My day as a model

I had my first official photo shoot as a model on Thursday, October 16th, and thought it was about time I posted about it. It's a pretty detailed post, because I'm long winded and like to talk about myself. I was a bit nervous about the shoot, which was a weird feeling, since I usually don't get nervous about things. I was mostly worried that I wouldn't know what I was doing and the people at the agency would wonder why in the world they signed me! I also felt some anxiety about being one of the first plus models to sign with W Talent. It felt like there was a lot of pressure on Jenny and I to be perfect right off the bat. I fretted about my clothes a lot, of course. I want to give a big thank you to Mom, Amy, Melanie, Jenni, Shelley, Josh, and Jenny for helping me decide what to wear. I'll include what I wore for each section of shots, although only the people who helped with the clothes will really know what I'm talking about. :) I took at least two complete outfits for every shot, and then the stylist decided which would photograph best.

Jenny and I scheduled our shoots on the same day so we could go together and be there to support each other. The photographer, Joe, decided to alternate between us instead of shooting just Jenny for three hours and then just me for three hours. It worked out really well, because it gave us time to go to downtown Salt Lake, rather than just doing everything at the agency. It was more tiring that way, though, because there wasn't much time for one of us to rest while the other was being photographed. We spent about the first hour in hair and makeup, which took place here:

I was wearing slippery pants and kept sliding around on those weird stools/chairs. Out stylist's name is Danelle, and she followed us around during the shoot, fixing our hair and makeup as we went. I wish I had someone to do that all the time!

For the first shots, we went right downtown and got pictures around the buildings. I found a picture online that looks an awful lot like the corner where Joe took some photos of Jenny walking down the sidewalk. It might even be the same spot.

He took some pics of me around the corner pretending to open a car door. There were some benches along the sidewalk where he got more shots of Jenny, and then we went down an alley and he took pictures of me in a corner between a building and a gate. I wore a gray shirt with a plaid collar, black dress pants, and gray heels for the downtown shots. My hair was down and straight.

For the next set, we went to Pioneer Park.

It's a pretty big park with a playground, basketball court, and lots of trees. There was a fence along one side where we took pictures with my French horn. I actually played my horn in the middle of the park. There are a lot of bums that hang around there, and they were interested in what we were doing. One guy yelled out, "Hey, can I take a picture with you pretty ladies?" Another guy started rapping, "I like big butts ..." as we were walking across the park. I took it as a compliment, because he seemed like he meant it that way. There was a kid around ten who asked me about my French horn. Joe took pictures of Jenny in the playground area, and a guy stopped and asked if we were models from a magazine. I wore a bright pink scoop neck tee with jeans and awesome pink, blue, and white plaid heels. Danelle put a small French braid in the front and down the side of my hair and the rest was straight.

After the park, we went back to the agency for headshots and dressy shots. I wet my hair to make it curly for the second half of the photos and Danelle played it up and sprayed it a lot. There's a fountain outside behind the agency where I sat for my headshots. I wore a dark purple shirt. The dressy shots were taken in a little studio area inside with a plain white backdrop. I wore a sapphire blue dress with gray heels.

Once I was actually having my picture taken, I wasn't nervous at all. The photographer was good at directing us and was jokey and friendly. He made me feel very comfortable. I felt like it went well, but I was glad to go eat when it was over! We should be getting our proofs in a week or two. Now I'm worried about what the pictures actually look like ...