People message me some version of "must be nice, you just take pretty pictures for a living" more often than you'd think. I get it — the final post is 4 seconds of polished content. What it doesn't show is the twelve hours, three outfit changes, and one minor lighting-related meltdown that happened to produce it. So here's an actual shoot day, unfiltered.

5:45 AM — the alarm I still haven't made peace with

Every shoot day starts the same way: an alarm that feels personally cruel, a coffee made on autopilot, and a mental run-through of the shot list while I get dressed for hair and makeup. This particular shoot was a half-day lifestyle campaign for a skincare brand, which meant a 7am call time at a rented studio space across town.

The part nobody posts about

Traffic. Also, forgetting my phone charger in the Uber and having a mild crisis about it for exactly four minutes before remembering the studio has literally every cable known to man.

The actual schedule

7:00 AM

Arrival & setup. Coffee, a rundown of the shot list with the photographer, and a first pass at hair and makeup while the crew sets lighting.

8:30 AM

Look one — "morning routine." Soft, natural light setup. This is usually the easiest look of the day since it's meant to feel undone.

10:15 AM

Product close-ups. No me in frame — just hands, texture shots, and a very particular kind of patience while the same bottle gets photographed forty different ways.

11:45 AM

Lunch + look change. Second outfit, hair redone, and a genuinely necessary break for everyone's sanity.

1:00 PM

Look two — "evening wind-down." Moodier lighting, more direction from the brand's creative lead, and the most retakes of the day.

3:30 PM

Behind-the-scenes content. A second, smaller camera captures candid clips for my own channels — the stuff that actually tends to perform best.

4:45 PM

Wrap & review. A quick look through the shots with the photographer to flag anything worth reshooting before everyone packs up.

"The forty-first take of someone pouring serum into their palm is somehow always worse than the first."

The stuff that doesn't make the caption

Every shoot has its own small chaos. This one included a light stand that fell over mid-take (no one hurt, one very startled assistant), a wardrobe steamer that briefly stopped working, and a solid twenty minutes lost to a cloud that would not move out of the way of the one window we needed.

On set between takes
Between takes, reviewing shots on the monitor with the photographer.

Why I still love this part of the job

Despite all of that, shoot days are genuinely one of my favorite parts of this career. There's something satisfying about watching a concept on a mood board actually come together in real time, and the crews I get to work with consistently make long days feel shorter than they are.

By the time I posted the final content two weeks later, none of that twelve-hour chaos was visible — just four seconds that looked effortless. Which, I think, is exactly the point.

12Hours On Set
3Outfit Changes
240+Photos Taken