Creative Bathroom Photoshoot Idea
Recently, my friend Aja and I teamed up on a low-budget creative shoot. What started as a playful idea turned into one of my favorite shoots, proving that with the right vision, any space can become a canvas for storytelling.
After months of throwing ideas back and forth, an idea was created. Aja sent me a pinterest board of all her ideas, and when I tell you I could NOT sit still– I mean it. As someone craving to build my editorial portfolio, this shoot would be a great opportunity to hone in on my artistic side.
As college students, the budget (or lack thereof) has always seemed like this dark cloud lingering over the ability to capture the epic photos I wanted. BUT, craftiness leads to creativity and for this, we got resourceful and worked with what we had. Sometimes an idea forms around a location, and other times a location shapes the idea. In this case, it was the latter—we had Aja's bathroom and its quirky pink bathtub as our set.
From there, the concept came to life. Themes of femininity, beauty, sadness, vintage glamour, and chaotic calmness floated in my mind. Our gameplan was to start soft and sweet, and then let things get progressively edgier.
We kicked things off with Aja in these cute, pink, girly pajamas. But right from the start, the lighting was tricky, and I started worrying this might have been a terrible idea. A lot of our inspo pics involved using a mirror, but it just wasn’t giving us the look we wanted.
Once we got more comfortable, we moved to the good ol’ tub. There was this door that led outside, and as the sun started setting, it hit the tub juuuust right. I felt so relieved—I knew I got some good shots.
Next, we shifted over to the toilet. Now, whoever says to avoid direct sunlight seriously needs to chill, because I cranked my shutter speed to 1/6000 and ended up capturing some really unique shots using the shadows.
After a bit of crying (artfully, of course), we headed back to the tub. Things were getting messier, but Aja still gave off this softness and innocence that made the shots so visually pleasing. We added bubbles, and suddenly, Aja was submerged. The shape of that tub was so cool, I wanted to capture it from every angle. And that’s when Aja really started to let loose.
Mascara running, bubbles everywhere, and the finishing touch? A cigarette burning, bringing out that perfect mix of messiness and charm. As we moved to the shower, we played around with water, sunglasses, and beer as props. At this point, we had taken wayyyy too many photos, and I was already dying to start editing.
My first creative photoshoot officially wrapped, and my biggest takeaway? Use your surroundings to help you, not fight against you. And lighting is everything. I had so much fun with this shoot and can’t wait to do more artistic projects like this ASAP. (If you’re an aspiring model, hit me up and let’s collab!)
