remember TVD back in the early days?
we used to do our outdoor photoshoots at home, with my lovely pond (& refrigerator sometimes) as the background!
lol.
omg.. this was back in Feb 2010, TVD’s 1st collection! back then JY & I were modelling for TVD and it was excruciating for us to model cos we had to wake up real early on weekend mornings and it was usually super humid and hot.. we were always sweating like pigs D: not to mention the editing afterwards (too flabby… need to photoshop alot of flabs away) haha you can read about some of those experiences here and here!!
eventually we moved on to studio shoots (and better models!!!), and haven’t looked back since then! D: studio pictures look a lot more professional than those outdoor shoots we did at the beginning, and also showcased the apparel much better due to the clean background and consistent lighting.
anyway..
one year forward, and we’re now at Series 69 already, and have our own humble office space and studio with awesome co-blogshop owners that we’ve become so close with, a fantastic helper who’s also my good friend (and is ever so organised and patient with packing parcels and replying emails daily) we have lovely models who look absolutely gorgeous in our apparel, and we have supportive and super appreciative customers and friends who’s watched TVD grow in the span of this almost one and a half years! :)))
hehe. suddenly sound so reminiscent.
so i thought it’s time we did something different again, and last Sat morning we had a proper-to-goodness (sort of..) outdoor shoot again!!! not outside my house next to the fish pond, thankfully! bwahaha. remember the Drape Convertible Dress we launched last year? we restocked the dress in 2 of the original colors, and also did it in 2 new colors, and i thought it’d be really nice to have an outdoor shoot for it, to give a different feel to how the dress looks styled and worn in real life!
this time round, we had Britney, our helpful make-up and hair artist, myself as the photographer, Woon the awesome as the back-up photographer, and Cher as the model!
well, the 1st lesson i learnt is,
always start early, cos most likely someone is gonna be late. LOL.
thing with outdoor shoots is that you have to get the lighting while its good, if not the pictures won’t turn out nicely! 🙁 i was also checking the weather forecast days in advance, cos i was so worried it’d rain and we wouldn’t be able to shoot outdoors anymore! thank God, the weather was reaaaally sunny in the end!
we were supposed to start at 8AM, but after all the make-up and etc, it was about 10AM when we embarked on the photoshoot excursion! haha.
check out Britney’s 88 color palette! cooooool. i wanna get one for myself too!
here’s pre-makeup Cher. look like ghost right. HAHAHA just kidding ah don’t kill me 😛
final touches of lip gloss…
ta daaah! the three girls who endured the heat and sun with me!
very glam, sitting on toilet bowl while Britney did her hair..
all the barang barang we had to bring! just to shoot one dress D: 4 pairs of shoes, different hair accessories, necklaces, bracelets etc… a reflector to try to get the lighting better, and water is definitely a must cos you don’t wanna dehydrate under the hot sun!
we got lots of stares from alot of ppl. guess we looked kinda weird huh. haha!
Britney styled Cher’s hair differently for every outfit! this Cher very good at pouting i realise. i have like so many pictures of her pouting! hahaha!
and the purpose of having a backup photographer.. i had Woon bring all her film cameras cos i wanted to have two sets of pictures! one set taken by me with the DSLR which focused more on the outfits, while Woon snapped candids and more arty pictures which didn’t necessarily show the apparel, but captured the entire feel/scene.
i wasn’t disappointed at all, cos Woon took some REAAALLLY gorgeous shots with her film cameras! and you know how film cameras have this old school look which is really different from pictures taken by a DSLR.. the colors are so beautiful!
the below pictures are from Woon’s cameras!
Britney helped to constantly touch up the make-up, and also hold the reflector when needed! heh. thanks for being such a great help!
hair is always a problem when shooting outdoors cos everyone’s getting all sweaty and sticky.. 🙁
so we had to use a tripod and stand in the middle of the alley for some of the shots, and cars just kept on going by -_- and it was so so so so hot! swear i grew 2 shades darker. we had a styrofoam board so it was our makeshift umbrella lol! it was so funny, half way through the shoot, a random worker from one of the shops we were shooting behind (back alley) came to offer us an umbrella. LOL.
Cher looks like a cartoon duck here! HAHAHA. so cute!!
well, we had a hot two hours shooting under the sun, but it was reaaallly fun too!! now i know why Joyce is so addicted to doing outdoor shoots. haha! it was pretty hard for me cos i’ve never shot outdoors before, plus i’m not really a photographer, so i didn’t know which angles to catch and how to have the model posing (it was Cher’s first time too!).. definitely not easy. i’m so getting a professional photographer next time, instead of DIY-ing! 🙁
honestly, i’m really a noob (with a lousy camera) at being a photographer. i don’t know anything abt the camera settings and how to shoot outdoor photos/lighting and all that jazz. we were just kinda floundering our way throught the shoot! it was really an experience though!! hahaha!
some of the Fuji Instax we took!
and i did a little collage with the photos from Woon’s cameras. love the pictures, really!!!
back to the drape convertible dress,
we’ve sold quite a few already to ladies for their bridesmaids dresses, and we also made it in sizes this time cos previously it was only in one size. it’s now available in Peach Pink, Bronze, Royal Purple & Nude.
i’ll put up more pictures/previews soon!!!