3 Reasons We Stopped Buying Backdrops and Started Building Sets
We used to shoot on backdrops all the time.
They’re fun. They give great pops of color. They make it easy to get started.
But every time we wanted a new color, we had to buy a whole new backdrop.
Then we built our first pair of...
Printing Changes Everything: Why Presentation Matters More Than You Think
Most photos never make it past a phone screen.
They get edited, posted, maybe shared, and then they live their entire life as a glowing rectangle in someone’s hand. And that is fine. But it is also not the full experience of the image.
Phot...
Creativity and Constraints: What Teaching at Imaging USA Taught Us
Most of us think we would be more creative if we just had more time, more space, more money, or better gear.
That belief came up again and again for me while teaching at Imaging USA, because the class itself had to exist inside some very real creati...
From Creative Block to Set Design: Building a Warped Wall Set
This set started from a place I know really well. Feeling creatively stuck.
We love building box sets, but we were starting to feel uninspired. We kept asking ourselves the same question over and over. How can we change things up?
That question tur...
What You Can Build With 1 Flat, 2 Flats, and 3 Flats
Learning how to build a flat opens the door to endless creative possibilities.
Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on new backdrops every time you want to change the look of a shoot, you can build a flat once and repaint it over and over again. ...
Creating Panic With the Prism Lens FX Ghost Filter
One of the biggest goals in conceptual photography is taking a feeling and translating it into a visual experience. You want someone to feel something the second they look at your photo, even if they don’t know the story behind it.
As photogra...
How We Edit an Entire Photoshoot in Minutes Using Evoto
People kept telling us to try Evoto… and we finally did.And honestly? It completely changed the way we edit.
We’ve been photographers long enough that we’re pretty set in our editing routines. We have a good flow, we divide and ...
A Very Different Kind of Maternity Shoot
Most maternity shoots have a certain look. Glowing skin, soft light, flowy dresses, and that dreamy, earth mother vibe. I’ve photographed plenty of them over the years, and they’re beautiful in their own right. But this shoot was no...
What We Learned from a Sheet of Bendy Plywood
For the past few months, David and I have been creatively stuck.
No new ideas were coming. Everything we shot felt flat. We knew we weren’t pushing ourselves creatively, and everything just felt stagnant.
And when your whole life revolves aro...
Why Your BTS Setup Makes or Breaks a Shoot
David and I build wild, surreal sets for every shoot, and our posing is pretty unconventional. On an average shoot, when I’m directing my model, you’ll probably catch me saying things like, “Okay, now can you bend backwards and rais...
The Crappy Deck: Using What You Have
“Do what you can with what you have. Nothing more is needed.” — Rick Rubin
I used to hate our deck.
It’s old, splintered, and rotting in places. It's the kind of deck you apologize for when people come over. For years I saw...
What It’s Really Like to Create Art with the Person You Love
Creating art with your partner is a pretty wild thing.
It’s intimate, unpredictable, and constantly evolving. It’s not something David and I ever planned to do. It just sort of unfolded that way. In the early days of our relationship, I ...
Disconnecting to Reconnect: My Weekend with the Camp Snap Camera
For our 12th wedding anniversary, David and I wanted to do something simple: get away, slow down, and disconnect. Just the two of us and our dogs tucked away in a little cabin in the mountains. No schedules, no work, no endless scrolling. Just quiet,...
Warm vs. Cool Light: How Color Temperature Changes a Photo
Color and lighting are two of the most powerful tools photographers have. The real impact shows when you use them together. One of the easiest and most overlooked ways to do this is by playing with color temperature, or the “warmth” and &...
3 Creative Studio Lighting Setups for Portrait Photography
Lighting is the easiest way to instantly change the mood of a shoot. In this post, I’ll walk you through three different creative lighting setups we used on the same set with the same model and show how dramatically the look changes each time.
...
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Jada + David Parrish are mixed media artists whose work explores the connection between painting, sculpture, motion, and photography.