Trash The Idea

I can't recall when, but at some point I wanted to photograph a "Trash The Dress" session.  I was looking on-line to find a used Bridal Gown on e-bay, but the prices for the style of dress I wanted the model to wear were in the hundreds of dollars.  No thanks.  Seriously, why hang on to a dress that you know neither your daughter nor your future daughter-in-law will wear.  I guess if your marriage doesn't last you can always wear it for your next wedding.

Luckily my friend Teresa had a vintage wedding dress that she said I could use and "trash."  I contacted one of my fave models, Nikki, and also Angel (Make-Up Artist and Hair Stylist) to see if they would collaborate, which they both agreed.  I originally wanted to shoot in the Kern River, which is near my house,  and about shin deep with running water, and nicely overgrown.  However, as the shoot date approached the river began drying up and the look wasn't what I wanted.  I then decided to shoot at the abandoned warehouse where we shot with Robert, Joe and Kirsti back in August.

The day of the shoot, everything went well and Angel did an excellent job with Nikki's Hair and Make-up.  He even modified the veil, which came out really cool.  I'm glad he agreed to work with me.  We arrived at the site at 5:00 PM, but as we pulled up we all noticed new No Trespassing signs had been posted on all entrances.  DARN!!!  I recently got a traffic ticket and I really didn't want another ticket, especially for trespassing, so we decide we would stick to the exterior of the buildings, which really didn't fit my vision.

I also brought my Olympus PEN E-PL1 camera to test it out and take some Behind-The-Scenes (BTS) video.  We all set-up our gear and began firing off shots, moving from one place to another, but I just wasn't feeling the shoot.  The dress really wasn't working for me, so we pressed on until Nikki asked if she could put on her new White dress she bought.  We played more with some lights, but and got some interesting images, however; I just didn't feel like I captured any of my original vision.  As an aside, I kept telling Nikki that if Darnah was here, I probably would have gotten the shots.

We wrapped up as the sun set and we managed to squeeze of some cute shots of Haydn, Nikki's little girl, and some decent white dress images, too.  I still felt let down by the shoot.

So what did I learn?
Have a backup plan of images I want to capture - I was so transfixed on specific looks that I most likely missed some opportunities  for some killer shots.

What's on the schedule?  I  have a shoot in October with an "Agency-Signed" Model and then a shoot with Kelsey scheduled when we visit State College.  Both should be fun and rewarding.  Aside from shoots, I'll just take them one at a time and "That's A Wrap!!!"

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