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I used to think I needed fancy equipment and expensive locations to create professional-looking images. Turns out, all I really needed was creativity, a little risk-taking, & a willingness to embrace what felt like ridiculous ideas.
My poolside shoot? I knew I wanted to create an environment that would make VSCO viewers & customers of Liquid I.V. think: “summer”, “refreshing” and also display ways to enjoy the product that were practical. I wanted to do a shoot at a pool. I don’t own a pool. So I borrowed my friend’s backyard, grabbed some used wrappers, threw a towel on Nat’s head, grabbed a beach ball, & carefully edited the images to give them a polished, campaign-worthy feel. I got lucky that the beachball happened to be the same colors as the sorbet flavor 🍧.The result? VSCO and Liquid I.V. took notice, and I got paid for work I created using nothing but a basic, very old, canon camera, natural light, and some crafty editing.
The same day, I transformed my church’s volleyball court into a "beach" for the same shoot. Sand, warm lighting, and creative angles sold the illusion. Did every photo turn out? Absolutely not. Some were downright terrible. I submitted some of those images but they weren’t quite what I was hoping for. Don’t forget to plan for things to go wrong. The weather, melted popsicles, or even just not seeing your vision come to life like you might have dreamed it to be. It’s all a part of being a creative— it’s how you choose to adapt that matters. Even though it wasn’t my best work, I gave it a shot because, well, you just never know!
The lesson? You already have everything you need to create something incredible. You don’t need an exotic location or a $2,000 camera—you need vision, persistence, and the confidence to try ideas that might seem stupid at first. Some of them *will* fail. But the ones that work? They just might get you paid.
