Two Dresses - Part 2 Lilac

So here it is, the 50s, lilac, ball gown from my grandma's wonderful vintage collection. To be honest, the dress had been hanging round my house ever since I had 'accidentally' swiped it from the collection - I was just waiting for the right model to come along. She was gorgeous, she had red hair (of all things, I've bee wanting to do a shoot with a red-haired model for ages!) and she generally had the right look.

The initial idea of this shoot was to have a sloppy look - To have the dress paired with converse and aviators. It was not going in the Pre Raphaelite direction that it is now in. But then i decided, why not? Why not go with the classic look? I had the right setting, the right model... It just goes to show how much my shoot ideas change before the final look.

I think the last time I ever did a Pre Raphaelite shoot was when I was doing my first fine art GCSE and I was focusing on all the great painters of that time. This was just before I began to take interest in photography. I used my sister for the shoot for that and she was only eight! Unfortunately I've lost the pictures from that time (Which I suppose is a good thing as I'd probably be in danger of cringing!)

Two Dresses - Part 1 Green

This photo shoot all started with two vintage dresses - one was a 60s, bright green dress and the other was a 50s, lilac ball gown. This is the first of the two. Both shoots are completely different but were taken on the same day. Thankfully the weather was brilliantly sunny, which was just what we needed.

Quick anecdote about the first shot - I told my model to go and stand by a door which fitted in nicely with the style, and to hold the knocker to make it look as if she was wanting to go in. I started shooting and it was all going very well until a couple of minutes later an old women came to the door looking very confused and asked what we wanted. I apologised profusely and explained what we were doing.

So, for these shots I had in mind a vague picture of David Bailey's shots of Jean Shrimpton in New York (Vogue 1962). I wanted to get the same quality of picture but less stylised.

I actually found after shooting this that the dress that my model was wearing wasn't very far off the one that Karen Gillian was wearing when posing as Jean Shrimpton in the TV drama 'We'll Take Manhattan'. Coincidence? 

Watch out for the next dress coming soon!

Setting Check

I ventured out the other night to see my aunties new house for her birthday party. I guess to describe it I would say that Its more or less like a mini mansion. Its in the middle of the countryside next to a cow farm. A fantastic house that sparked my inspiration. So, since my cousin (from Photo Shoot With Cousins) was there with me, I decided to take a couple of shots to test out the lighting and good spots for shots. I will definitely go back to do a proper shoot at some point.

In other news: I have a shoot coming up tomorrow so watch out for the next instalment of pictures!

Sisters

I was asked a couple of weeks ago to do a shoot with my model from Birthday Commission Shoot and her little sister. They were so cute together! Hmm, maybe I should start going into family portraiture?

In Other News: I found a Mulberry (Yes, thats right) trench coat in a charity shop so watch out for a shoot with that.