Busy Busy Busy and a portfolio builder shoot

Ok, so i really truly wouldnt have thought I would be as busy as I have been this winter!

I am definitely not complaining! But my grandiose plans of getting my youtube channel and this blog updated better has well... not happened very well!

I did have 3 weddings in December as well as family in town, but also lots of bridal consults.

I have already had 2 weddings this month and I have another 2 to go this month... but here's the amazing thing, I have 34 weddings booked so far for 2011! So if you are a bride... please dont wait to ask me about your date because I'm getting calls daily!

I've also had lots of portfolio building shoots for both models and photographers as well as some boudoir sessions (most of those I am not able to show you, but if you are interested in having boudoir photos taken, please let me know and I will point you towards the photographers I work with on these).

It's been crazy fun! I will try to be better about updating some of these portfolio building adventures on here!

SOOOOO... where to start?!

Let's start with a shoot i did last month. I was learning studio lighting with photographer, Alex Frazier. He was also taking the photos, but then we let me try each shot when he was done. The shots shown here on my blog are ones that i took with my camera. :D

Model is Sarah Ingle.

This was a portfolio builder shoot for the photographer, though i really think we all won out with this shoot!

With Portfolio Builder shoots I like to show the progression of the looks and what i do to successfully go from one look to another.

First, we start off a little more simple. You definitely need to be able to add on from this look.

We started with a sophisticated look that could easily be modified. I used the icon eyeshadow palette from Smashbox with a fluidliner by MAC in wavelength. Her lips is one of my new lip tars from Obsessive Compulsive cosmetics ( will do a whole post on this new gem of a product soon!)

Her hair we pulled to a low side braid. Sarah has extremely long hair! It was so much fun to play with!

Next up... what i call the Edward Scissorhands if he were a beautiful model!

To change her eyemakeup, i actually just wiped off the blue and started fresh on her lids only. I did have to use a bit of eye makeup remover to get the fluidliner off. The trick to that is to just put the makeup remover on a qtip and wipe off exactly what you want wiped off leaving the rest safe! Then i used an eyegloss i picked up what seems like ages ago from Frends Beauty Supply. It was just dying to be used! Of course in these photos, you can't tell at all that it's an eye gloss! Oh well!

For those gnarly lips, i used a black lipstick i picked up from the halloween section!

For her hair, we actually twisted it up the back (like you would if you were just using one of those massive claw clips) and used the big bobbi pins to secure it. Then we teased the snot out of it!

And now... look 3!

From the start I knew the plans were to have these shot options in both black and white and in color. So i had a lot to think about for color options. I wanted something easy to build off of for the next look... but still look different. Hmmmmmm. Oh yeah, it also had to look good in black and white!

And in color... ok, so my color version is a little enhanced...

I went with bright oranges and yellows because I knew in black and white they would add a nice contour shades even in the black and white photo. Colors too similar to the skin tone in brightness just get washed away in a b/w photo, and i didnt want to get too dark because I wanted to really change up the look for the final look.

I used the bright orange on both her eye and her lips (using a paintstick by MAC in genuine orange) Her lids were heavily lined using a cake liner by Kryolan.

For her hair, it's pretty self explainatory! We combed out the teasing (not... do not put a ton of spray into teasing if you know you will be brusing it out later, just be on standby to beef up the teasing if need be) And then we flat ironed it so it would be silky smooth!

Ok, are you ready for the final look?

Well i started playing and decided to leave her lid and added more yellow tones. The original plan was to add the dark silver to her lid as well, but i was really feeling this random eqyptian mode thing so i ran with it!

First i extended the shadow to her temple. Then i extended her brow with dark silver shadow and extended her bottom lashline. The inside designs were painting using the cake liner by kryolan and a small brush. I love kryolan's cake liner!

I did add more of a blush to her cheek to balance every thing out and i toned down the lip color by adding a pinkie brown right over the orange.

Hair: we just turned on a fan. hehe.

So that was our portfolio builder shoot and while I did take the photos, Alex Frazier set up the lights (except for the last shot in which he challenged me to do it myself!)

Is there something you'd like to see posted on my blog? Let me know and I'll try to get it done for ya!