Diana and I met trough social media. At the time, She was an amateur model from belarus who just moved to Canada and I was just an amateur photographer trying to get noticed. We both needed pictures for our portfolios so we decided to help each other out without knowing where this collab would take us.
I rented a studio space, grabbed my Mamiya RB67 (I had no experience with it at the time, and for those who knows... its a pain to use), did some research on how to sync it with modern studio strobes. Grabbed some rolls of film (Tri-x and HP5 if I remember correctly) and tried to figure a lighting set up that could work well (had ZERO experience at that time lol).
I couldn't think for a second that this shoot would turn out to be a stepping stone for both our careers! We ended up using those pictures for our respective portfolios. It's because of this shoot that I got my first ever paid fashion gig!
Now Diana is a professional model and I now live off photography alone.
It's fun to look back and be grateful towards what got you to the dance.
