Ava Pivot

Fashion and beauty photographers are often creative — but Ava Pivot is recognized for her daring, emotive pieces, even amongst her peers. Her work skilfully blends color and light to tell visual stories about the fashion on display.

What’s remarkable about Pivot’s approach is that it can’t be pinned down. While many fashion photographers stick to a single style, Pivot believes in continuous evolution and learning, reinventing her approach for every project.

Ava discovered Angelbird through her connections as a Nikon ambassador five years ago. After taking part in research to help us understand the needs of Nikon users, Ava discovered Angelbird products and decided to join the Collective.

“I really like the idea of the Angelbird Collective as a way to connect people with each other,” she says. “It's so interesting to meet other photographers doing something completely different to you. You can learn so much from each other.”

“Angelbird is fantastic”, she says. “I really like the products, as they’re designed and packaged stylishly, but still have very high standards for quality. The company itself is really like a family. If you have a problem or you're looking for something, you can always reach out to them.”

Ava started her career in horse photography after tracking down one of the top photographers in the field and working with him for years.

She later changed course, becoming an art director for fashion and beauty publications. Years later, she decided to combine her two passions and return to photography — this time as a freelance fashion photographer.

Interestingly, her approach to fashion and beauty photography was inspired by childhood experiences:

“My grandmother was a sacral stained glass artist and built giant church windows. I can always remember being a little child and running through her studio, and there was glass everywhere in different, crazy, intense colors.”

“I wasn’t allowed to touch these pieces of glass, but when nobody was looking, I would play with them. I would look at the colors and reflections. This is something I think really helps me to work in a more creative style now.”

As a beauty photographer for brands like Guess and Rolex, working with celebrities like Christian Bale and Ashley Tisdale, Ava takes her camera gear seriously.

“I use so many different kinds of lights, because I really like to find new styles and directions to work with. So I'm using Profoto for flashlights in the studio. And around three years ago, I started using continuous light more, and am now working with the company DedoLight.”

“I’m also working with FALCAM, a small company from China that makes video accessories and cages. And Think Tank, which makes bags and trolleys.”

Ava is a Nikon ambassador, and has recently been using the Nikon Z9, Z8, Z7II, and Z6II camera models. “My most important partners are Nikon, Dedolight  and Angelbird,” she says.

“And since I'm working with Angelbird, I only use their cards and external solid state drives (SSDs). I'm deeply in love with Angelbird products! I really try to only work with the best possible equipment I can get my hands on”, she explains.

Many fashion photographers use tethered cameras that allow other people to preview the photos as they are taken. However, Ava feels that having groups of people around can interrupt her creative dynamic.

“Sometimes when you’re working on a big campaign for an important client, you can have 20 people in the room. This can lead to unhelpful things, like people commenting negatively about the model during the shoot.”

“But if I see things I don't like from the model, I don't give her negative feedback. I prefer to keep her in a good mood, because I can direct her more easily. Her job is to bring to life what she’s wearing for the client — but at the end of the day, it's a human being in front of my lens.”

Because this positive creative dynamic is so important, Ava prefers to work with a smaller team around her. But this requires a greater level of trust.

Ava often asks her clients to trust her to take photos on an untethered camera. However, clients are sometimes uncomfortable with this idea, believing that it’s not safe to shoot on cards alone. 

“That’s something that really changed for me with Angelbird,” she says. “Because I’ve never lost a file, so I trust my decision to rely on cards. I can go to the client and say ‘we’ll do it like this, it’s my way of working. And I can promise you, in the evening you’ll have all the data.”

Ava still takes precautions, using two cards in her cameras and regularly doing photo backup. But being able to shoot without constantly looking at a computer monitor helps her stay in the moment:

“When you’re always stopping to check your photos, you lose faith in your skills. So for me, it's much easier to dive into the creative process by staying untethered and just believing in my decisions.”

“Sometimes I really need to take a lot of pictures. And that can be a problem, because a lot of camera storage cards and SSDs aren’t fast enough, especially with the huge files cameras capture now. But that’s a lot easier now I’m using the Angelbird CFexpress Type B memory cards and SSD2GO PKT MK2 external drive.”

Even as an established photographer, Ava Pivot finds she is constantly growing. In fact, her biggest personal challenge was about choosing which direction to grow in.

“I had some years where I was taking really bad pictures because I was listening to advice from too many people. They were saying ‘your photos are too intense, too focused on the human.’” 

“I tried really hard to change these things. But my photos were getting really boring and normal, and it wasn't my way of seeing things. So I couldn't come up with great quality photos in the direction people were telling me to go in.”

For Ava, the solution was to learn to trust herself again — and know that there were clients who adored her unique approach.

“The reason that I'm a fashion photographer now is that I don't have limits. I have the chance to change my style every day to match the client, idea, and the art direction. I don't follow the rule of sticking to only one direction.”

“My advice for everybody is to trust in your skills”, Ava says. “And if you need to;do more studying and training so that you can trust yourself. This way, you can feel confident about shooting without always being connected to a computer, or whatever else might hold you back.”

“In the end, that's the conclusion I've come to in the last few years of my photography career: it's about being able to trust the process and your own opinion.”

It’s evident that even as a sought-after fashion and beauty photographer, Ava Pivot has had her moments of self-doubt. She explained that success often comes from doing whatever it takes to believe in your skills — and your unique outlook.

“Never stop learning. Give enough respect to yourself to know what you can do and how good you are, but never stop learning.“

“A lot of photographers realize that they’re good, but then they become arrogant, and it holds them back. I think it’s a very important skill to keep learning, keep inspiring,and being inspired.”

“I really prefer shoots where I have a maximum of four or five people on my set. The models, the fashion stylist, maybe one makeup artist, and that's it.”

“So a lot of the time I'm really building my lights by myself, I'm handling all the technical things myself — but it gives me freedom. And this is also where the right equipment helps. If you can't trust your equipment, you’re always worrying if everything will work correctly. 

“I really prefer to have the choice to not worry about my equipment, and especially the data saving process. Then I can build up this personal, direct connection with the models and smaller teams. That's creative freedom to me.”

Big thanks to Ava for being in the Angelbird Collective. We look forward to seeing what else you do as you enjoy creative freedom — without limits.


Connect with Ava online:

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