When One Photographer Shoots Another

It’s always fun to photograph other creatives because they are just willing be a little more “out there” in their aesthetics. No need for a clean white background here! It was especially cool to do the brand photos for another photographer. We were able to bounce so many ideas off of each other and of course, Monjoa was able to understand and give input on certain things most clients would not know, such as the lighting.

Monjoa is a photographer, content writer, and the CEO of Fako Media which is a Marketing Agency based in Detroit.

THE SET

For this Detroit personal brand photoshoot, Monjoa and I spent most of the time at the Masonic Temple in Midtown. We scheduled a “photography tour” a few weeks in advance and pretty much got to run all over the building with lighting equipment and shoot anywhere we wanted. (Other the floor that had a wedding going on). I believe it is $50 a person for around an hour and a half.

Our tour came with a couple of guides and as we took photos they told us about the history of the building whether we wanted to hear it or not!

We ended up focusing on three different rooms, my personal favorite being the one with the plants and the window view of the city.

We used a wide range of creative lighting throughout this shoot, from natural light to purposly over-powered strobes…

Our downtown Detroit photoshoot locations included the Capitol One Cafe near Campus Martius as well as a few nearby building exteriors. The cafe was extremely easy to shoot in I think I could have even gotten away with bringing my lighting gear inside as the second floor was completely empty!

Just before sunset we headed to the Detroit River front to get some headshots in and then we ended the photoshoot at a super cute bar in New Center called Drogonfly. At the bar we just used a small flash on my camera which was enough to illuminate the dark space without annoying anyone too much.

Follow Monjoa on social media at https://www.instagram.com/monjoa__/ and check out services offered by Fako Media at https://www.fakomedia.com/