Our summer long wedding dress spectacular is still popping up on Strawberry Road. This dress was one of the 5 from our Midsummer Night’s dress shoot. It’s funny, the weather this summer has been downright awful. If it wasn’t raining it was about to. Things were damp, mucky and just plain dismal. It’s no wonder that the idea to shoot this dress with such a stunning male model at an Old Lyme beach seemed so inspired at the time. We were wondering for days how to shoot this dress before we returned it to it’s bride and then one morning, the sun came out. I called Jennie and said, lets get this dress to the beach, it will be beautiful! Well, we shot it, we loved the shots and now looking at them I realize they were just great shots of the dress at a small beach in Old Lyme. Funny how perception can be so influenced by your situation…
Once in awhile Jennie and I will have a big idea. The Midsummer Night’s dress shoot was one of those. The idea, 5 dresses hanging over a beautiful stream. Smoke blown into the trees was to capture the streaming sunlight painting ethereal rays over the scene. Well, mother nature didn’t agree with our plan. A calm early morning gave way to an unreliable, omni-directional breeze. No amount of smoke would fill the canopy and if it did, it would have found it’s way in front of the dresses ruining the image. It did work for one image…click on ‘more’ below the image for the rest of the story…
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Jennie and I had an idea, shoot brides and grooms in controlled situations that showcase some of our fantastic local venues. It’s a chance for us to work with vendors, models, and venues while creating some great images. Here’s what we’ve learned, working with venues, not terribly difficult, all we had to do was ask. Working with models, again not so difficult, all we had to do was ask. Then it dawned on us…wedding dresses…where could we find wedding dresses for different models for the different shoots? Before we started trying bridal vendors Jennie told me to let her try something. I waited and by the time a few days had passed Jennie called me elated, “I think I’ve got eight dresses for us!” Jennie had put a post up on facebook and the call was answered. A bunch of generous friends offered up their nuptial accouterments, (i.e. beautiful gowns) We got the idea that we wanted to shoot the gowns themselves, no models, just the gowns themselves. That’s when the theme ‘A midsummer night’s dress,’ came to fruition…
This shoot was going to be big, an actual production. The basic idea behind the shoot was to capture something surreal and make the dresses the stars. This shoot is kicking off what we hope to be several shoots showcasing each dress somewhere different and unique. That idea aside here is what we came up with: Hang the dresses majestically over a flowing brook, pump smoke into the sky to catch rays of light and light accordingly. The setup took two days. Day one, my 3 year-old son and I went down to the brook to clear some paths to the water so we could maneuver for setup and shooting. Later that day my assistant [read: friend] Erik showed up to help hang the rope…
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