Hello Beautiful People!

First off, thank you all so much who read my last blog. I also want to thank everyone for their messages of love and support. I hope speaking out helps at least one person.

Anyway, back to our regular schedule program of positivity and all things photography!

I have focused on beauty photography for a few years now and have experimented with different things in hopes of getting something different and unique. Little bit of a back story: every Christmas my family and I go to Bulk Barn and buy Quality Street in bulk. If you’re from the UK, you know what Quality Street is. If not, it is little pieces of chocolate heaven. They are wrapped in different coloured cellophane and they have different flavours for each colour. One day my Mum said to me, “Have you ever thought about using these wrappers as gels?”. They were too small for gels but it got me thinking…what if I used it in a different way? What if I used it to create a coloured vignette around the image? What if I cut out shapes and see what happens?

When I first started photography, and if you have been following me for a while you will already know this, I thought you needed the most expensive gear, clothing, accessories, lighting etc. What I have learned over the years is that you can make the simplest of things work and make it beautiful.

The first time I used this technique was with Madeleine and Jabeen. It was definitely hit and miss, and still is to this day, on getting that perfect shot. I cut different shapes in the middle of each little square and put it in front of my lens. WOW. I loved the way it looked. When I held it further away from the lens, it created a bokeh with the light. I’ve tried this with different lighting but my favourite it barn doors! The contrast of the harsher light really looks beautiful for beauty photography. For this particular shot I used one Elinchrom BRX 500 with barn doors. Does it always work out? No. But that’s photography and that’s what I love about being a photographer. You keep trying and trying and then one day you’ll finally get the shot and see your vision come to life.

If you end up trying this out, tag me as I would love to see what you create!

Until next time,

Lisa-Marie xo