Have a dress in the wardrobe that you wish you could find an excuse to get dressed in again?  This is the month!  October's theme is "Rock That Dress".

You don't have to do this alone, grab your sisters, your friends, the session can be up to 4 people.
Grab those evening dresses or wedding dresses and let's have some fun while creating some artistic portraiture.


This month I have only ONE of these special sessions available. 

 Check out this video of 3 Sisters and their Wedding Dresses.  It was so much fun.

Photography session with 4 people.
A pendrive of images or a Little Black Book per person.
A slideshow of your fun day out.
$400

Inspiration: the blossoms and daffodils at the Tree Trust, a dress from Victoria Grove Costume hire and a girl named Rosie, (even her name is floral).

Jessica did Rosie's hair bohemian styled with a few little plaits in there as well.  

I used mostly natural light on the day with a reflector from time to time. 

The Spring Maidens walks amongst the flowers and the blossoms, and stops to listen to the sounds of the Tui bird.

I now want to do all the seasons and maybe yearly.  I see the Summer Maiden in water perhaps.......

xox
Calico Jo

Introducing Sarah aka my 'Suzanne'.  

As stated in part one, this is a photo session based on the song "Suzanne" by Leonard Cohen. 
The location had to be by a river, and Sarah new this lovely spot on Waipa Mill Road.

Danielle Sutton from our beauty team, did the make up.  Rosie Leask, a landscape photographer from The Mount, also came to have a play.

I loved Sarah's bubbly personality and her loving and playful relationship she had with her husband.  They did so well playing out the scenes from the 'Suzanne' song.

 This session gave me a chance to play with different editing techniques. Here are the final images I choose to edit - The song lyrics on which the photo was based is above the images.

Thank you my 'Suzanne', you did wonderfully.
xox
Calico Jo

The project: A photo session based on the song 'Suzanne' by Leonard Cohen.

Leonard Cohen's poetry is full of imagery and it is very easy to picture scenes in your mind when you hear him sing or read his lyrics.  I have wanted to do a photo session based on one of his songs for a while, so began the 'Suzanne' Project.

I wanted to focus on the parts of the song that dwelt on Suzanne, (there is a verse that diverts in the song).  I own a Leonard Cohen poetry book, so I had the words, but I wanted to find out more about who Suzanne was.  I had read a little bit in the book "I'm your Man", but this link was the most helpful:
www.leonardcohenfiles.com/verdal.html

After reading about Suzanne, I knew I would be looking for a model based on a certain personality. Someone who had that slight naughty twinkle in her eye, someone that a person would be drawn too.
Someone who is "Half crazy, but that's why you want to be there".  When I did a call out, there was a certain profile pic that caught my eye.  A lady who had this contagious smile, and a happy twinkle, and lo and behold, had a husband who even slightly resembled Leonard Cohen.   

Therefore Sarah, became my Suzanne.  Originally I was going to have Suzanne playing to the camera, but when she said her husband would join in I was really happy to redo these storyboards to include him.  These are the storyboards based on the lines I wanted to photograph.  (They are my scribbles and ideas as they come, I'm sorry they are not tidy).

They did so well.  I am editing the photos now, so soon I will have part 2 the photos.  Here is a couple of  the fun couple after the shoot was finished..... yes he is wearing the tea cosy.......

'Suzanne' part 2 will be up soon.
Calico Jo

What I will remember about Jason and Cassandras wedding:
A wedding with close family and friends.
The beginning of Spring weather with low sun kissed photos in the evening.
Everything ran smoothly and there were smiles all day long.

The dress and the bouquet

The bridal party was made up of nieces and nephews.  The Mothers of the Bride and Groom were the witnesses for the ceremony.  After the ceremony, the family photos and the bridal party photos were done at an old run down house.

Then it was photos around the lakes with just the couple.
First stop, the Blue Lake, where Jason and Cassandra had their first conversation.

Then it was Lake Tarawera, The Orchard for the tree photo and rock cliff photos and finally Lake Okeraka where the sun was low and gave out gorgeous lighting.

The reception was just for family with a yummy cupcake tower....... because I had a cupcake......  and yes it was easy to get icing on the nose (last photo).

xox Calico Jo