My friend Makenna and I decided to have a full photoshoot day together. She has gotten a camera in the past year and is excited to create! So I asked her to come up with our theme for the photoshoot day and she decided......VALENTINE'S DAY!
I love being festive for all the holidays, espeeeeecccially the winter ones when I have a tendency to be a little down. So naturally, Valentine's Day is a fun day to celebrate all things love and pink and red and candy.
Makenna and I facetimed to collect all of our ideas and decided we wanted to focus on three different themes or emotions that can be felt on the Holiday of Love. This helped us think about costumes, props, backgrounds, and of course, the vibe.
So we prepped and counted down the days until our shoot. We had the whole day available to work with, so we didn't feel rushed at all. We happened to have an absolutely gorgeous day and set up our studio in my garage! The door was open all the way to let in the beautiful sunlight. Natural light is always my preferred light source as I think it makes the skin radiant! (If you have ever had family photos, you've probably planned them for "golden hour" which is when the sun is dreamy and glowy!)
Our first Valentine's theme was "airy." Think "floating in the clouds, recently shot by Cupid, with a new crush...but you're cool about it." We chose our background and outfit based on this idea, and then the best part--came up with our character we would embody!
We took turns taking pictures of each other and directing the posing. Then went back inside to prep for part 2 of the photoshoot. This theme was “bright, fun, silly, happy” with matching outfits for us!!
We again took turns with the camera and then set up the tripod for some self timer pictures. These are some of my absolute favorites! Being “twins” reminded me of when I was little and my cousin got me a matching outfit for Christmas and I felt the coolest walking around with her that day.
Our third theme was about heartbreak. Makenna did a great job displaying sadness and anguish for a love that was no longer present. The dead roses really added to this look I think! And she made a homemade backdrop with rose petals that was incredible!! I Loved having some more pops of red, and was so thankful that she took on that DIY project!
I had just finished listening to a podcast series about “The House of Gucci” so was feeling very inspired by the family drama. I also had an incredible coat from goodwill that needed to have its own moment. So my character was “angry woman whose husband tried to have her killed, but it didn’t work, so now she’s about to ruin his life.” Talk about DRAMA. Thinking about a backstory for a character is soooo fun for me and helps me not feel as silly when I’m trying to capture new poses or emotions on camera. It’s also very fun to pretend to be someone different! Probably the most fun I ever had was playing the character of Cruella Deville!
Makenna and I tried some different camera techniques with movement and shutter speeds. Not all of them worked! And that’s part of photoshoots and trying new things! Sometimes we would check the images on the back of the camera and just laugh as they looked nothing like what we hoped for! I’ve decided this isn’t something to be upset about. I know not everything will be perfect. (There are a lot of photoshoots that have never been posted and shared because they were flops.) But I have learned new things from every single attempt, and continue to have the most fun!
Makenna has since helped me out with some editing of our (800 ) pictures from that day. She’s an absolute natural, and I’m still having fun talking to her about the shoot even though it’s over now. I loved being inspired by a young woman that is talented, creative, and so excited for the hobby that I also love!!
And now, a look at the three different photoshoots for our Valentine’s Extravaganza!!