I have been busy, busy, busy! I worked on four shoots this past weekend. I’m going to try hard to get them up ASAP. My first was Friday evening with Felicia. She is my newest Senior Ambassador from Los Gatos High School.
“Fashions fade; style is eternal.”
–Yves Saint Laurent
I cannot even begin to tell you how much fun we had. I have been dying to try a “trash the dress” shoot for a while now and Felicia eagerly offered up two gowns for the event. The whole Trash the Dress Phenomenon started with photographer John Michael Cooper, who gets together with brides after their weddings to don their bridal gowns one last time. He then photographs them getting their dress wet, dirty, grungy, ripped, sometimes burned, and altogether ruined. It’s starting to catch on with seniors. I mean, really, when will you ever wear that prom dress again?
Felicia and I met up at Baker Beach at sunset and began the fun in the dirty, grungy military bunker.
Felicia is absolutely beautiful. She does some modeling on the side and it’s no surprise at all. She’s six feet tall (I’m not kidding!) with long hair and a few freckles.
She changed into a white dress for the beach. If you’ve been there, you’ve seen the enormous old cypress trees that sit atop Baker Beach in the Presidio of San Francisco. They are really extraordinary and are windblown with their roots half out of the ground. And, of course, there were great views of the Golden Gate Bridge off in the distance.
I hadn’t previously warned Felicia and her family about the, um, less-than-clothed visitors on the north side of the beach. We left Felicia’s mom and brother on the safer side and ventured over to where the setting was perfect (despite the occasional glimpse of too much skin). There are some big rocks that I had Felicia climb and lay on. She was a trooper and was willing to do it all in her pristine, white dress. I would not want to play poker with her because she was able to keep a straight face after the tide came up when I had her laying on her belly. Her expression never changed until I lowered my camera and then she jumped up out of the water. And trust me when I say that that water was c-o-l-d.
She was a great model and I couldn’t wait to come home and check out all of the images.
Thanks for such a great time, Felicia!
p.s. If you’d like to be my next Senior Ambassador, check out this post and shoot me an email at lmdocherty@gmail.com. It’s lots of fun and will get you a free session plus free photo goodies.