The Shootout Society

Granted, this was several years ago, and apparently under the old ownership, but both of the previous styled shoots I did with this company in 2022 were less than great. The redwoods session felt like too many people for a forest trail hike and everyone had different opinions about what they wanted to document (ex: two people took over the decision to focus a decent amount on a specific photo in the middle of the road halfway through the session) and the trail didn't really easily accommodate such a large group well. The Catalina Island one was A HOT MESS. Originally was only supposed to be a group of maybe 8 people, but ended up being more like 15+. We also all planned to meet at a rental company where we'd be taking golf carts around the town of Avalon, only to find out that they didn't make a reservation in advance and the company was CLOSED by the time our session began, so we scrambled for a last-minute plan, and I (as an attendee!) offered up the backup plan of walking to another area, so it felt really disappointing to basically be the one who helped the host recover the plan for this day after a terrible job planning well in advance for this styled shoot. Both sessions were also featuring a very specific aesthetic of a bride/groom, and I didn't appreciate how the host handled my asking of how future shoots could incorporate more diversity in the future. After those bad experiences, I was done. Never again.

Since I noticed none of the styled shoots on their website and Instagram have ever intentionally focused on featuring LGBTQ+ couples, I asked the host (the previous owner of the company, looks like it's since changed hands to a new owner) why they hadn't done that so far and she just brushed me off and said that they try to get models like in the mood boards they create and then walked off. It felt really uncomfortable, and secretly intentional that they were (and seems they still are even under new ownership) primarily focused on hetero-appearing couples.

I would sincerely hope that the new / current owner of the Shootout Society is working on being more queer friendly, although it doesn't seem promising as their current mood boards also all feature a more traditional bride/groom appearance, and I don't see ANY representation of queer individuals on their website or social media handles.