed in famous Fremont Street in Las Vegas for cover of Urban Ink magazine. The location of the photograph caused the posed a challenge at the outset.
The subjects of the photo, Sassy and Duchess, were appearing at a large tattoo event in Las Vegas as was the magazine I was working on assignment for. I had already done two studio photoshoots with the cast of Black Ink Crew back in NYC so there was already a relationship. We were just looking for an interesting setting to stage this cover shoot.
Photographing two lingerie clad models outdoors can be a challenge on its own. Doing it at a crowded tourist attraction added difficulty. Photographing the models while being on camera for their reality show took it up another level.
We secured permission to photograph at the Fremont Street location to take advantage of the recognizable colorful vintage casino awning. The problem was clearing enough space around the models to create the separation required to gain the perspective. Initially the whole crew (myself, magazine editor, photo assistant, personal assistants of the models and the reality tv crew) circled the two models in the spot we wanted to place them. While the models stood in place we all started to take steps outward to eventually create an open ring around the ladies.
The photography itself was straight forward balancing hand-held soft box (w/ Profoto battery strobe) to the level of ambient light from casino lights. Once that was established, I worked quickly to capture enough poses for magazine to choose vertical cover, horizontal images for layouts in article and individual shots of the ladies. We then moved to a second angle which was virtually the reverse angle of the cover shot to do the same. Total time was about 30 minutes.
We did manage to ruffle the feathers of a few passing tourist who felt that we were an imposition. However they did not realize that we were entirely on private property and had secured permission to control the area we were working at. More people were entertained by the photoshoot and being in the background of a reality tv show.