Member Showcase - Saryn Christina
I “met” Saryn on the Zoom meet ups in the early days of the lockdowns back in the Spring. I immediately liked her! She is warm and friendly and open to discussing a range of topics about the industry. When I took a look at her work, I was blown away at her talent! Recently, on my Facebook Fashion Photographers Connect! private Facebook page, I asked for submissions to our Member Showcase and Saryn sent me this recent editorial! When I travel back to Los Angeles, where Saryn is based, I plan to actually meet her in person because I just have a good feeling it’s going to be great to get to know her better!
Here is a small bio and the background story about this shoot!
“I picked up a camera in high school, learning the ins and outs of the dark room and shooting film. I was mostly into alternative and fetish models, and terrible at marketing myself. I went to community college to pursue photography but ended up dropping out to full time. However, I never gave up my dream of a career in photography. I continued to do my own creative shoots on the side, sometimes doing 2 or 3 shoots in a weekend. I shifted to digital, started freelance assisting at Mattel and changed my goals and focus. I began shooting more fashion and portraiture while trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my career.
I taught myself how to retouch, and eventually took a job as a retoucher at Hautelook.com. After a year, I transferred to the photo studio as an assistant/tech and was promoted to photographer. I have now been shooting editorial and e-commerce fashion and product for Hautelook.com and Nordstrom Rack for 7 years. I am back in college to get my Bachelor of photography and have focused my portfolio on commercial beauty and product photography, with a little fashion mixed in.
A local agency reached out to me to see if I wanted to work with Arabelle. I knew immediately that I wanted to try a more androgynous idea with her, and I wanted it to be a fashion editorial staged in my back yard. I created a mood board on Pinterest, with a very loungy, moody feel featuring women’s clothing with a masculine style. I work with Diana and Liza at Nordstrom and we had all talked at different points about getting creative together. Since we all live in Long Beach, it was a perfect opportunity to make it happen. My sister is a hairdresser and I bring her in on a lot of my shoots, so I had her join us.
Since Covid was a concern, everyone was wearing masks and face shields (except Arabelle) and we kept 6 feet apart as much as possible. It was an adventure in my backyard, setting up hair, make up and wardrobe in one corner then finding different areas to shoot in. Thankfully, I have a huge back yard. I used one strobe with a small parabolic umbrella for fill, relying on natural light for the rest. I shot with my Canon 5D MIII, tethered to my laptop and mostly used my 70-200mm lens, though, I did use my 24-105mm and 100mm macro for a couple shots. It was a fun shoot with great results.