Photo Shoot with David Irvine

It became apparent to me, quite a while ago in fact, that I needed a new profile image for my Facebook account. The one I had was done professionally but was from when my son was about 9 months old. He's now 25 months. Yep, it was time.

I mean, I had a few "homemade" self-portraity shots I did in the privacy of downtown traffic, lol, but they just didn't quite capture ME.

Back in March I posted a blog about doing a Bridal Show at the St. Thomas Golf and Country Club. Which is where I met David Irvine. We talked shop over the next few months, when we both had TIME to talk said shop, and then I finally sat him down and booked a session.

Last Wednesday we couldn't ask for better weather. It was super warm out (not hot tho) and the sun cooperated magnificently...except for when it was in my eyes, lol. Squinty shots were not processed as you can imagine ;)

I did indoor shots, outdoor shots, shadowy "low light" shots, several wardrobe changes...2.5 hours and what seemed to be a million images later, we were done. I was actually exhausted from not only stretching my body into proportions and angles in an attempt to get that "perfect" shot, but from trying to not laugh half the time; not out of nervousness, but because I felt super comfortable around David and let him see my natural goofy side. I had a freakin' blast :)

David is really professional and a good conversationalist as well, and really makes you feel at ease. He's truly talented and knows how to properly guide you with head tilts and glances ("ok look at the corner of the desk, not at the camera, and think about what you did yesterday") so that you find that right moment of composure...and then you hear the soft click of the lens knowing that that image is caught on film foreva :)
OK maybe I'm being a little melodramatic, lol...

I swung by his house today to pick up the photos and disc. He handed me my album and gave me a quick tour via his computer of what I was receiving.
I oohed.
I ahhed.
I gasped in shock and utter glory, covering my mouth and pointing as I was totally impressed with his ability to capture the moment and make it look even more real than real life, if that makes any sense :P

I will not disclose how much I paid or how many images I received (so don't ask, lol) because that's a personal deal between he and I, and really, everybody's portrait package is going to be different.

But I will say though that he is absolutely worth my time and money. His talent exceeds others I've been introduced to and I am officially hiring him as my photographer; for our family portraits and possibly, one day if I am so lucky to say this, my wedding. Hopefully he will still be around by the time that day comes! LMAO...

He was also gracious enough to take some non-portrait images that I will be using for an upcoming wedding invitation design. It g'onna be awesome.

Please, I suggest that if you are looking for a great photographer for either your wedding or how you look in your favourite outfit as you lean up against a brick wall (um, ME), follow the link to his site and start there. His work speaks for itself. www.jdwiphotography.com

Thank you David for a great time and for your professionalism and talent. At the risk of sounding a little teeny-bopperish, you rock! :)

ACK!!! %&$%&#$&(*#!!!

Don't worry - this is a happy post. The above only means I'm freaking out in a good way :)

Yesterday...ahh, twas a grand event at least for me.
I had an opportunity to have professional photos taken of me by the wonderfully talented David Irvine.

Morning started off as such: hair and makeup at Les Ciseaux at 8:30am sharp (Jenny doesn't like to wait around, lol). My hair was styled by Jenny Luong and I love her because she's so hip and cool and young and modern. I walked in there with what I thought was the most fantastic punkiest idea EVER...and walked out looking edgy and sexy, not childish. The style I had chosen, in Jenny's words, would cause me to look more like a tween than a sexy 30-something.
Fair enough.

I sat in the cushioned salon chair facing myself in the mirror. I slightly resembled what I can only call a hip hag. Jenny stood behind me eyeing up the task at hand and as she fingered my hair (sorry, I suppose that sounds a little tawdry) she says to me "Girl, did you colour your hair blonde recently?" Yes, I said back. On the weekend in fact.

"It wasn't done professionally was it? It's too brassy. I have a solution for that." she proceeded to inform me of a product that thankfully I can find at Shoppers that helps make blondes look like blondes and not, as she said, brassy.

But brassy rhymes with sassy, which I am!, I thought with a smile.

She fluffed, straightened, styled, and product-ed (in other words, put "product" in my hair) until I was perfection in her chair. She's like that though; ANY strand out of place and she will fix that asap. I've never met a stylist as anal as her (I say that with love, I really do) but it's also what makes her so darn professional. :)

It took her all of 20 minutes to help in the transformation of Lisa. I had streaked my blonde hair the night before with Manic Panic red (that looks more like fuschia) and it was a pretty awesome job if I do say so myself! ::snaps suspenders proudly::

"Okay girl, makeup next with Kayla. Good luck today eh!" I smiled and thanked her for her awesomeness and scootched 3 seats down to where Kayla was waiting for me. We exchanged pleseantries and I showed her the eye shadow that I brought along to use: beautiful bright blue.
Srsly.
I was going ALL out today: edgy pink hair styled to funkterrificness. Blue eyes so bold and vibrant. God I love colour!

Might I take a moment at this point to say how incredible it is to get pampered. You know that light dreamy feeling you experience when someone is playing with your hair? I kinda got that same feeling when Kayla was applying with gentle brush strokes the powdery softness of the eye shadow.

Until she said "Open your eyes and look UP."
Riiight. Having someone draw eyeliner on me is not something I enjoyed. Not because it hurt or anything, just because it makes me uncomfortable. It's something that I should be doing because well, I'm not going to poke myself in the eye...not that Kayla did...crap this is going somewhere it shouldn't.

About 15 minutes later she stepped back from working her magic, handed me my glasses and a mirror. I was like, whoa. I had bright-assed blue eye shadow on and it.looked.GOOD! On me! Makeup! Who knew?

Long story short, both Kayla and Jenny did a remarkable job transforming me into VaVaVoom girl. :)

By the time I left the salon I was jacked...emotionally speaking ;)
I weaved in and out of downtown 10am London traffic with ease, enjoying the heat of the day already, slinging my left arm casually out my window all the while shifting gears, dialling my girl friend's number to OMG over my transformation and punching the radio keys to find the right song to fit my mood.
As soon as I heard Sex on Fire, I blasted it and waited on calling Rebekah :)

45 minutes later I arrived at David's house, hot and sweaty from the ride down from not only the weather, but my nerves. I was tres excited!

As I have explained to so many people over the past few weeks, this photo shoot was for ME. It was an ego boost I was in dire need of and no amount of sexy shoes on sale could help, to my chagrin. So I saved my pennies and found images online of the look I was hoping to achieve, and prepared for the day on so many levels.

And 'sides, I ain't gonna look this good in 10 years so I might as well get this shizz on film while I can, lol.

As David opened the door to his house, he complimented my hair and allowed me to walk past him with my props. I was armed with gear and attire; I had prepared for about 3 wordobe changes plus the usage of my props (chains, Fedroa, skulls, stilettos, and dolls my Aunt Carol sewed for me from my childhood).

I was there for about 2.5 - 3 hours and we logged over 400 images. That's not to say I will walk away with 400 pictures; David's going to narrow them down to the best ones based on so many aspects; shadow, light, skin tone, eye colour, atmosphere, personality...he will keep all the images for future reference but what I end up will be the best of the best.

David, I might add was VERY professional. Really easy to work with, made it such a comfortable experience with beverages and music and his overall talent. We did indoor shots in his studio and outdoor shots to take advantage of this beaitful sunny weather we had.

His 2 storey brick country home was located on sprawling farmland; there were 2 barns and a couple other little buildings, one being a small smoke house which was originally used for his kids to play in, but that day we used it to do one of my scenes after clearing out the colourful toys and taking down the art taped to the brick wall.

Near the end of the session I asked that David take some shots of the skulls for an invitation idea I'm working on. He set up the red suede background that I supplied and I positioned the skulls in the way I wanted them to be.

He took several images and when prompted for explanation on different lighting techniques, showed me the difference between general flash and flash with a puffer..?..buffer?...see I can't remember, but it was this white plastic piece that sat in front of the flash and makes certain portions of the props look more...real? I dunno. I can't explain it. :( But it was pretty cool stuff.

I also had him take some pics of my tatoos...they turned out AWESOME. Very nicely done. The whole session was tastefully done too. Yay and yay!

As we wrapped up, we talked shop about how many images I may walk away with, the difference between RAW images and jpegs, and when he figures I will be able to attain said images.

So. I'm excited, still. Another week or so and I get to see Lisa Transformed :)

Bridal Show March 1st!

Yes! You read me right, yet another bridal show under my belt! I am really liking them, they prove to be a great way to spend an afternoon, or at least for me anyways!

It started off as a good day. My girlfriend Nicole came to help out for the day to see what all the fuss was about. She was nice enough to bring flowers for the table as well as suckers! And who doesn't like suckers?

We packed up her car and sped off down the country road on our way to the St. Thomas Golf and Country Club, gossiping the whole way about people places and things. There are some things I learned about her and a couple things she learned about me as well. It was great conversation between two great people.

So we get to the venue about 20 minutes before doors opened and I was non-stresed. I had all my gear and time to set up and possibly introduce myself to other vendors before perching myself at my booth. Life was good.

We hauled everything in and began to set up. I reached down to grab my portfolios when my hand went through a space of air.
They.weren't.there!
OMG!
Panick set in immediately as I frantically looked around hoping to God I wasn't stupid enough to forget the ONE thing that I was there to show off!
And I was.

So we left the rest of the set up as it was, half way done. Jumped in her car and sped back to my house. Yes, we were clocking speeds I won't mention but we made it to my house and back, which would have normally took close to 45 minutes in about half an hour. I was freaking out a little (actually, alot) the whole time too, lol!

Upon returning to the club, Nicole looked at me and said "Okay we are only 15 minutes late, all we gotta do is set the portfolios up on the table, are you still stressed because you shouldn't be now."

I let out a sigh of relief and said I was no longer stressed. She cracked up laughing for some strange reason and says to me "Good Lees, because to be honest with you I was freaking out the whole time too but I knew if you knew that it would have made it worse!"

We had a good laugh, ran inside and set up. Done in about 3 minutes. From the looks of things it wasn't too busy and it didn't get busy until about half an hour into it so I was relieved.

But in my defense, even the most organized people have an off day! :) I'm allowed!

Nicole was an amazing help! She came up with little things to put in my schpeel and we had a great time. We met a nice n' super cool photographer named David Irvine who is going to do head shots for me; he's really good, his work speaks for himself. You can check it out at www.jdwiphotography.com.

And we even watched an entertaining game of golf by a long golfer out on the greens mid way through the day!

But for future reference I am now going to incorporate and use a list of items for me to bring.
Silly me.
It won't happen again, that's for sure!

And yes, just so you know, the suckers were a hit!