Girls Life: Sean Scheidt’s Youthful Portraits
Baltimore-based photographer Sean Scheidt is a lifestyle and fashion photographer who came to the profession after being a painter. His style combines cheerful color palettes and lighting techniques that evoke a fresh, youthful feeling — an ideal fit for a magazine that focuses on young adults like Girls Life Magazine.
Sean has been working with the magazine for over ten years, so he has developed a strong relationship with the magazine. His unique approach to photography and his ability to bring the editorial team’s vision to life over time made Sean their go-to photographer and provided him a consistent source of work.
They were the first National publication I ever photographed for. Besides myself, I think there is only one other photographer who works with them on occasion. I photograph about 90% of their content. Nearly every month or so, we shoot the cover, front-of-book trend feature, and full fashion story.
In the last year, some things have changed par the course. It hasn’t just been reducing crew size and implementing safety protocols, but it resulted in changes to shooting locations as well.
We used to shoot fashion in Baltimore and covers in LA (or NY sometimes depending on the celebrity), but in the past year or so, we’ve pretty much moved all of this production entirely to LA.
When he’s not shooting in a studio, Sean and his team utilize PeerSpace to find unique locations to use as a backdrop for shoots. This allows them to spend less time hunting down props and gives them a leg up on pre-production to focus on the photography instead.
Many of the spaces are already designed to be used for shoots, and it saves us time and money on set builds — one is even the home of a rather famous actor! I was surprised when I recognized him from his appearances in some of my favorite movies and shows.
They found one of the locations (pictured above) near Red Rocks, NV, due to a mishap with permitting. The team had been shooting in Los Angeles for two days and traveled to Las Vegas to photograph at the iconic Valley of Fire State Park, but their permit was delayed due to a clerical error, and they had to get resourceful.
I was excited about this location, but unfortunately, we had some issues with the permits. There was some turnover in the office, and it got overlooked, so we had to “guerrilla-style it” and find ourselves a location. While traveling by car from LA, we scoured google maps for some good sites.
We ended up at Red Rocks, about 20 minutes from Vegas. This location was a godsend. It was epic and full of spaces to shoot!
There is nothing I love more than being outdoors, and we spent all day here. It turned out better than we could have ever planned. Sometimes these things happen, and you have to think on your feet to deal with them.
Never one to shy away from a challenge, Sean also photographed a model in a tiny cramped cactus garden (pictured above). Despite having several logistics issues to work through, the resulting images are beautifully lit fashion portraits that serve as a testament to his ability to capture vibrant photos in various situations — including while being surrounded by prickly cactus plants!
I can’t tell you how many times I fell into a cactus! It was small, cramped, and there was very little room for equipment or people. The lighting was especially challenging as it was too harsh, and there was not enough room for a scrim or strobe (save one spot).
I often say that the camera grants me access to people and places I might otherwise not meet or not visit. I love that part of the work.
Credits:
Photographer: Sean Scheidt
Makeup Artist: Maurie Davidson
Fashion Styling & Social: Whitney Brielle
Fashion Styling: Jessica Waller
Fashion Styling: Lo VonRumpf
Fashion Styling: Karen Bokram, Owner/Editor of Girls Life Magazine
Model Agency: The Agency Arizona
Photography Assistants: Sidney Rubino, Mike Nelson, Jim Fetts, and Sophie Nolan