Lessons

Lesson Info

Collaborating with Other Artists

When it comes to buying any product who is number one brides, next one is mom dead. Just shuts up and writes those checks. That's absolutely. Critical resource is that spoke to me. This is how I learned to decorate my studio to create the kind of photography that I do now. The resource is that speak store displays, magazine ads and tv ads are critical. Look at this louis vuitton ad. Now, what does louis vuitton selling? They sell products like purses, right? I saw this in in florida. Excuse me. In hawaii. What have they done? You see, they found a way to take a plastic purse and make it look so special that you just have to have it and that you'll spend twelve hundred dollars on that little product. You see, we're going to talk more about this in the coming two days. And but I hope that you keep this in mind. This is going to be really important information because you can take you can live in a modest place. But what is it about your business? Can you find a way to make what you're do...

ing? Your photography looks special so special that people will spend more money on that product. Making your artwork special this is a beautiful jewelry case and we'll talk more about this later as well I'm going to move forward on a few these slides because I want to introduce you to somebody I think that is going to be very important. So what do I do? Let me show you this. Okay? This is an advertisement for showing jewelry. See the jewelry it's one, two, three, three little tiny pieces you can barely see them. What did I learn from that? Well, I say if you want to create, if you want people to notice you, then you have to start by doing photography that's a little bit different in a few moments, you're going to meet my friend carrie and this is exactly why I'm introducing these kinds of concepts to you because my goal is that everything that you do, whether it be photographically, whether it be marketing your business, whether it be the materials that you present, they all have to be such so powerful that when people just walk past that oh, wow, I've got to see that that was amazing that's different. It doesn't have to be perfect it's gonna be diff and that I think is really important a couple of more store displays for you to view I love this store display it's from neiman marcus look at the harmony look at the harmony in that and the fact that nothing overpowers one another what did I learn from it? How about beautiful ways to create marketing material and I have an entire line of marketing pieces that I've created that will be available after this program um but based upon concepts like I see I love this one what did I learn from this? This is again neiman marcus in walnut creek look at the way that there's only three that should teach you a lot about the way that you decorate your home it should teach you a lot about the marketing materials that you produce because look how simple it is there's no question there's nothing that pulls your eye away from those subjects what did I get from it? I got photographic concepts from it and this is we're going to learn more about how to do this kind of an image and in coming up pretty soon okay um simplicity we'll learn about the importance of simplicity in your work we're going to revisit thie slides again as the weekend goes on but I wanted to whet your appetite especially in view of some of the questions that we're getting and we'll cover this in a minute we'll come back to that okay now I want to introduce you to my friend harry clayton and the reason that kari is here is because I feel that it's really important for you too and you're in your growth as a photographer it's important for you to be able to learn from others you're not an island no man is an island so carrie is one of those individuals that I've met that I've been completely moved by and that she does really crazy stuff and in just a second I'm gonna introduce you to her because she's just about the wackiest girl you're going to ever meet but you're gonna love her one of the things that I think is really vital in order to keep your photography fresh is to collaborate with other artist and that's why we're here today we're in my dear friend carrie played in studio hip chick designs here many should california and one of the things that really drew me to carry studio is it's extremely eclectic and she finds a very interesting way to rio purpose things and I wanted to talk what there a little bit about that and I hope that what you'll get from this segment is not just the literal step one step two step three process of what we're going to do because we're gonna do some chalk painting on a door that I have but more importantly I hope that you'll really start seeing and thinking in an abstract way and see concepts that you might be able to incorporate in when it comes to creating props for your studio or an interesting look for a client to where so anyway, cary I was very struck first of all buy this lamp that you got I bought this lay up I like the base of the way because it hasn't been teo that drew me right away and then I felt the lamp shade that was just open had nothing on it so I just started making ribbons with it and then I tied it up and it it was really easy and anyone could do it so that's what's fun about it. You know, I love that. And from a photographic standpoint, what I get from that first of all, I love this quirky I feel that she's got going on this there's really quirky vibe that she has in her space. The other thing that I think about it. Okay, well, how could I translate that into something that I could use photographically? Well, this this beautiful banner that she has hanging up that could absolutely be used as a garment for a subject to where or as a cool backdrop? I love this beautiful lace dress would make an awesome awesome garment for a client toe where for a photo shoot but I just found something in here that is just nothing short of amazing and I know I'm gonna want to use this in a photo shoot right carry no problem look at this absolutely spectacular piece and carrie where did you get this garage so oh my goodness it's gotta make collar in my mind I'm already starting to design a photo shoot based upon this beautiful garment do you rember what you pay for it? The rochelle honestly yeah oh, shut up ten dollars she has this really cool vintage looking crowns. This one is just spectacular. In fact, I have a bigger version of this one in my studio. They're fantastic. Okay, now we're gonna talk a little bit now about the chalk painting and what we're gonna do because I had this old door that I bought it omega salvage and I really love the door but I wanted to create and make it look a little bit more interesting. I want to use it as a backdrop on so that's what we're going to a curious that teaches how to do that this morning this is the prop we're going to use. I think this door makes a fabulous backdrop for portrait session I love this side so we're not gonna mess with this side of the door. What I like about love the color palette I love this soft bit of green popping through this kind of a creamy vague of warm tone right here this kind of a blush color on dh this is actually the old peeling paint on the door it actually looks pretty much perfect what we're going to do though it look at the back of this it's really quite ugly this is the side that we're going to manipulate because this is a little bit tio two purple and I don't really think it's it's a complimentary palate for skin tones necessarily it's just not my cup of tea. I got sharp pain in january this year and it's a really popular and the reason why it's so popular is because it's so absorbing and it's so user friendly this is going to be a two color distress approach. So what you do is you pick two colors that you like wee baby decided that she liked the yellow tone for the primary color, so we already established that then what was going to be our secondary color would be this gray, so we're going to paint this gray first, then let that dry, then we're gonna paint the yellow, and we're going to distress it in spots to see the grey showing through. So now let me introduce you to the rial carry claydon, thank you so much for coming, harry. Um, I really felt that it was important for you all to meet some of the artist in my building, I think we can sew, grow by express, expanding the people that are around us, and if you're not fistic hangout with artists that are I'm not to tell you I'm not an artistic person I don't think I've ever been that way but I know what I like and I know I know enough about about art to know that I want to hang out with them they're really cool and they inspire me it's not about the literal things it's about thie abstract like I'm probably not going to be wearing a tutu anytime soon and kari does like to wear teaches but what I want you to tell us carrie can you explain the two to thing for us sure well I am drawn to two twos I think there's a little girl in all of us and when I put it to two on years ago I just felt so good and so free and I just twirled around and we took pictures and it was just a magical happening so I just decided to keep going with it and I decided to sell two two and keep wearing two twos and taking pictures of people into twos and it's just brought a lot of joy and I want you know she did actually get me wearing a tutu at some point it just has to rub off so what do you learn from that photographically do you see what you could possibly learn from that care what do you think? First of all, you kind of think of different things that would be more directed towards her I mean somebody who wears a tutu is not going to just want to sit until their head and chin to the left you have to do something really great so I think tells a lot about her personality. Okay that's great what about you john yeah I think it uh like care draws a different type of personality for your your subjects that's right? You know, one of the biggest things I learned from it and I will tell you if you learn this you were going to be an amazing photographer and that is the importance of letting fear go you see because if you're going to be wearing a tutu you aren't really worried too much about whether somebody goes oh god she wearing a tutu huh? You just get after you're like ok it's alright do you realize how freeing that is as a human as a human being to just let say you know what? It's okay, so I have toilet paper hanging off the back of my bands it will not be the last time I'm sure and I'm not going to get cancer from that and the one thing that I find that holds photographers back is that they get their panties in a wad so easily over whether somebody doesn't like a picture that they took they go oh my god I didn't do good and competition and this judge didn't like my print and then sometimes it is so a person will take that so deeply into their soul that it completely they lose their joy and they're not able to pursue their love. And I gotta tell you, you know, let let it go, it's just it's. All right? You know, it's okay, it's not, you know, the world isn't gonna come to an end as you just make a fool of yourself. And this is I think one of the most powerful lessons that I've learned is how important it is for us. Just let it go. That bag. So I got a few pounds on my body. So what? You know what? My husband just carries that little piece of chalk around with him so that he hugs me on both sides, you know, it's? All right. So, carrie, I want you to tell us a little about some of the other props that you brought. Well, of course, two twos and I brought one for you too. Where if you want. Oh, thank you so much. I probably won't be doing it on this time, okay? Even though I probably would wear this when this is kind of funky and I like that little guy where there are two, two, sir boas, absolutely. And in fact, you guys hang one for sunday because we're going to show you some other ways that you can use boas and feathers, okay? Because they will be making their way into the control repertoire. Probably not be wearing them. However you actually funny. Okay, in the eighties, when I got started in photography. How many do you had feather boas in your studio? All of all of the seniors did that nowadays. They probably don't do that too much, huh? Okay, so okay, what else have you got? Well, then the vintage garments that you liked that I collect and tell me this does not just make your heart sing. Isn't this beautiful? And now it's in perfect. I mean, there. There it is. In perfect. They're like they're the zipper doesn't work. Right? Right. Okay. But how does that what does that matter to us? We don't. You see, as long as that looks good on camera, do we came? They're so don't be so hung up on has to be perfect. As long as it looks good. You know, if you squint your eyes, by the way, if you go like that. You don't see the imperfections actually that kind of happens to be a little bit more these days since my eyes aren't as good as they used to be it's not just look at everything and I could have like fuzz on my pants and I won't even know that it's there okay and that show us that other beautiful piece well, this is meant for you I think perhaps model if I could get into this I would be glad to model it. Ok, tell us a little bit about this. Well, as you saw, I got this at a garage sale I couldn't believe it and believe it this was made for irene, sergeant of oakland. It looks like it was probably I don't know early nineteen hundreds hand stitched mink it was probably someone's wedding and how much was us? Ten dollars. Okay, ten bucks. So my my goal for you all is I want you to expand your thought processes and think ok, what kind of articles could I incorporate in my studio that are or in my home a home based business that are simple that are easy that are inexpensive but that could create a unique look you see that's what it's all about it's about creating a unique niche for yourself, you know, because let's face it everybody and their brother today has a camera right I mean, everybody has a camera, which leads me to some questions that I wanted to talk with carrie about carrie tell me about about your style of art and about what you draw your inspiration from I think this could be very helpful to our audience well, inspirations everywhere as you all know it could be like this I just went with the two twos that inspired me years ago and it's still inspires me all this time later I started taking pictures of people into twos and then I started wearing two twos and people just loved it so much and I love the energy of everyone liking it so much and I think people liked it because it was playful and I would get men into twos I would try to get the unsuspecting person you know, perhaps you with a suit and tie and a tutu because that looks great, you know, the contrast of somebody who you wouldn't think would wear to two and and that was just fun for me, so then I just kept going with it and now I'm actually painting pictures of two two so like, this is a recent painting that I'm doing and sarah, let me hold it up because I want people to see this I think this is gorgeous is that not absolutely doesn't give you chills I think this is a stunning, stunning painting thank you I think that's my favorite piece I've ever seen I love it thank you so that's the next you know, wave of two to madness if you will and we'll see where it takes me so okay, so are you starting to see how that it's like like building blocks that they draw you down a path there's like like like one thing leads to the other that leads to another and to another and that you know your style of photography maybe very one plus one equals two very literal maybe it's time to incorporate some elements into your photographic concepts that are not quite so literal because even though this is this is you can tell us a bit more, I would say mon ish you know it's a bit more abstract so maybe if you want to be viewed as an artist photographically what do you do? Maybe you start incorporating some elements of photographic elements into your into your photography repertoire that look a bit more fine art esque that's the quickest way to become an artist and have people not just see you as just another photographer down the block. I can't even tell you how powerful and how important that is that's, why stores like neiman marcus and nordstrom's and gucci and armani and those people are still in business because they have found a way to take a canvas purse with a little bit of leather on it looks so cool that unless your name is louis is is laverne laban why would you want lv is all over it, but women will routinely by those won't they? So I think that this is this is all part of that creative process, so I'd loved it has so you inspired to do so? One of the other things that I think is really important is tio go to artist webs sites I love canvassing bookstores because they inspire me. I don't copy the pictures that I see, I use them as a springboard for growth, and later on today I'm going to show you some some concepts that I've gotten from from artists that I've worked with that helped me to just to draw my own twist, because that's what we all do, we are inspired by one another, and of all the people I know in my building, carrie is one of the people that has inspired me the most. I mean, I probably I'm not goingto have to two's too many, I'm not goingto you know where them it's not really what I would do maybe today, but maybe tomorrow, but it's what it is don't look at everything such says one plus one is two does that make sense? Okay doing didn't have questions you going to give that to you? We do have some questions for carry. Great. Good. I'm glad. First of all, do you in the audience have any questions for carrie? Right question? Uh, and I'm not sure if you said this. Trish from trish to ninety seven, where do you buy the two twos? Actually don't so I'm not a seamstress, but I do have them order from a place in tennessee and they're actually square dance two twos, but I like them because they're so bulky and fluffy, and I'm looking at trying to create to to working with another artist like bambi's there's just a collaboration process because I don't so per se, but she does so and I like khun bring in my own energy and my creativity, and we're going to create something together so that's coming, tio so what is your website and you're you know, you're on facebook because she sells these in her store, her stories, hip chip designs and as you saw in the little video clip she has over russia, has a plethora of things in her space. Can somebody get me my crown over there? I'll show you one of the pieces that I bought in her store. Um, she carries really cool things. Like for those of you that has seen my crown. Okay, I bought this in her shop. She has, like, three different sizes. And when I walked in and saw this, I heard the angels sing. I did. I told him what? Oh, gotta have that that's going home with mama. I loved it. I thought it was really cool. And so she has a variety of these kinds of things in her store. And so I'll go in there and occasionally purchase different kinds of products. So she carries in her store for cell. Did you know? Did I cut you off to java website? Yes. Hip checked his id. See a dot com we go, um do. So we noticed, like, the the dress there has a little bit of a stain on it, like, and, you know, older vintage pieces might have, like, zippers that don't work for santi is wondering if clients are okay with that. Yeah. You know, that's a great question, because I believe that you can sell anybody anything if you presented in the right way. You know, I just you know, I go. This is the way I would approach that if the zipper's broken. I go man this is to be so great because we can custom fit it right to you and so if it doesn't fit I mean I might use some of that theirs they have this certain tape that's made for women that sometimes women put it to make their bus look a little bit more ample or the like like get rid of some if they want to make themselves have a slimmer waist or just to keep things in place so that the girls don't come out you know they'll have that tape I don't know what it's called yeah fashion tape and so we'll take some of that fashion tape so we can tape it on them so it doesn't have to be perfect I really find that perfection is overrated I like the imperfections of these pieces you know especially like this piece right here I love the fact that it's just got it's got a few little stains and if you don't want that shit okay hello photo shop if that's what photo shop is for so it's really super easy but the cool thing about thesis that you can use them a couple of times and then if you decide you're tired of look guess what? Take it to another vintage shops sell it online you know or you know something of that nature and then you're free to try something else yu see, my goal is to not get stuck in a rut and do the same thing for five years. You know, you probably know photographers like that, that you probably should go to their studio today. And they have the same blue background they've had in their since nineteen eighty two and they still do the same. Tilt your head this way. Pose this way. Turn your face this way until your head that way, those five posters or six poses that you do that they learned how to do well, today you can not do that anymore. You have to grow. If you want to run a profitable studio, you have got to put on your big boy pants and your big girl pants. And you have got to do things that others aren't doing. Which means that you, you know that you are a little bit crazy and that you that you have a personality. And if you don't have one, buy one, you could buy one it by personality dot com you can, but you know what? I'm trying to do your business venture, love it. Okay, so the point is, is that you have to be like to be a be a little bit adventurous. So I scoured those resale shops and I'm gonna tell you a whole bunch of really cool things about resale shops and such go to carrie's place if you don't if you're not into that kind of thing you can buy them right from her store and she has some amazing little pieces do you have any other questions for her? We do we dio question from cherry is what you're best tips for buying and building a collection like yours what do you look for when you are out shopping for all these vintage thing? Well, for a lot of people the alameda antique fair is a great find it's the first sunday of every month I go, I'm going this sunday I buy things there I also I would prefer not just buying from alameda I prefer finding things that garage sales, thrift shops just wherever I go because then it's not available to everyone but I look for things that catch my eye mean this caught my eye because of course it's got the two to quality and then it's got the vintage look, I always love things that are vintage and again like every said you could even just have this laying on the bed or the couch or on a wall and you don't have to wear it for it to be useful it's just beautiful on its own it can also go on a mannequin it looks beautiful on my mannequin so it's just kind of works its way around in many different ways I look for really really I like I'm drawn toe old things things with texture rust and rust or wood or iron branches natural pieces that the contrast of the elements of the texture with like the twelve looks really nice together excellent excellent questions and I especially like that point about taking and not not only just having your subject where it that is a great idea so let's say you were doing a boudoir session wouldn't it look fantastic if you had this leg is part of the backdrop maybe it was laying there were hanging on a wall behind her to create some bit of tio start to tell a bit of a story I think that's really great by the way I'll tell you when I'm in springfield, missouri have you guys got the coolest vintage stores in that town s so you don't have to come to california to find good vintage you confined it just go to your local thrift store and again look for things that have texture they don't have to be perfect like you on this toot on this beautiful little dressers like there's a tear in the front of the fabric so and then as you see there stains it's not a big deal it's just you're from far away do you see it all that much and then there's always ways to hide that maybe we'll just have her put her hand right there or again retouch it out. So, um one last question I think yeah, I think we've got time for one more melanie from austria is wondering do you only sell these pieces or do you ever work with the photographers to loan them to them? Well, I do both I haven't done a lot of the loaning bobby is, you know, right here around the quarter and I a friend, so I will let her use things, but that's something that you know I'm open to is a possibility for the future as well definitely so maybe rent them to people that are because obviously if you're in business, you weren't going to make a living so easily. So one less thing we've got the finished product here we want to make sure that way show that thank you I totally forgot about the actuaries and we went down there okay, this is the door that she chalked painted for me and as you can tell now it's unjust soft shades of yellow and gray tones it will look screaming amazing on my wall it'll look absolutely phenomenal and this is a door by the way that I bought at omega salvage it's just an old door and I liked it because it had a couple of things that were interesting to me first of all it was super heavy it's not real tall it's not a standard size the other thing that I thought was really amazing about this and this is really where I want to go with this door is one side I want to put a photograph in here ah long skinny portrait in here that's as long as the door is which because I print my own work guess what it's easier for me to do and if you can't do it yourself and guess what? Take the measurements if you want to put a photograph inside a door like this and create this is a framing around it just take the dimensions and I'm sure that I want no sides it in photo shop and then send it to yur color lab sent it to simply canvas or on day will they also do color? A metal print would look really cool in here to just nothing a bit of contrast so okay so that's it for this segment right and it's awesome let's say round of applause cary thank you so much on again one more time where can people find you and on your website? Well, I'm hip chick designs and my website is hip chick design see a dot com and I'm on facebook and I have a block so you could find me all over well, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Carrie really appreciate honey okay, so let's get her things and we have now really fun amazing treat for you guys. Okay? This is one way you can create garments and really cool products for your studio. Okay? But now I'm going to show you something even more fun and if there is a way that's more fun than that can I get you fare to come on over here for me, please? Um I'd like to introduce you to one of my brides I know I had to you know what can I say he's a little cute but not all that I want to show you what you can do with just some simple pieces of tool. First of all sarah has on just a slip you can buy these slips at I want to say t j maxx target I bought mine for twelve dollars so it's not gonna break the bank that's going to serve as the basis for the undergarment okay that's going to be the under guard you said that you don't see anything underneath then we're going to take and basically this is just rapped tool around her body on dh who did this who do wrap the tool on her come here gene I want first of all is this not a great dress just by itself now I've been creating garments like this for quite a while I thought, this is like one of my favorite hobbies. If I wasn't a photographer, I'd be a designer, I'd like t introduce you to my course assistant to our production assistant, jean and genius in fashion school in san francisco and has been helping me tio work with our models and has been the one that's coordinated all of our models this week, and gene has been one of my photographic subjects in the past. She came to me about, oh, five years ago, I did a group of images of her, and then I came in and and she came in recently for me to do some more photographs, and during that conversation, she was telling me about her ability going teo design school, and I said, wow, I'm going to be doing this program in a couple of weeks, I'd love to have someone who's got some fashion sense coming and helping, and so thus she's here, so thus the importance of paying attention and listening to your clients and what they do find out what they're interested in because you would not believe how much you can collaborate with people on different kinds of things, so her hair and makeup heaven and done have been done in keeping with this kind of thing with the soft gray tones and so now we're going we're going to add some more tool to the skirt underneath, and then we're going to wrap her in. Um um, wire, this is nothing more than just okay. This is just a tool. I bought it online. You can get it online. It's dirt cheap online, it's like I want to say, like, sixty cents a yard. I saw about thirty yards, so again, it's not going to break the bank. I loved this color. Look at the beauty it's just this warm, soft. I just thought it was a beautiful shade of grey. Um, and so we'll use this on her to wrap her with and once we're done with that, then we're going to use just simple. Um uh, this is nothing more than window screening you want with window screening. It can it kind of sticks to stuff, and it can be a little bit uncomfortable. So be careful when you work with this. Why did I choose windows screening? Well, let me show you why? Because I like the fact that it has body and its bendable. So here is the piece that I've started for her to wear, and what she'll do is once I put the rest of the gown underneath her, like, I'll put a couple of of pieces down below so come in grace a long version here I'll put this over her head and then we'll create a skirt with this and I love love I love doing this is this is just like so much fun. What I want you to notice is the texture see how we get this bit of play and texture in this it creates an amazing couture experience now why bother doing that? Why do that? Why should we do this? Why should you be interested in this kind of a product? It's memorable? Okay, why is that important, heather? Because it's not just about walking out with the pictures, it's the walking out and talking about, you know, you know, she did this and you wouldn't believe it, and, you know, I've never had anybody else do that and just going to talk to everyone about it. You see it's about the experience if you create a new incredible experience, you have got the client you got him in the bag and what's powerful about that is when they walk out, they aren't just going to talk about the pictures, they talk about the experience, and then they want to tell everybody about what you've done, and that gives you your stamp of uniqueness, and when you have that stamp of uniqueness, that is the holy grail that's, when you can be that photographer, that in spite of what you charge not because you charged thirty five dollars for a portrait session and give him all the files, what in the world is wrong with that? I mean early, you're takes minute if can you tell that bothers me because it affects our craft? And this is our profession, it's not just some it's, some person with a camera, and so anything that we can do that that amplifies the artistry of what we do that really makes people think this is really amazing. No one else can do that then that's going to get you noticed. Now you might be asking yourself. Well, baby, how come you're telling us about this? You know, isn't everybody got to start creating all these dresses out of windows ring? This is a sad fact I can talk to the two people till I'm blue in the face about all these cool things you could do, people will go, oh, that's a great idea, and guess what? Maybe two people will actually do it. So do you think I'm worried about you taking my business? No, because many photographers are just they are so lazy, they don't think they'll say, well, that's, great, but then they won't. Get off their butts to do anything so I say really if you want to be that photographer it's not about how much money you have it's not about whether you went to school or not it's about working hard and being willing to put yourself out there and not being not letting fear dominate your life don't be afraid so if it doesn't look good while big deal you're not going to get cancer for it it's all right it won't be the last time you do something that crashes and burns trust me I'm fifty five sixty something like that years old I'm in there I'm like on that that edge you know but you know I know I look thirty five it's okay okay maybe forty but the point is that if you stay where you're at right now you can be assured that in a year you are not going to be in business and there's going to be somewhat one other person is going to get out there and he's going to be willing to do those things and maybe their their technique isn't all that great to begin with but they just keep moving forward and then you're going to be one of your sick yeah I knew them when they get started we started at the same time you don't want to be like that so I can talk about this for hours so let's let's um actually make it happen, okay jean first thing I need is I want to be able to hook this up on her so let's add just a little bit of tool around the bottom and we'll probably need some of our trusty pins so basically just unwind some links of this and I want it to be kind of floor length in the front and I'm not even gonna cut because I'm a little bit I'm not cheap I'm just frugal and I'm not I don't want to be wasteful so I'm not going to cut the lengths ok, so what I'm gonna do is go like this and then go like that so I can keep see now that see how pretty that looks and then I'll go again I'll grab another length of it this is all going to become part of the sky but now guess what if you can't see it, it doesn't exist so we don't even need to go around the back side so I won't make it perfect from behind because if we're not going to see the back, then why bother? You know, going to all that trouble. So you know, if you wanted to show from the back then of course you know, go all the way around go from that so what we're going to do is we're just going to start here and where this is going to tuck it up underneath this like right here about like that and then can we have just one of those little pins or even a what a piece of wire would be fine to give me pence that's probably better excellent and we're gonna use pins were going just pin it from the underside of the pen doesn't show and if it did show he would just cover it with a ribbon or something and let's say we may not even have to pin this stuff let's just try it this way okay that's that cannot remember none of this is going to show because it's gonna be underneath that big window screen okay all right here about like that let's get this right up under here and can I have another pin? Thank you my precious just really quickly we'll just pin it trying to pin the model okay, you can start seeing coming together, can't you and then we could get super creative and we could like start painting it here actually let's do that hammy a pennant and we'll just pin it right here and I might pin it to both the slip and to her uh to the to the fab ouch see, I pinned myself and then if we wanted to get really super creative actually this might be kind of a fun area to like create some sort of a little see how we're starting to create layers here so him another pin and spin it right here we'll go this is going to go underneath this other piece so we don't even see the pen okay let's see how that looks actually I got to tell you first of all I'm liking this just the way it is it looks so awesome okay let's go we're just going to go around the back side now we'll just do a couple of layers here across the back I did this recently with a high school senior session that I photographed and the young lady absolutely loved it was fantastic because you know today's high school seniors are wanting something they want something that's different they don't want that same just cap and gown kind of stuff and if you want those high school seniors that are paying for pictures that aren't just the one so well I got just the one at school then then you need to do something that's a bit more creative and the girls out of the fashion forward kind there was an article I want to say it was in use a today recently about what the young people today are looking for in the way of pictures that they want something that's a bit more of a story about them many of my clients when I do these kinds of dresses they go out baby could you create something like this I like could I wear out could you actually wear this out? Yes yes, you could. And I will tell you if I wasn't a photographer, I would be a designer. I love fashion. I will always love fashion. Since I was five years old, I've sown when I was when I was younger, we, uh we couldn't afford much, so I was making a lot. I used to make all my own clothes when my son was born, I made all of his clothes till he was, like, three years old. And nowadays, it's not all that inexpensive to make your own things like it used to be in the olden days. Okay, so we're almost done and will do this whole peace right here, and one of the things I try to do is I twist it just a little bit so that it kind of gives me a little bit of a firm piece right there, so it doesn't just completely come apart and let's get this. Yeah, well, cut it off. All right, all right. Okay, well, while you're working infinity photography and I was wondering if you find the clients are okay with this tool process, I find myself wondering if they would think I was nuts the whole time and or not be patient enough, is it just confidence or do you do some education first, for example, blank is why I'm doing black boy is that a great question? First of all I don't worry about what people think of me because I find that if you let other people to influence u so much worried about whether they're gonna like it or not then first of all you're never going to do anything but be boring and it's okay if somebody hates something what's really bad is if they have no expect no no opinion but there are some cues that you khun that you can identify here can you play that for me honey there are some some cues that will tell you right away whether you're on the right track if you are and those cues are physical cues what is the subject wearing what are those people when they come in to interview you what are they wearing? What kind of clothes do they like so maybe in the interview process when you talk to them you say have you gone to prom yet? Are you going to go if it's a young girl I'm going to go your problem what kind of dresses do you like it from the prom you know asked him to the you know things what kind of magazines do you read things of that nature? I asked viewpoint questions not yes and no questions I want to know how they feel about certain things but they're dead giveaway to me is what they're wearing if that girl comes in and she's wearing like this perfect little everything's perfectly pleaded and you know, she's sitting there with your perfect little you know, straight pants on and everything that may not be this kind of girl but I may put her in a dress like this anyway and this is exactly what I say to them I go I have got an amazing idea you have to be humor me ok? And you may absolutely hate it when we're done but it's okay you're not gonna get cancer from it wouldn't this be fun? It'll just be fun are you okay with that? And I shake my head like this how in the world could return you down? What happens if they don't like that dress it's just a picture of reagan to six so I'm not worried if they don't like to guess what they won't probably by that one, will they? But I can tell you one thing they won't forget about the experience and while they may not like that they'll go and the next day this is what they'll do when they go talk to their friends at school. Oh, you know, I went to this factory baby can't trust it and yes, she made me a dress just like out of just a bunch of fabric and I was wearing a window screen and they're going to know what I got to see that did I do my job? You see if they want to see it that's all that matters because she may not like that but her friends might make a you know what I love the fact that that woman's create she's really creative so enjoy the fact that somebody might hate something that you do is okay if they do because it's always going to just it's always a positive if they talk about it it's always a posits a great great question okay, we can cut that off their qd andi let's have some more questions while we're while we're getting in the rest of this put together that's great any let's start in our studio audience still trying to wake up and know uh so you're talking about convincing is there a certain demographic that you have for your clients like because I'm imagining maybe, you know, say like forty forty five year old power broker lawyer woman may or may not you know and you kind of just addressed actually that's a great question, you know, recently that's such a good question recently I photographed this couple that came in for prenatal photographs it's a young couple that I photograph their wedding and she was gonna have a baby and they're young yuppies in san francisco he is a venture capitalist, so would you that's probably a pretty straight a group of people, so I did the normal straight kind of photographs that, you know, nice, pretty soft pictures of them together. And then I said, look, I got this idea in my head, and I just want to explore it if you don't like it, you know, obviously we're not going to die, would it be okay if I just played a little bit? And they said, sure, being ill going well, humor you. So I took black tulle and I wrapped her body in black tulle, and I created an evening gown for this young lady out of black tool. I made it floor length, I made it, hugging her body with a little a little poofy peace at the bottom so that it was kind of a sweet thing that was their number one image, infact it's on their facebook page. Now they absolutely loved it, so I don't like to put people, I don't like to just immediately assume that they won't want to do something that I want to do. Um, because I find that if you start assuming that it's your own baggage that you're putting on other people, and again, if if they don't want to do it or they don't like it, guess what, it's okay to say no. And if they say no baby, I know I I really don't want to do that if they have a ten minute session they keep looking at their watch that's probably not the time to do this kind of a session so what I generally do is I block out for a photo shoot I block out at least an hour sometimes an hour and a half especially if it's for a high school senior I want time to play I want time to be bambi and I'm going to do my safe bread and butter things that I know I need to do to be able to get the job done and then then I'm going to allow myself time to play I can create this type of dress and literally five minutes if I needed to we have time today so I'm going I'm going to do that so now let's try to put this over her head without tearing her hair up too much we've got our hair stylist on set so just sit there and just put your arms over your head you got it and I went ahead and I wired this a little earlier yes the day before yesterday sorry honey, I hope that's not scratching you okay, first of all, just stop it right here for a moment I'm seeing something already that I'm really liking like a move your hand okay want to go this way see what I'm really liking is I'm starting to see this feel across her body there here jean back up just a little bit can you take your arm out from underneath there okay I got an argument okay good I'm liking this and now we'll just pull it down so now we've basically turned that dress we turned it we got a different completely different look so now what I would do is I'll go here and I'll add some wire do you have my wire precious I want to make it nice and tight at the waist line and this is just against civil wire that I bought at the hardware store and I show you a short video in a second about my mayes jaunt to the hardware store to be careful here okay and here we go we just run it through both sides and I'm basically gonna just weave it together like that it's just totally woven together very very simply very quickly to get the job done again it doesn't have to be perfect it looks perfect for as long as it looks perfect from the cameras viewpoint it's so crazy it's just nothing more than just an optical illusion on dh that the kind of things that we wanna have so I'll tell you right now if I were going to a male photographer and he was able to do this I would be seriously impressed I would be, I would say, hey, that and especially in two days market where there are so many women coming into the photo industry, I'll tell you right now for a young man for a male photographer, I think it's really important for you to learn tio to be to become one of us there's, not a woman out there that doesn't like her mail here. Her, her gay hairdresser, huh? You tell him all kinds of stuff about everything that goes on in your entire universe because she's, you think he understands your point of view, huh? Well, you don't have to be gay. You just need to be one of us, and I'm not saying you have to be other than that. I'm good. I'm pretty much done. You sure are funny because there was a question from rock hopper via x who said first, gentlemen, photographers, how do we know what is the hip thing? And what can we use as a timeless piece as it's really daunting for us? You know what I'll tell you? First of all, I would say what I would want them the male photographers to do is learn to understand fashion, become get every fashion magazine you can get those and becomes start studying them. You see, if I were a coach on or I was for baseball my husband, I follow the san francisco giants which, by the way, world siri's winners can I say okay, so we follow the giants I can promise you that the coaches for the giants studied the players the other teams because that's all the way they knew that they could beat them. They studied every play that those people did. They studied everything that they every every game because they knew that that was that's. What they had to do to beat that audience now for us is photographers who are our clients. You know, you saw that little slide earlier who are our clients? Are they men? No, they are women, women are our clients, women are very visual were very tactile creatures. We want things that we want to be able to hold and touch and feel things. And so I think it's very important for us to appeal to them. So if you're a man and you understand what tool is and you know what that word means is you're down a tulle gown or I'm going to wrap this wrap you in tool or have my female assistant do it hire a female, hire someone like jay g to be able to be your assistant to help you all that's gonna do is make you look phenomenal and so that's the key to be able to incorporate those things successfully but just remember for every male out there nowadays there are five women who want your job and so you need to learn to become comfortable with our universe and communicate like one of us and then you'll still get the business if you still think of it to logically if you consider consider as a gentleman and you just approach photography as a business as a logical entity you are going to be out of business there's no question in my mind because there's so much more that goes into it and you know how I know that that's the truth go to nordstrom's go to neiman marcus go to sex with avenue go to any of those stores what did they do to grab our attention? Why are they still in business? Because I'm sorry if you were going to neiman marcus I mean you could probably buy some of the same things that they sell their a tart t j maxx or target why would anybody go into neiman marcus and buy something? Why does anybody buy in nordstrom? Because it's not just buying a product there's there's an experience and I love north terms I would spend a couple of bucks more at nordstrom's buying something that I would go to another store that's really messy because it's easier and it's more fun and take care of me and they they know me. So those kinds of things to me are the tools that you and I can use to make a better business decision. Do you see how that might help you? No, and I've learned from that, like I had this experience where I don't know if it was after your workshop for maybe super race, but, uh, I said, oh, tool. Okay, there I'll go to the fabric store, which was a miserable experience for me because you walk around nobody's looking at you like, do you doing here? Yeah, what? But, you know, you know, then they helped me and I bought some tool, and I took it home to the baby and, you know, wrap their head, kind of like a little hat sort of thing, and people people love that, so I was sold. Well, this should not make you feel bad, okay? One time, but many years ago, I went to go. I took scott born to the fabric store in las vegas. Now, anybody who knows some piece of very large, big, like, seven foot giant, big, big guy, and for him to be walking into the store, I don't think that that was something I'd ever done in his entire universe and plus isn't you know he's like in his fifties or whatever so it was quite an interesting experience but the point is is that these kinds of experiences are what help people to see you differently and that's so important for them to see you as a riel individual, not just a carton of eggs sitting on a shelf that this carton of eggs is, you know, five dollars and this carton of eggs is a dollar thirty nine we wanted to be buying free range chicken, not just the chicken that comes from foster farms. Okay, do you see how all of those things everything is interchangeable? Concepts are concepts and so just like free range chicken that's special those those chickens get to run around the yard, don't they? They are kind of put in a cage. Well, that this is my interpretation of free range chicken. He really is. I know it sounds really completely crazy, but it's just this this is my interpretation way have a couple of questions before we end this morning's segment. Yeah, yes, a short technical question is one of the reasons you don't mind that perfection in the garment because you're shooting with the white aperture is that not necessarily the case? That is a brilliant question aperture has nothing to do with it my that my thought process first of all is that it's all about that the imperfections are part of the beauty. See, I think that imperfections could be a benefit to us. I think they're they're they're lovely. I don't think that there always oh, now, if I'm sorry if I have spaghetti and my teeth that's an imperfection, we want to get rid of that, okay? But sometimes don't you find, like, sometimes messy hair it's in perfect, but it looks good, and I think sometimes chaos is is helpful like that beautiful print on the wall back there that's chaotic there's no question when you have all those put that puzzle, but somehow amongst that chaos, it works. So I think that it is just a matter of balance, and I think it's it's a matter of taste, but my goal is I err on the side of imperfection, I don't need I don't I sometimes find that if I fix it to two perfectly, this is then this is what you give up if you start messing with somebody too much and you start going, okay? And you spent twenty five hours like doing this and you take every little hair and you're going okay, what are you saying to that subject you're saying, oh, honey there's a problem you're saying to her, oh gosh, we've got an issue here if you keep fiddling with her to try to make a perfect picture, she gets bored, and I don't want that. See that's, the trade off that if you if you cross the bridge and you try to go too far with perfection, what's the tradeoff, it's, it's, a make uncomfortable, something's wrong, and then you have a real problem. So I'd rather I try to pull back just before it's absolutely perfect just before it. I mean, obviously, I want this to look good. I don't want to look like toe look half past. I wanted to look good, but as you can see, it doesn't look so s so perfect that it it loses its its charm of chaos.