Hey guys! I'm back. Daang Elyssa, 3 posts in a day? I know. I'm proud too.
Though this photoshoot I did with my cousin isn't a recent project, I'm reeaallyy itchin' to kick off the fashion category of my blog already haha!
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*Note: a lot of my posts will be in "we" narration as I do a LOT of my projects with my sister so it just feels really weird and unnatural saying "I did this, I did that..."
My go-to activity whenever my little cousin buddies come over is to carry out a project with them involved. Whether it be a movie, skit, obstacle course, inside mall, or in this case - photoshoots (which are my personal favorite!). I think it's the only thing that will keep both of us entertained (and me sane) while they're there haha.
Luckily for us, our little cousin buddies absolutely love to do projects with us! (So don't worry - it's not like we're forcing them or anything) Angeline, the model in this shoot, especially loves things involving dressing up and being the center of attention so it's all good.
So on a gloomy January Sunday afternoon about a year ago, when our uncle dropped his kid off at our house for a few hours, that's exactly what we decided to do.
The rest of this blog post is simply going to be the story behind the shoot (inspiration, focus, BTS stuff) so if you're not really into that, feel free to just scroll past all this part (I'm a lengthy talker... or writer) and take a look at the pictures below instead. I know I'm certainly an avid picture-looker so I don't blame you.
On this particular weekend, we happened to have a bundle of balloons lying around the house from a college reunion of our mom's the prior Saturday. So, we got our main focus down. What did we want to feature? Those balloons - duh. (How often do you get a massive bundle of props for free?)
From the moment we got those balloons, actually, we had already energetically planned on doing something with them (photoshoot or video-shoot of some sort) before they sank to the ground. Sadly, as we all know the truth of helium strength, that didn't give us too many days to work with. They sank the following morning.
But there are always more than one road to your destination. Why just stick to traditional idea of balloons in the air when you can just use it in a different perspective?
Then to the next narrowing of ideas. Being the brink of February aka the month of LOVE, we knew we wanted to use pinks and pastels in this shoot. So we knew where to begin.
FASHION
Running ecstatically upstairs, with Angeline trailing behind trying her best to catch up and, well, understand what was happening, we threw open our clothing cabinets, in search for all shades of pinks (most preferably in her size of course)! Luckily, because we are such sentimental peoples, we hoard quite an excessive amount of old clothes so the items were just a little bit bigger than her. The Gap Kids shirt was just a little baggy so we just safety-pinned it in the back (psh no one can see it). We paired this with a pleated Gymboree skirt (that we really should've ironed first, looking back at the pictures) just a slight shade darker. Accessories included a DIY pearl necklace I made a while back and a pair of adorable pink Gymboree sunglasses. Quite a simple ensemble of plain-printed monochromes really.
SETTING
For most of our photoshoot locations / settings, we mainly just try to work with the situation going on around our house. Around the afternoon, we tend to shoot in our room as the lighting is generally the best there. Our props simply consisted of a pink polka-dotted comforter (that we did our best to straighten out in between shots), a small IKEA chair, and of course, the balloons. (Scroll down for the totally exclusive nitty-gritty behind-the-scene stuffs.)
SHOOTING
Once everything was all set up, shooting was a blast. We had fun music playing in the background and even dressed more freelance-y and arsty ourselves, to get us more into the photographer mood. (Dress for the job, am I right?) The only small problem we ran into was just Angeline's forced smiles. (But I mean, can you blame the kid?) We encouraged her to just loosen up and dance to the music and tried to capture as many candid smiles and laughs as possible. Nonetheless, I especially enjoyed this shoot because the products turned our naturally awesome. The photos are generally unedited, except for a few touch ups on the contrast and saturation here and there. Only one photo had an extra amount of editing done as I had to erase the background a little bit due to our messy cabinet in the BG.
My personal favorite of the shoot.
An adorable candid taken after the "official" shoot as she was playing with a random stuffed animal.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Ironically, it was after the shoot that she actually gave us her best genuine smile.
Shoot's setting. Truth be told, it wasn't just the cabinet that was messy.