Photographs

It took the better part of the morning to move everything from the front half of my studio, that would be three looms and various weaving equipment, into another room, or pushed out of the way, so I could have the space to properly photograph the garments.  Since they are full size garments, it is more complicated to do a photo shoot set up, and I always dread it, because I hate when things are out of place.  As I suspected, this is a two day job.

I woke to about 5 inches of snow, and classes were canceled both at the college and the high school, so both my kids did what every self respecting teen would do, they slept in.  I’m talking after lunch.  So I went out to clear the front walk for the post woman, by myself, throw down some rock salt, bring in the garbage can so the plow wouldn’t run over it, and find the newspapers in the snow.  It started to rain by about 10am, and it rained the whole day, an icy rain, which made travel less than ideal but the trees were spectacular.  I still had to head out around 4:30 to take my daughter to volleyball practice, and it was hard making it up the little hill on my street.  The main roads were OK, but I was glad to have spent most of the day, tucked safely in my studio, even if I did tear it all apart.

I wanted to use the graduated backdrop for both garments, it looks more professional, and I think more dramatic.  I used my dressform as a prop, unfortunately the graduated backdrop is only 67″ long, so to get the whole dress in, I had to do some creative Photoshop work erasing the base and pedestal.  But I’m really really happy with the results.  I think the dress is beautiful in the photo.  I’m very proud of it.  I’m working on the coat, have photos I like, but want to do one more round of shots to clean up some areas I still am on the fence about.  Little things like a ripple in the fabric I know shouldn’t be there that I can’t erase in Photoshop.

I’m including a wide shot of the back of the dress so you can see the set up in the studio.  I’m also planning to reshoot something from last year, since I can enter three garments for the SDA show, and I want the photos to be consistent.