Ultimate Collaborations

In October of 2021, I hosted my very first “Ultimate Collab.” Admittedly, I stole the name (and several of the participants) from a collab I had been invited to earlier in the summer. I had enjoyed my experience at the summer collab, and found that it was a good way to get a lot of different content all with a similar theme. Since there were multiple photographers, they were able to invite almost a dozen models and several stylists, and there was never too much downtime between sets. I liked this idea, and I was in need of some halloween-themed images for my Instagram grid. 

I floated the idea with some of the models and MUAs who I work with most frequently, and eventually created a group chat to plan the shoot. It was a struggle balancing the number of makeup artists and models, as I didn’t want any one makeup artist to have too much work thrust on them day-of. I invited two other photographers, and together we devised a total of 3 sets. This way, we could rotate through sets and models without any downtime in-between. 

The Halloween collab went off without a hitch, with a total of 5 models and 3 MUAs. We shot for nearly 5 hours, and I wound up with enough content to fuel my Instagram for the entire month of October. 

After this success, I became somewhat obsessed with the idea of hosting these collabs. Admittedly, I still am. They are a lot of work to plan and coordinate (and clean up after) but it is an excellent way to get the absolute maximum value out of one of the four studio days I have each month. 

I have now hosted four of these Ultimate Collabs, each with a different theme. We have done Halloween, Shining 80s, Fairies and Fantasy, and Christmas. I’m already acquiring winter-themed items for January’s theme, which is fittingly going to be “Winter”. 

I’m not sure if I’ll continue to host these every month once the weather warms up and outdoor shooting becomes more appealing, but for now, they are really helping to make my photography dreams and goals become a reality.