My uncle used to tell me, “the only mistake I’ve made is when I thought I’ve made a mistake.” I’ve added to his quote – “and if that mistake was made, make the best out of the worse.”

GoldSaturn held an event at Cafeina Miami Lounge and asked me to photograph the brand’s new turbans, on location. I knew it would have been a blast because it was an opportunity for me to mix a bit of lifestyle with portraits. The turbans illustrate the look Sex and the City stylist, Patricia Field, styled Sarah Jessica Parker’s character – Carrie Bradshaw. GoldSaturn’s turbans retail for $26.00

Miami, Florida, based GoldSaturn designer David Jon Acosta is an old college buddy of mine. GoldSaturn has been featured in: teenVogue, Nylon, Miami Herald, NBC’s Around Time, Miami News Times, Daily Candy, and Ocean Drive Magazine etc.

Before the shoot I erased all scary thoughts of expectations. Erasing those thoughts allowed me to go into the shoot with faith mixed with the skills I’ve developed over the years. Doing so was enough to boost my confidence.

The only things I knew about the shoot was: it would be in a lounge, at night, low light levels, models would be moving a lot and I would have to separate them at times from the event to get head-shots portraits wearing the turbans.

When I got upstairs of the lounge I began to check my gear; something you should do before you leave for the shoot. With me was my: D300’s, SB-900, Gels, and a 35-135 lens.

I wanted to shoot an 18mm-55mm or 24mm-70mm even better if I had a 14mm-24mm lens. The 35mm-135mm was my only option but it was okay because I’ve photographed that lens so much I knew what angles I would get best from it. At that point I started to regret putting the 70mm-300mm back on the shelf because I would have had another lens option to shoot; that lens makes awesome portraits!

I give all props to those club photographers for getting that ‘POW’ light they capture. The light the club photographers achieve requires a lot practice. I kid you not, that night I’ve had the most fumbling with settings on a camera from when I first started about 8 years ago.

I went into the shoot with no expectations but when I looked on the LCD screen on the back of my camera the image I had in my mind was not there. I said to myself Dwayne you’re not a club photographer so stop trying to get that look alike light. At that point I became fed-up. The images weren’t bad but I wanted it to match the light I saw the club photographers capture. Why I wanted that is still a mystery to me! Let’s make it clear that I am happy that I stuck to just shooting and not trying to do what I see other people do.

Running through my mind were thoughts like: low light levels = lower shutter speeds, strobe will help you, pop the white card, maybe place a diffuser, use a lower F-Stop, maybe change the EV, add more power to the flash, if lower shutter speeds camera shakes can still occur, movement is alive what about shutter priority mode.

My brain wanted to explode because of a few images I took and was not pleased with. The music, people bumping into me, drinks being spilled on my hands in the lounge (way to close to my camera) cigarette smoke in my thoughts; I was loosing my cool. (Cafeina Miami Lounge is a chill place to hang out with friends and I will be back there – don’t get me wrong.)

I leaned over and told David I don’t know how I’m feeling about the outcome of these photographs his reply was, “Dwayne I trust you.”

Okay great, more pressure, thanks David!

I placed my camera back on to my favorite settings to start out with- the lowest f-stop possible and 1/60 of a second, double checked to make sure I was shooting camera raw went back in Side and said let’s make this work.

I can’t explain how much of a joy it is working with great models. I spoke to the models and said give me your best let’s make magic. From there on I was somewhat satisfied with the images. (We started to have fun – sometimes that’s all it takes.)

I uploaded the images to the computer as soon as I got home about 3 a.m. and started to produce. Keep in mind that I try to wake up 5:30 a.m. every morning and I was on my third photo shoot within that 22 hours frame. Maybe that can explain why I was becoming frustrated the entire night until I went outside to take break and return at doing what I’m best at.

I showed Greg the images on the computer and he couldn’t understand why I was tripping about the images not being good enough. I didn’t want to admit that, okay yeah I freaked a bit and the images were okay so I kept my mouth shut. I put way too much pressure on myself. I’m okay doing that though, it makes me want to keep pushing harder.

A quick shout out to Photoshop User TV for tips I’ve learned over the years of watching their weekly Photoshop Podcast. When I started to edit my images I was like okay what about a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

I shipped the images off to GoldSaturn then got a reply email from David saying one of photographs I were complaining about made it on Paper Magazine’s article by Peter Davis about GoldSaturn’s turbans.

All of that said was to express why it’s important to learn your skills to improve your talent. Remember the only mistake you’ve made is when you thought you’ve made a mistake because there’s always a way to make the best out of the worse.

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