Ailana’s Journal—2026-04-30 (Patreon)

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GOOD MORNING

We have a short shot list here at University City Recycling Center. I’m here solo, thanks to Uber, my tripod, and remote shutter release.

To be honest, we don’t know who the client is for this one. It’s among a group of shots we’re supposed to send directly to Naomi.

Purely on principle, I like this. Indulge a short soapbox moment.

There’s only so much of a lot of things, so if we keep filling landfills with usable materials, eventually, we’ll feel the shortage somewhere. Some of the most environmentally problematic materials can be recycled (e.g. plastics). The more we can recycle things like glass, aluminum, cardboard, and plastic, the better.

I suppose I could mention that setting things up to shoot a selfie that has a finished, professional deliverable look is something I think I’ve learned over the last two years doing content for the Journal. For the limited scope of this shot list, it just seemed like the best approach was to have me come alone.

One more thing I should mention is that, in the midst of all this, Josh and I have been taking notes for future articles to write. If we can dip into this experience and come up with even three or four articles, it will be a nice bump. I guess as a writer, I’m always thinking of things like that.

I’m going to take a few extra images while I’m here for a full article on recycling. That won’t take very long.

With that said, I’ll close out this chapter.

I hope everyone is having a good morning. There’s a lot more happening today, and I’ll try to check in when I can.

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DOG’S LIFE by Geoni Naalk-Ryan

Sasha and I are at a small factory in its showroom. This shot was a lot harder to capture than you might imagine.

In addition to getting the lighting, focus, and everything else correct, there’s the canine wildcard to deal with. Honestly, for this one, I’m very glad I was behind the camera.

The small factory makes dog-grooming products. They were designed by a veterinarian who had a passion for engineering. She actually resembles Sasha, but is a decade or so older.

We also have a shot list that includes a lot of close-ups of the actual products. After we get the hero shot, we’ll knock out the pictures of brushes, clippers, and other grooming tools pretty quickly.

This, along with the tour company, is a reason we had to come to St. Louis for this project. We’re going to spend a little extra time here to make sure we get everything before we pack up and leave.

While it is conceivable we could reshoot some of the fashion shots back home, obviously that’s not going to happen with the factory and St. Louis landmarks. It’s better to take a little extra time now and get it right.

That said, we’ve got a lot to do here, so I should close out the post and get busy. Check back soon for more from St. Louis! See you soon.

FOREST PARK by Jasmine Banks

This week has been tough. Not only has the modeling schedule been demanding, but I have coursework to do in both my nursing classes and the associate degree in business I’m working on with Micah. Sleep is optional, right? At least for a few days…

You might recall that Naomi had a client for teen and college-age fashions. Kaylee and me are modeling a couple of outfits for that company, but we’re also doing other outfits for other clients. I helped Sasha come up with the shoot plans, but it’s so big and interwoven, I barely know what’s happening.

I am modeling at the zoo for the tour company and somewhere close to it for the teen and college fashion company. Two different jobs, two different outfits, two nearby locations.

Kaylee has an outfit for the teen/college company, plus one for a young professionals line. P.S. Her nail polish had to be done differently for the two jobs.

Sasha and me sat down last night to do a process and logistics debrief. We’re okay with progress, but we’re seeing some things that could be done better. I suppose that’s normal for where AGI Creative is in its growth process.

Well, that gets us to a good place to close this post. We’ve got a few more stops to make before we end up back at the hotel.

FINAL LOOKS

Jason is with Sasha, Jasmine, and Kaylee at a shopping mall. I think that’s right. If I recall, they are knocking out the last of the teen/college-age fashion outfits.

I’m here at the Jack C. Taylor Music Center with Geoni. This is the last of an elegant line for high-society social events. If you ask me, Geoni looks perfect! And Josh definitely agrees.

This shot was a little tricky. The wide angle and her position on the stairs affected how the portable lights could be used. I had to adjust the camera settings and make sure the model—Geoni—was as motionless as possible.

Now it’s time for me to hand over the camera to Geoni and put on a gown. We’re doing one last shot in this location, then heading back to the hotel.

Time to pack everything up and get to the airport. There’s a lot of work yet…

Equipment needs to be packed…

Rental van and RV need to be returned…

All of the outfits have to be packed and put back on the truck to go back to Chicago…

According to plan, we’ll be in the air when it’s time for my goodnight post, but I’ll definitely check in. See you then.

GOOD NIGHT

I’m calling this job a success. We delivered 100% of the requested shots, and 90% of them were A++ quality. Let’s call it 9% solid As. One percent were good—call them A-/B+.

We definitely learned a lot about our capacity. There are a few things we’re going to need to consider before jumping into a job this big in the future.

Obviously, the wardrobe team Naomi sent from Chicago had a huge load to carry. We couldn’t have done this on schedule without them.

Another consideration is hair, nails, and makeup. That’s open to discussion, but having a nail technician could really speed things up. We think a professional could do nails at least twice as fast as we do our own. Kaylee’s only complaint for the whole trip was that she had to change colors at least once.

I mentioned earlier that we decided two small RV campers would have been better than one camper and one van. That runs up the cost but makes a lot of things much better.

With SwimFit up and running, it’s unlikely that both Clay and Micah could make a trip like this. But having one more set of hands would have been great.

Similarly, there might have been room in the budget for one more model, which would have allowed us to have more looks and keep the shutter clicking. Sometimes, there was photographer downtime while outfits were being changed.

However, all things considered, we did the job and did it well. And from a business perspective, when you do that, learn a few things for next time, and make a little money, you’ve done it right.

Good night.

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