Beginning to heal
Thank you to everyone who has been sending happy and healing thoughts to my back! It’s gradually getting better, and I’m also limiting the amount of time I sit and work in a single stretch. I’m the kind of person that finds it hard to stop once I’ve started focusing on something, but my body obviously isn’t going to allow that. Thank you again for all of your lovely comments…I hope to be better soon!
Location scouting
Location scouting in a city I’m new to isn’t my speciality. Especially with no car of my own to drive around in. But on the first day that Martin and I arrived in Paris, we went for a bit of a stroll in our new neighborhood and stumbled upon a little park. I’m careful about photographing in parks or gardens…unless it’s the Jardin du Luxembourg, it can look a bit cheesy. But sometimes it can work surprisingly well.
This image looks like it could have been taken outside Versailles, but it was actually in Cheesman Park, right here in Denver!!
We put the nearby location in the back of our minds and didn’t revisit the idea until we needed a setting for one of the 1950’s-inspired portrait sessions. I had a sleek white and black dress made by Zepherra and a lovely vintage-inspired wig by Carl Brown for Maggie to wear, but had nowhere to photograph her. Yes, we were in Paris and there is no shortage of backdrop. But when you are shooting something vintage, you have to be mindful of the setting incorrectly dating the image. We already had locations for the four other vintage portrait looks, so it suddenly seemed like a good idea to revisit the park!
Martin teaches on Udemy. He also is my constant guinea Pig.
After doing a test shot on my iPhone, we decided on the exact location. The problem was, it was a bit shadowy. And the dress was a simple black and white. I started visualizing a bold pop of color. We returned back home and talked it over with Maggie. My vote was blue…she kept seeing sunflowers in her mind. We suggested she take a nap (we were all exhausted after a sunrise shoot that morning) and Martin and I started searching every flower shop in our neighborhood.
At the end, I think we saw three flower shops and none of them were particularly close to the other. I don’t know if it was the wrong time of year or what, but I just couldn’t find anything I was happy with. At the third and final florist, I saw some roses that I liked…and sunflowers. I bought both...not particularly confident with either choice…but I was too tired to argue with myself.
Sunny side up
We returned home again, this time with flowers in hand. The final vote was the sunflowers because I trusted in Maggie’s original flash of inspiration. She got ready and before we knew it, we looked like we were walking through a Parisian park being followed by a ghost!
Ghost.
The portrait session was fast. Like, really fast. Like, I took less than 100 images fast. And that is saying something. The light wasn’t really what I wanted…and I felt unsure about how the dress was photographing. I was also deliriously tired and we already had COUNTLESS images from other shoots. But looking back, I’m so glad that this look was included in our Paris adventure!
It was so dark. I can’t even.
Excellent choice, Maggie.
Stay tuned! I’ll be revealing more images shortly!! And not to spoil any Jardin du Luxembourg surprises…but Maggie should basically just be a Vera Wang Model. Get ready ;)
Link of the day
