- Feb 15, 2019
- 2 min read

#BlindLocation - 7

This week's #BlindLocation was in Miami!!! And it was with someone we had never met before. Her name is Alexis Mugno.

Alexis is a friend of a friend. We were in Miami just passing through on our way home from the Dominican Republic, and we thought it would be a great spot for a #BlindLocation.

To be completely transparent, this was the hardest shoot I've done so far this year, because not only did we do it in the dark (our flight didn't land until after sunset), but the area we ended up shooting in only had overhead light as our lighting options, which as you will see in the video, makes things pretty difficult.

Watch the video, and then read below to see what could have helped me out in a lighting situation like this...

There are two ways this problem could have been easily solved, but I didn't come prepared, because I was traveling and didn't plan on shooting at night...

1- I could have brought a light. ANY light would have helped this situation, but the one light I brought I didn't charge all of the way, so it didn't work.

2- I also could have used a reflector. A reflector would have bounced all of the overhead lighting up onto Alexi's face, which would have given us a lot more range as far as posing goes, but I didn't pack that. Also, I don't really use reflectors. I usually just bring a white poster board if I need to bounce light. It does the trick pretty nicely. Although, with the wind, I don't think that would have been possible without an extra set of hands.

Despite all of the setbacks, however, we had a great time, and we managed to get a few cool images. I added grain to all of them to give them a more intentional night feel. I do that sometimes, because I feel like graininess is more forgiving- similar to film. If you ever wondered why photos look better on film, I think that's why. Anyway, now I can say I took photos of and made a new friend in a new city, and damn did I love that city. Can't wait to return.

Special thanks to Alexis for being DOWN to shoot with strangers and also for your amazing restaurant recommendation (1-800-LUCKY- a delicious Asian market in Miami with a DJ and awesome lighting in the back of a record shop). Also, thanks to Alyssa as always for making me look cooler on video than IRL.

Check out the photos below: