a living room photoshoot with jenna.

Jenna might be my muse. I've asked her to pose for two creative shoots now and she just works it in front of the camera. This session was pretty directed and somber (unlike Jenna's usual high-spirited self), but she still infused the shoot with her fun personality. And I snapped tons of frames in between each directed shot.

This shoot was for the Winter Into Spring Creativity Workshop I am a part of, led by the brilliant Carol Bjerke. It's really going to stretch me creatively (which I assume is the whole point) and teach me more about photography itself (in a different way than workshops put on by wedding photographers). I am completely self-taught at photography, so it's intimidating and yet really exciting to be in a classroom-like environment for the next few months. The best part is that I get the chance to meet and know the other area photographers in the class -- and they are all awesome!

For this assignment we were told to work in directorial mode -- basically staging the entire shoot from beginning to end -- and having complete control (something that does not happen with wedding photography!). I love the photographers who work in this mode and stage children's nightmares. But I wanted to do the opposite and create a dreamy/lovely/ethereal environment -- like Dreaming, personified. I had to set-up in my living room (because is was zero degrees that week) and with Jenna's help, we styled everything from the outfits to the hanging stars (all made by hand at 4am) to the jewelry (all handmade for this shoot) and the dramatic headwraps (my fave things to make -- I should go into business, haha). I wanted every single part to be directed and pre-visualized, in accordance with the assignment, and almost in the manner of a fashion spread shoot.

I loved styling a full shoot. Shoots like this make me consider pursuing senior portrait photography -- but I'm pretty much loving the life of a wedding and engagement photographer -- so we'll see...

Thank you, Jenna, for doing this shoot in 30 minutes over my lunch break and literally 45 minutes before you were leaving for Mexico! You're the best! BTW -- these are all straight-out-of-camera (except the B&Ws) with zero post-processing. That alone made my day.