Ariana’s Studio Session

I took a very exciting booking earlier on in the week. After reading my blog post on the opening of the studio, Alex had booked in on the day of her daughters 5th birthday. If you read the blog post yourself, you’ll have already learned that Sunday’s are usually a day of rest. In this case, I had to make an exception. How could I not have Ariana in for a shoot on her actual birthday?
I’d spent the whole week planning some ideas for Ariana’s birthday photographs. I wanted to make sure there was plenty of variety, plus I really wanted to design a set for her so we could get some awesome, very unique shots.

I ordered in a couple of extra backdrops, but they were not expected to arrive until next week. I had a surprise delivery turn up at the studio on Friday and as luck would have it, the new backdrops had arrived in time for Sunday’s session.

So I wanted to start off with the set that I’d mentally designed earlier in the week. Alex had emailed me and we had a good discussion over ideas and costumes to bring along to the studio - Something that’s often important to chat through beforehand, making sure we get the best from the session.

An hour before we were due to start, I was still collecting furniture and trying to figure out the best way to squeeze the different pieces into my car. Fifteen minutes to go and the set is looking good, everything’s in place but it doesn’t look quite right. It’s missing something… Balloons! I nip down the high street to a local gift shop and scramble through their selection of helium balloons and wait for them to be filled. As I’m waiting at the counter there’s an offer on a lovely smelling, pink looking Yankee candle. “I’ll take this too please!” I wanted the studio to smell how it looked, pink!

Ariana was beaming with joy as soon as she stepped foot in the door. Armed with her Frozen birthday cake, she very quickly told me with excitement that her Frozen dress was her favourite. I wasn’t expecting her to bring that along, but I had a great scene in mind for later.

So what you’re looking at next is literally the first shot we took of the session.

I could have easily hung up the camera and wasted no time in swiftly moving onto the next scene & costume change. How could I better this opening photograph? I made some new compositions and kept shooting away, wanting to vary each picture from the last.

The coffee was flowing, the studio was smelling good and the frozen soundtrack was the perfect background noise to help Ariana settle in.

We spent great care making sure each costume would fit with the next background change. These images were what followed….

Next up was a little challenge for me. I wanted to mix things up and go for something a little more dramatic and not use my big soft lights that I’d used during the first hour.

The plan worked perfectly. I’d managed to turn the grey background into something different by focusing soft but incredibly punchy light into the scene.

So remember earlier on I mentioned I had a great idea for the frozen dress? I modified my Christmas theme room slightly and used some wooden crates to place her Frozen cake on, sprinkled with some fake snow. All the toys and ornaments you see in these shots were provided by Ariana, can you tell how into Frozen she is? Alex was so pleased with these shots she’s going to use them for the family Christmas card!

For the last setup of the session, I decided to revisit the first scene and make some changes. During our shoot, some birthday presents arrived at the studio, one of them being a lovely pink princess dress. We didn’t have this to start off with but knew I needed to go the extra mile and incorporate her new dress into some shots. I went with the same setup we started off with, but replaced the grey vintage wallpaper for pink polka dot.

And there you have it! A great insight into what happens when you book a session in the studio! We managed to fit all of those lovely images into a two hour window. To get your ideas flowing and to book your session, please visit the contact page and send an email with your preferred time and date.

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