Have you ever looked through magazines and thought “WOW”? I’ve been wowed with Annie Leibovitz’s every time I see her photographs in Vanity Fair magazine or Vogue magazine. She’s such an inspiration to me. I love how people speak in her portrait through their expression and this is exactly what I do in my studio. I take vanity fair magazine style portraits so people can be themselves and reveal their characters through their portrait. The hardest thing I had to learn in my business is how to help people be themselves and show me sides of their personalities that they normally hide and mask it with that facade we all put on when “not sure”.
When I say glamour, someone might think cheesy boas and unnatural poses… lol NO! The 80s hilarious glamour is far gone, nowadays it’s about your ability to show your powers through a portrait.
My 2000 sf Laguna beach portrait studio offers a full service of hair styling and makeup application at the studio by a professional licensed hair and makeup stylist to bring the best version of you out. The makeup is not what makes it fantastic, but having the right products on you is essential to be able to utilize the lighting we use. We contour our client’s faces using lighting and shadows and not makeup only. Our creative lighting, corrective posing, and mindful directions will help you own your powers and be aware of your strengths in front of the camera and you’ll be perfect from the top of your head to your toes. Being a portrait photographer doesn’t mean whipping a camera out and starting to take photos and hope one of them works out, portrait photography is planning, thinking, styling, coordinating and helping my clients bring themselves into the shoot, you do all the work, what I do is give you means and directions to ace your portrait photoshoot.
In the photograph with Christina Welky’s red burgundy dress, we had a simple metallic backdrop wall behind her but the real sparkle was in her eyes and her expression. Her personality and fire showed in her eyes and her expression. When you’re in a photography studio, things can get a bit intimidating, and my job is to bring you back and help you own your strength again in front of the camera. The dress is from the studio’s wardrobe.
In the second photo, Alex’s timeless black and white photograph brought me back to my days in art school when I used to be obsessed with Hollywood portrait portraiture and I used to seek art museums and go out of my way to find old photographs in antique shows, estate sales on eBay! I learned a lot from the old style photography art where they did everything in camera and they didn’t rely on photoshop. In this photograph, we used the same backdrop as Christina Welky’s backdrop but the difference was in the distance and in the editing style. Being a portrait photographer is limitless, I love to create unique photos of every client. We have this gorgeous dress in our wardrobe at the studio btw.
In the third photograph of Tina in the gold dress, I picked a textured gold backdrop to give her that monochromatic look that goes with her olive skin, I loved her flexibility and ability to give different expressions within one pose. She brought this dress with her and my eyes popped, she wasn’t sure it photographed well but I saw it and I immediately knew what to do. Her hair highlights, her skin tones, and the dress were complementing factors to her pose and the way she brought her personality out through a cover girl pose, she definitely owned her femininity.
