One of the biggest perks of working a wedding on a Saturday night is getting to keep a few bouquets of flowers and using them for a Sunday session. This past weekend, my best friend Kat and I decided to get together for a small, semi-styled shoot.
We went a little crazy with placing flowers in our hair, but I LOVE how everything turned out. Even though I looked like a real life snapchat filter, I felt really freaking cool. Before Kat and I met up at Miami Whitewater, I took a few self portraits in my yard.
I'm not really sure what was inspiring me, but I decided to go "live" on Instagram for the first time while taking these photos. Everyone always asks me how I take such great (sorry to toot my own horn) self portraits, and I decided to just show my followers on Instagram the process.
Even though I occasionally upload vlogs to my YouTube channel, it was so strange to literally just talk to followers (the two who happened to actually watch live, one of which was my boyfriend haha) and not have to go back and edit it later. It was 100% weird, but I guess I got my point across!
I talked about what I do & why I do it and I ended up enjoying it. I actually am pretty excited because I recently got a FREE preset and edited this entire session with it (other than the B&W photos). It took quite a bit of tweaking, but a challenge is good and it definitely got me out of my comfort zone :)
Other than the fact that I had an entire bouquet of flowers bobby pinned to my head (I did in fact wear all of them to mass that night!) I think this particular self portrait session was different than most because of this fun little trick.
I wish I had a picture of the set up that I had here to get this effect, but I only have my saved live Instagram video. I ALWAYS forget to take off the hair ties on my wrist before shooting, but this time they came in handy. Whenever I notice that I still have something on my wrist, I just slide it onto my lens. It holds and I can see it to remember to take off later. Seeing it while shooting this time inspired me: having my hair tie there let me be able to hang things in front of my lens for unique focus shots like this!! I took a few leafs from the bouquet I was holding, attached and adjusted them, and magic! How cool is that effect?? I also used it with Kat later on!
After finishing up with my own self portraits, I drove to the park to meet up with Kat. I'm currently training Kat more in depth on camera settings and features because she's agreed to be my go-to second shooter for the 2018 wedding season.
We spend SO much time talking photo composition, editing, positioning, etc. anyways, I know that she has the eye that I need in capturing details and moments on someone else's big day.
And I mean, having a little Q&A teaching session just gives us yet another excuse to dress up and take some photos! Which is how we typically spend most of our time hanging out as is.
I'm still not 100% sold on this editing style (just because of the amount of grain it automatically adds) but Kat keeps reassuring me that it will grow on me, so I'm giving it a try. Regardless, Kat looks FLAWLESS with these moody tones. The woodsy vibe combined with the delicacy of flowers just gives these photos such a whimsical feel.
I am SUPER excited for what the 2018 season will bring, but I'm also excited for all of these moment's notice practice sessions! I have so much fun playing photographer, and I can't wait to see what my mind comes up with after getting a few flowers from my next wedding! Here's to new things!