I Ruined My Own Photoshoot...But Was It Worth It? 

No lose here. You learned. Then you taught us. This was a lesson not a failure. It’s only a failure when we do not learn. Congrats! This was a great lesson and this information is helpful to any photographer looking to create video content along side their photography work. This has happened to all of us at some point and if it hasn’t it will. It takes real courage to share it to help others. Thanks!

When you go get that Brown out the cabinet I know you got something real to say.

Thank Anthony for this honest and truly helpful video. It is so refreshing to hear that things can and do wrong, and that when it happens we need to take it as an opportunity to learn. Are you likely to work with this model again?

​@AnthonyToglife Thank you for your response, I feel its my duty to encourage anyone willing to share their real life experiences (good or bad), to help and encourage others not to give up. Glad to hear you and the model will continue to work together, looking forward to your future collaboration

Dude, first off, awesome you're taking accountability of this and knowing where your flaws were here. That's typically one of the biggest hurdles people have is that accountability. The next one is accepting it. And the third one is understanding of WHERE it went wrong. Having this mental debrief is a huge win on your side. I'm a terrible planner but I do TRY to plan as much as I possibly can. But am also horrible at communicating what I want from my talent; and what I need from them on their end. But I'm working on that. By doing things like this afterwards (or making mental or written notes during) that shows that you're working on it. That you're improving. Even if it doesn't feel like it. Second. I love that you're bringing forward the "losses." Though I don't see them as losses. As Sinatra said, 🎶Regrets. I've had a few. But then again, too few to mention🎶 I've styled my life after sayings like this (and it seems you have as well) because it's telling us not to live by our mistakes. Take them at face value, use them as a learning tool and onward. Bigger and better. You learn more from losing than from winning. You learn how to keep going- Morgan Wooten. I'd actually love to see a breakdown of that footage. I think it would be a great learning tool for yourself andany others. Things you did well. Things you did poorly. Things you flat out missed. Or things you didn't miss a beat on. One thing I pride myself in, is troubleshooting. I may not be great at planning. And sometimes, not even get what I had in my head, out into the world. But I'm going to damn well make something work with bubble gum, a toothpick, some twine and a winning smile... (okay, maybe not the winning smile but I truly LOVE troubleshooting and coming out the other side having won, or learned. Win-win). Keep up the great work Anthony. Too bad I won't make Imaging this time around. Hopefully you're there with Ab and Seth in Texas! (I'm hoping to catch all 3 of you if you're all invited in 2025)

Awesome video and wind-down beverage!

That screen record thing is annoying. I think you can screen record an iPad connected to the camera with the canon app. Maybe I should get on that myself....

I was taught, "Making mistakes is normal, but never make the same mistake twice." A positive thing you did was an honest appraisal of what went wrong and what you should do to avoid that mistake again. Author Stephen King wrote, "When editing, be able to kill your darlings." For photographers, that's certainly true while editing images, but it's also true during the session. Sometimes you have to give up an idea or a plan, and you may have to give it up quickly.

Ooof!! I shot my kids 18th last week. And I kinda messed up a little. I intended to use a godox tt685 on camera as a master to trigger a pair of tt600's on the dance floor. Annoyingly I couldn't set the 685 into tx mode to trigger the 600's and missed some great moments that unfortunately got swallowed by darkness 😭😭 Thankfully I had my regular trigger with me so I just swapped to that and hand held the tt685.. I had flawless controll over the x3 flashes from that point on. But lesson learned... Know your equipment and make sure you practice using it first if you're trying to use it in a new ( to you ) way !!!

Nice. It goes to show we should always practice and prep beforehand and have contingencies in place. Shit happens. Ive been there with a massive new cheap octobox I was planning on using but whose rods ( yeah, those) would not snap into place. I once accidentally used a cheap plastic ND filter on my Sigma 135 without realising it wasnt my expensive polarizer. Womp womp. As a one man band i treat these things like spec ops missions - hash the shit out of things until it’s perfect. Check gear. Have backups. Go through the motions of setup over and over. Ultimately, having your ship sunk is a great way to unfuck one’s self as thats one of the ways you’re able to see how and why something goes wrong and to fix it. The more you sweat during peacetime; the less you bleed during wartime. At least you brought the gunshow 😅. There’s so much that can go wrong. My first photoshoot summer I made the mistake of having my camera default to JPEG small because hey… why use more space on the SD card. But I can manipulate JPEGs now like there’s no tomorrow. Whenever I watch BTS shoots of top talent Im often blown away by the sheer simplicity of it all. Mariano Vivanco shot Rihanna with a Nikon D850 (or D5/6) and a ladder. Annie Leibowitz has an Elinchrom Rotalux on a boom. Less is more (sometimes) translates to us being free to focus on the simple yet crucial shit. This might seem overly simple and ghetto, but for BTS video ( until Art+Commerce signs me - anyone 👀 - and gets me a team) injust ask someone to shoot with a smartphone. Yeah, hindsight is always 20/20, but at least you know now… So, that said… whats your take on the seemo. Might as well get something out of your tragedy 😅. Have a good one

Go Sony!!!

9 different set ups in 2 hours?? Ambitious! I undrestand what you tried to do but there is a time crunch, as you found out. Unless your model is serious pro/agency, you can't get in the groove Its ok though, we all try things. I did something similar, racing against studio time vs quality of what I want to get

Man. How many times have I insisted on sticking with a plan instead of pivoting to accept reality. Plus, Woodford in crystal for the win.

Tog said "a real camera" as in Sony??? 😁