FAQs: What to Wear?

People often ask what to wear to their portrait sessions.  The most important thing regarding clothing, hair and makeup is that you are comfortable! Your session should be as enjoyable and fun as possible - clothes that you feel great in will ensure that happens. :)

I do have a few tips...

Groups

• Wearing matching clothes is fine, but coordinating clothes will look even better!  Try picking a colour palette, (ex. gem, earth or pastel colours) and have each group member wear clothes within that palette.  This will create unity within the group without making everone too "matchy-matchy".  A great example would be a family wearing jeans with brown, green and tan tops and jackets.
• Patterns and prints are fine - but consider if any of the clothing in the group will overpower the rest.
• Accessories and layers make for great photos - feel free to wear jackets, layered shirts, jewelry, scarves, etc.

Individuals

• Wear clothes that suit your personality - your photos should be a representation of you, not someone else.  Wear what is comfortable to you and what makes you feel your best.
• Dark clothes and well fitting clothes are slimming.  Avoid super baggy or super tight clothes.
• Bring your accessories and layered clothes - jackets, jewelry, scarves, hats, etc, make for great photos!

White Rock Beach: Personal

Here's some photos I took down at White Rock Beach with one of my friends, Bianca.  We have a common interest.... photography!  And she recently bought herself a shiny new Nikon D90... so of course she had to take it for a test run!   It was a Nikon-Beach-Photo-Day.

Mocha: Relaxing Afternoon

Random afternoon goodness with Mocha.

Dustin & Kelly: Trash the Dress

Last, but not least is Kelly and Dustin from the Trash the Dress shoot with Photo Chicks in February.  I had the privilege to shoot Dustin & Kelly at both shoot locations for the day, an industrial building and later on a farm!  We found an old green lawnmower that matched perfectly with Dustin's tie, so it had to be used as a prop!  Kelly's wedding dress was beautiful, it was made by her aunt... Gorgeous.

2010 Paralympic Opening Ceremony: Personal

I might have taken too many photos at the Paralympic Opening Ceremony... (really I did!).  I have finally narrowed it down, edited and picked my faves to share.  
We had the cheap seats, but it had a fantastic view of the whole show.  We also were one of the first to arrive in BC Place... seriously.  I took a shot of the stadium before it got crowded and were were able to watch the stadium fill up with people.  My parents arrived shortly after us, they were seated in the next section over!

My husband is a bit “crazy” now and then… you’ll see in one of the shots that he’s wearing the poncho (provided for audience participation) and biting a gold paper that everyone used to reflect light and create a “sparkle” effect from the crowd.  Guess it’s similar to biting a gold medal?  They had a lot of audience participation to create the ceremonies, like holding the sparkle gold paper, using a light up pom pom and more.

And somehow they also managed to teach a stadium of 60,000 people to dance for a record breaking flash dance mob!  After they gave us a run-thru of how the opening ceremonies will go, the Paralympics Official Opening Ceremony started!

Dave & Chelsea: Trash the Dress

Here's our second couple from the Trash the Dress shoot in February, Dave and Chelsea.  They braved an industrial area in Abbotsford to pose for these shots below!  
I had only a limited time to work with them that day, but they were fantastic to work with.

Vanessa: Trash the Dress

After an ordeal with my computer crashing, I thought I was never going to get a chance to edit and post these photos from the Trash the Dress shoot.  Thankfully I was able to borrow a friend's computer for a while and got a lot of editing done!  
For this Trash the Dress session, we had 5 models (2 pairs and one bride alone), but each will have their own blog post starting with Vanessa. 
Vanessa was great to work with... adventurous, fun and willing to do anything for us photographers - even lay down in the mud!  She was in and out of a creek and helped us shoot some fabulous photos that you wouldn't normally shoot at a wedding.  
And the dress survived!  She said later all she had to do was rinse it off in the shower and the mud all came off.  What a sport!

2010 Paralympics Opening Ceremony: Preview!

Steve and I attended the Opening Ceremony for the Vancouver 2010 Paralympics yesterday at BC Place Stadium!  It was an amazing event.  We were part of the largest flash mob dance (60,000 people) and broke the world record.  
It was neat how they incorporated a lot of audience participation into the event.  
I have one shot to share with you from the lighting of the cauldron... more will be up in a couple days!