JUSTIN L. STEWART PHOTOGRAPHY: BTS Photos of Francisca Valenzuela's "Tomame" Music Video

Monday, February 11, 2019

BTS Photos of Francisca Valenzuela's "Tomame" Music Video

As often as not, I'm not allowed to immediately share images from my most recent work. That means I have to sit on work a lot. Photographing behind the scenes of the "Tomame" music video is one such case. The photos eventually got lost in the blur of everything else in life and work and I forgot to ever blog about the experience.

Last spring/summer, I worked behind the scenes for a couple days on my first ever music video. It was a fun and different experience. I was fortunate to work with a very kind and grateful artist and crew. I've never really been drawn to work like this because I feel very little ownership over making stills from a scene that's been lit by someone else and a model following directions from a different camera. It just doesn't feel like a job with much ownership over the final product.

Having said that, it was really fun playing around in a nicely lit studio for a couple days, following my own curiosities and interests over the hours and scenes were repeated and filmed from different angles. It was a tight filming schedule, which didn't allow for too much play with the models outside of their work in front of the main camera, unfortunately.

This work came after my Los Angeles Rams playoff game, where I tested out my GH5 and its stills capabilities (I bought it for filming - which I love it for). I decided to try it out here, specifically because it has an electronic shutter, often an requirement of a stills unit work on a film set. It definitely didn't manage as well in the dark as my Nikon D800 did, and the colors didn't seem as accurate as my Nikon, but it did OK.

As always, here's a large selection of photos from the work. More posts to come from the recent archives and even more recent work. Until then, enjoy this!