The sun never catches Shaira Luna in bed.
Her morning regimen is often completed with an episode of “Ancient Aliens,” proving that the anatomy prodigy hasn’t completely outgrown science with her fascination on the theories of the extraterrestrial.
The sought after fashion photographer is already up by 3 a.m., scrolling through various feeds of art, photography and film to get her creative juices flowing the minute she wakes up.
She wants to take in as much inspiration as she can, embracing interdisciplinary concepts and approaches that she could apply to her own photography.
By now, everyone has become familiar with the way Shaira shoots her photographs—each framed scene is captured with a romantically dreamy and grainy vintage flair.
“I have so much pictures and I separate them per year—like personal, commercial, editorial. So that’s three hard drives in a year,” Shaira said.
And she would have to sift through thousands of photos before one ends up on her Instagram, an account that uniquely features a thematic color palette weekly. And one that is undoubtedly filed by many ’grammers under their #feedgoals.
“Most people ask me what filter I use to keep my feed how it is—I don’t. I just have a lot of photos and shoots that fall under the same tones,” she shared.
“It takes a long time,” Shaira said. “It’s a challenge looking for the photos with similar colors, but that’s what I really enjoy.”
It was in 2015 when she decided that colors would be the main theme of her account. In fact, she has a long list of color combinations that she wants to feature.
“Without really thinking of the photos I could use, I chose colors. Green and pink; yellow, orange and green—those kinds of combinations. Sometimes, I intentionally shoot to stick to the list (of color combinations) I made,” she said.
Most of the pictures seen on her feed are outtakes of her published photos. While most of them are from recent shoots, the oldest of the lot come from the year 2010.
“A lot of them haven’t been seen, so it’s old but it’s fresh. While it may not be taken on the day that I post it, it’s still somehow connected to something,” Shaira explained.
With a curated feed of her work, there seems to be no space on it for Shaira to share her personal adventures. But that’s exactly how she intends to keep it. Like most artists, the photographer insists to be defined by what she creates.
“I appear in it once a week, like you’d see my face there sometimes. But I think the pictures I take are more important,” she said. —Vinz Lamorena
