Styled shoots - My favorite one and what it taught me.
Sand Dunes. Hands down, Sand Dunes. Uh, I have so many thoughts about this shoot from October of 2024. The first is the friends I made beforehand. That year was my first big push to create more content and connections for myself. I planned 5 wedding styled shoots that year, all photographed in a matter of four months. I reached out to countless vendors - photographers for work as a second shooter, bridal boutiques to borrow dresses, tux companies to borrow tuxes, florists for donated floral, hair and make up artists, venues - literally almost any vendor you can think of, I sent a message to for these shoots.
I had reached out to Matt from the Dunes Desert Camp in the hopes that I could use their property for this shoot. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear back from him for a while (turns out he was in Africa, which is a great excuse). I reached out a second time, and he happened to need a photographer to photograph on site, like the next day, so I made that trip work! He got photos of his campsite, and I got to use his property for photos.
Next is the dress and suit. I actually had three dresses for this shoot. One from Shein, I didn’t mind getting dirty. A dress from D’anelli Bridal that we didn’t end up using, and a Rue de Seine dress from A & Be Bridal. I am more than grateful for getting to meet Alana from D’anelli. She’s become a fast friend, and I even had the pleasure of taking her daughter’s senior photos last year! The suit was from The Suit Shop. This company has trusted me with more suits than I can count at this point, and it’s so cool that they have styled shoot programs as they do!
The floral. I don’t know how she did it, but when I went to Kara Kara Blooms that year, she never flinched when I told her my vision. She gave me the floral for the Wiccan Styled Shoot and the Dunes Styled Shoot!
On the other hand, I was also trying to get any photography opportunity that came my way, which is how I found Laurie from LMP. She hired me in August 2024 as a photographer for an ice skating competition she was photographing. We got to talking about the styled shoots I was planning, and the way her face lit up when she asked if I needed a videographer! I had to say yes!
Last and certainly not least were my models, Alyssa and James were the only ones to offer to model in that part of Colorado, and they were honestly perfect for the role. She responded to a post I put on a modeling group for Colorado. It turns out she was just a few weeks pregnant too, because nine months later, we were seeing her new little one on socials!
What this shoot taught me don’t give up, if you never ask, you will never know, and the connections you make in the community you want to be in will mean everything!
