| 00:00 | Lauren Lemon: One, two, three. Perfect.
Let's do a big laugh when you do it.
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| 00:04 | One, two, three. Perfect. Let's do chin back.
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| 00:08 | The Lauren Lemon thing actually started
as a pure nickname from friends. They
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| 00:14 | kind of gave it to me based on,
I've always loved bright colors,
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| 00:18 | all of my photography has always
expressed the kind of quirkiness and
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| 00:22 | colorful aspects of my work.
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| 00:24 | So the Lauren Lemon think came along
kind of when I was signing up for all of
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| 00:28 | these internet things. Like I was like
"Oh, this nickname that I'll use, I'll use
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| 00:31 | as my handle for Twitter or for
Flickr and then it just really stuck.
|
| 00:36 | (music playing)
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| 00:41 | There's that famous quote that the
best camera is the one that you carry with
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| 00:45 | you and that becomes the iPhone now.
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| 00:50 | Instagram created their Suggested
Users list. They turned to a lot of the
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| 00:55 | professional photographers who were
using this platform and from then the
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| 00:58 | following just kind of took off.
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| 01:02 | Hold it with both hands. Yeah, right there.
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| 01:04 | I think the community of Instagram is
very beneficial for me, and as long as I'm
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| 01:10 | constantly shooting, I know there's
people viewing. And I've got over 100,000
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| 01:15 | followers on Instagram, and that's
kind of an overwhelming number, but I'm
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| 01:20 | constantly practicing, I'm constantly
shooting photos, I'm constantly looking
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| 01:23 | for composition and if other people
weren't looking or seeing or responding then
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| 01:28 | maybe I'd get lazy or maybe I wouldn't
shoot as much, and so it's nice to have
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| 01:33 | like a community keeping you involved.
|
| 01:35 | This was an image that I made, and a
lot these are students and a lot of them
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| 01:41 | know my work through Instagram,
my blog and through Flickr.
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| 01:44 | So they were excited to see me come
and watch my actual photo-making process.
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| 01:49 | Many of these people were shooting
photos while they were waiting for me to
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| 01:54 | set up and everything.
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| 01:55 | I figured the more people sharing,
the more people talking about your work,
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| 01:58 | the more people interacting, the better.
|
| 02:02 | (music playing)
|
| 02:06 | When I did the self-portrait project
and posting on Flickr every day, that was
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| 02:10 | the first instance that I really saw
people starting to follow and that was
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| 02:15 | kind of when I realized the power that
you could have by having a following on
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| 02:20 | these social media sites.
|
| 02:21 | (music playing)
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| 02:35 | Most of my self-portraits, they aren't
me; I'm playing a character or playing a
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| 02:40 | role and there is a weird balance
between obviously being in front of the
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| 02:43 | camera and being behind it. And when I'm
shooting other people I have a very directorial role.
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| 02:49 | And so knowing how to do both I think
helps me interact with models when I'm
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| 02:54 | not shooting myself.
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| 03:01 | When I'm approaching an idea or
approaching a photo shoot, I basically
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| 03:05 | think like what isn't possible and
start from there, as big as I can get,
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| 03:10 | and then kind of narrow it down to
how I can create this outrageous idea or
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| 03:14 | this outlandish idea.
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| 03:16 | I like to do creative portraiture,
I like to take a person and a personality and
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| 03:21 | then maybe pull out little aspects
of it that I think highlight them, or a
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| 03:27 | character that they could play.
|
| 03:29 | (music playing)
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| 03:40 | Right now I've kind of got a location
for this super-bright-green kitchen.
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| 03:45 | So I obviously know that I want to
keep it green and really colorful and
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| 03:50 | really coordinated.
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| 03:51 | So I've come up with an idea to do
like a little kitchen scene with a little
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| 03:56 | '50s housewife. And I'm going to be
making these kind of bright-green pies that,
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| 04:01 | if I make them with whipped cream, my only
next step is shooting these nice fun
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| 04:07 | portraits but then making a bit
mess of the scene or something too.
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| 04:10 | So my brain kind of works with like a
progression, a story within when I'm doing
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| 04:14 | too. Like I'll start with her real
clean, real posed, but then as I get that
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| 04:20 | shoot maybe move to something else.
Like what if you smashed the pie in your
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| 04:24 | face? What if you put whip cream
everywhere? Things like that. You never know,
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| 04:29 | even if you map it out going into it,
you could totally scratch the whole plan
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| 04:33 | and go in a different direction.
|
| 04:35 | (music playing)
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| 04:45 | I'm going for a dress that will match
the kitchen that I'm shooting in, and
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| 04:49 | luckily, for photo shoots sizing doesn't
really matter because I can always make
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| 04:55 | it work, and I can pin it in
the back or something like that.
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| 04:57 | So I'm more just looking for style
and color and something like that will
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| 05:02 | look good with an apron on it and match with
what she's going to be holding and wearing.
|
| 05:08 | (music playing)
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| 05:12 | It would be hard not to put my own
vision or voice or taste into my work, and it's the
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| 05:18 | greatest compliment when someone sees a
picture that I took and they say, "Oh, I
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| 05:21 | knew that was your photo," or, "Oh, I
recognized your style," and that's the only
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| 05:25 | thing I think I could really hope for as
an artist or as a photographer is being
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| 05:29 | able to have a vision that
other people recognize as my own.
|
| 05:34 | A little bit more of a gasp. One, two, three.
Keep that going. One, two, three.
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| 05:40 | I think the biggest thing that I
learned is just to constantly be shooting, and
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| 05:44 | that's kind of what the 365 Project,
when I was doing that, showed me too, is I
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| 05:49 | was doing a portrait every day, I was
setting up something every day, I was
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| 05:52 | constantly practicing and people were
responding to that and following these
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| 05:56 | photos. And it's personal work that
draws in clients, and it's personal work
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| 06:00 | that catches people's attention.
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| 06:02 | And I just try and constantly be
working on something, whether it's an idea I'm
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| 06:08 | building or a collaboration I'm starting
or just the thought process; as long as
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| 06:13 | it's always going, I feel like
it's a way to keep moving forward.
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