@polebird: ❤️ Beyond the lens - Stories from my forest pole photoshoot ❤️

An outdoor pole shoot can portray a glamourous feel, but there is more than meets the eye to putting together an outdoor pole photo shoot. I want to share with you all, some photos from my lakeside photoshoot in the woods with my pole sisters, but also go a bit more “behind the scenes” with the stories and describe the logistics and struggles we encountered!

First of all, as some of you guys asked, YES! Portable poles do exist, and they are called stage poles. This particular one that my friend owns is made by Xpole. The base is SUPER heavy, and consists of 6 pieces that fit together exactly over a “base setting” almost like the pieces of a pizza. The pole itself comes apart into two pieces. You can see the “pizza” in the photo below.

There were a lot of considerations taking the stage pole outside. Some of these I thought of before and some we found out at the shoot. :P

#1. We couldn’t walk too far to the final destination because the pieces are so heavy. My friend had a dolly, and two girls had to help guide the dolly through the trail (1 minute walk from the parking lot). You still have to carry the two pieces of the pole as well!

#2. It is ideal if the ground is flat. In our case, it was slightly slanted which resulted in a couple of issues. It was super hard to put the pieces of the pole together and took us maybe 20 minutes to set it up. The pieces of the stage must fit EXACTLY, so it took more than a few tries of jamming them all together since it is supposed to be set up on a flat surface.

#3. Although the stage pole was only slightly leaning from being on an uneven surface, it made it very hard to pole! Even a simple climb to the top which would normally be straight up, took us all on a spin. Your weight definitely wants to shift to the side that the pole was leaning towards. I had some harder tricks such as handsprings and variations that I wrote down on my list, but as soon as I kicked up into the handspring, my weight would take me for a spin.

#4. I brought my trust alcohol spray bottle, tack, and dry hands. The tackiness of the pole is definitely affected by the environment and it is important for safety to have good grip. It was pretty hot outside - so I was glad to have the shade of the trees.

#5. And the main thing was to have fun with the photoshoot. For me, I always think of these as an experimental shoot. :) Takes the pressure off a bit, and it was pretty fun to play with my pole sisters in the woods! Not an everyday occurrence that you find pole fairies playing in the forest!

#6. Oh, and we stayed for golden hour, which provided us with some beautiful back lighting! I love the way how the photos turned out with the sunset glow. Downside, was that at this time, the bugs also came out and I got a few bites.

Thanks for reading! Hope you find it pretty interesting to think about the factors that goes into an outdoor pole shoot. Steem on friends!

Love,
Jess