Cold-Calling Wilhelmina: Two Days of Test Shoots in LA
How a phone call to a modeling agency turned into two days of LA test shoots, shared sets with Chris Orwig and a handful of lighting recipes.
The second half of my week in LA was less about connections and more about putting myself out there and hustling. Connections are only half the battle. The other half is time, effort and creative thinking.
Calling the agency
I didn't want to work only with the models I had met at John Russo's workshop earlier that week. The goal of the trip was new portfolio work and more faces in my book, especially for the portrait and celebrity work I wanted to pursue. So I reached out to the biggest modeling agency I knew: Wilhelmina.
I had no connections there. I called anyway and asked plainly for help reaching the people who managed the models. I told them I'd be in LA and wanted to do test shoots over two or three days. They gave me some names and emails, and I sent each person the same short note with a couple of examples of my work and what I wanted to shoot.
Forty-eight hours later, I had models lined up on two different days. It felt a lot like the time I photographed Matt the Bartender just because I'd seen him and wanted to make his portrait. Put yourself out there and see what comes back.
Sharing the set with Chris Orwig
Meanwhile, I'd stayed in touch with Chris Orwig since we met at John's workshop. We'd talked about shooting together: play off each other, split the production costs and see how the other works. I'd listened to Chris's Photoshop tutorials for years, so I was stoked just to watch him shoot.
We rented a loft in the LA Fashion District with great window light and room for three sets, so we could mostly stay out of each other's way.
Day one: the loft
Wilhelmina booked Raquel and Sabina for us. Raquel was newer to modeling, but the moment the camera clicked on, she was in the zone. Sabina brought an energy that could light up any room. We had no stylist budget, so we'd asked the models to bring clothing like the looks in my mood boards, and Sabina showed up with a full suitcase of options and a great hat.
We had three sets: two of Chris's Gravity Backdrops and a wood wall, sharing about five lights between us. We started with Raquel in front of the darker backdrop. Chris was newer to studio lighting then, so I helped dial the lights while he shot. I guess that was my first time ever assisting. The fill was one of Chris's B10s in a large white Profoto umbrella with a diffuser, directly behind us. The main was his other B10 in a roughly 39" octabox to camera right. As usual, I set the bottom of the modifier at about eye level and aimed it a foot or two in front of the model, so she sat in the falloff rather than the direct light.
When Sabina arrived, Chris was mid-shot with Raquel, so we paired off and all lost track of time. That's why you'll see fewer of my images of Raquel. Whoops.
Scottie shows up
Scottie Warman is a friend I'd made on Instagram through his macro work. He lives farther south, so I didn't expect anything when I mentioned the trip, but he drove up just to hang out on set. I handed him a GoPro for behind-the-scenes video, and he took the job seriously, moving lights and holding the Phase One when I needed a hand.
Window light, v-flats and catchlights
Sabina was an instant pro. We were more focused on the music than on forcing good photos, and being relaxed made the images better.
After a quick change, I moved her to the floor-to-ceiling windows to shoot long and low across the floorboards for depth. I let the windows blow out a bit, then had Scottie slide in my Profoto B1 with the 69" Elinchrom octa to continue the window light around her face in a soft wrap. Some of my favorites of the day came from that simple setup.
Then Chris and I traded. In front of his backdrop by the windows, I used v-flats to block the light pouring in beside Raquel, so the window light reached her more from the front. V-flats are amazing tools, y'all. I used the 69" octa as my main and added a Profoto B2 with a 1x4' strip box only to put a new catchlight in her eyes.
On the wood wall, I flipped the setup to the other side of the room, balancing the big octa with the window light. Raquel sat on a leather chaise with a sliver of window in frame, as if she were gazing out. I stayed on my Canon 5D Mark IV with the 24-70mm f/2.8 for quick changes between wide and tight.
When I came back to that wall with Sabina, I moved the chaise out and brought the big octa closer for tight portraits against the wood, with the 39" Elinchrom Rotalux octa and the strip box for catchlights. I switched to a 100mm f/2.8 macro for a great portrait length, after loving it on a shoot with Britt in Houston a few weeks earlier. Sabina was killing it, and the hat was just right against the wood.
The country album cover
As we broke down, I had one last idea: shoot down the length of a wall using the tones in Sabina's coat and hat for something that felt like a country album cover. She was all in.
The main was the 39" octa to camera left, positioned so Sabina stood almost directly between the wall and the light, giving a deep shadow on the far side of her face. The kicker was the B1, bare bulb, about 10 feet behind her and off to the left until it was just out of frame. I fought the edge of the frame the whole time, but it gave the best angle without Photoshop witchery.
My earlier shoots that week were geared toward the sports work I'd done for years. This was my first shoot built entirely around portraiture, and my first with an actress.
Day two: rain and a wrong address
The next afternoon, Chris drove back in, and we had another rented studio with big windows, a loft and floor-to-ceiling concrete walls. It didn't go according to plan. Uncharacteristic rain snarled traffic across Hollywood, and the street address I'd sent exists in both Hollywood and Glendale, so one model ended up in Glendale looking for us. Lesson learned: double-check the city on every address you send.
Fortunately, Jacob, a model I'd shot earlier in the week, brought a friend, Angeli, who was happy to come shoot. Raquel was coming back for sportier looks, and Chris and I wanted to share our time with each model better than the day before.
Watching Chris work
Everyone else was an hour behind Angeli, so Chris shot first. I watched how he gets a subject past the guard almost everyone brings to the camera. His approach is more conversational than mine, and both work.
He used his two B10s: the umbrella as fill behind camera and a medium octabox to camera right as the main, with a v-flat to camera left to knock down that side and block the flat window light from the storm. Chris had the main lower and more direct than I'd use, because he was making a tight beauty portrait focused on her eyes and expression.
I was seeing the whole scene: the Gravity Backdrop echoing the concrete behind it, and Angeli's bright orange shirt popping against everything. On my turn, I raised the light about six inches and feathered it a bit more off her face. Then I backed up as far as I could with my 80mm (about a 50mm equivalent on full frame) and shot the full set with the camera just off the floor for drama. I was tethered to a Wacom MobileStudio Pro, and when the first frame came in, Chris went nuts. You can't help but smile around Chris.
Sandwich lighting a jump
Wilhelmina had asked for sports shots for Raquel's portfolio, and she'd run track, so I figured she could get some air even in a small space.
I used a sandwich setup: two lights directly across from each other on either side of the frame, one as a rim and one as the main. The main, to camera left, was the B1 in my 39" Rotalux octa with the front diffusion removed for more punch. The rim was a B2 with a beauty dish, aimed far enough off the concrete wall to avoid a hard spill that would give away the light.
Raquel jumped diagonally across the frame, camera right to camera left, and we worked on hand and foot placement and, finally, expression. She brought an intensity I wish I could coach better in my usual athletes.
A black box, Russo style
For Jacob, I wanted a tight portrait inspired by John Russo's work with Leonardo DiCaprio. I built a black box with the black side of my V-Flat World v-flats: one folded into an "L" behind him and along the left side of his face, the other tucked close on the right, knocking out the available light and any spill.
The light was a B2 with a gridded 1x4' Profoto strip softbox, horizontal and angled down about 30 to 35 degrees, raised high enough for drama but not so high that I lost the catchlight. It takes some playing with the height, but we found it quickly.
The last 15 minutes
Jesiree arrived as Raquel left, a complete professional. Our third set used a large umbrella as fill and my 69" Rotalux octa to camera right as the main, with no v-flat on the left. I feathered the main about 20 degrees back toward me so the light spilled across her face. Her black dress worked beautifully against the green backdrop. With only about 15 minutes, I shot pulled-back frames and tighter portraits with a small two-foot reflector in hand to bounce light into her eyes. Then she threw on a green jacket, and those were some of my favorite frames of the day.
What I took home
I highly recommend sharing a test shoot with another photographer. Splitting costs makes it easier to justify, but the real value is learning from each other by talking through philosophy and simply watching each other work.
Huge thanks to Chris for making it happen, to Wilhelmina for connecting us with Raquel, Sabina and Jesiree, to Jacob and Angeli for their patience with the process, and to Scottie for capturing it all. His behind-the-scenes film is below.
The film
Watch the behind-the-scenes film
Originally published on the Ruddock Visuals blog, March 2019. Lightly edited in 2026.