East meets West in our latest Lethbridge fashion photography session. I had wanted to work with styles from Western pinup photography with the beautiful colours of India and the Middle East. Knowing that Starsha had quite a collection of saree material from previous shoots, we connected and used some of it for wardrobe and background elements. Our makeup artist was Bonnie Ferguson, and our models Kaylee and Kelsey were fantastic choices for this type of session.

Bonnie arrived on set first with two large rolling cases and Kellie-Lou, who assisted for makeup but has previously modelled in our “War on Beauty” and “Coulee Adventure” shoots this month herself. Kaylee and Kelsey showed up shortly after and we flipped through Bonnie’s reference binder to match the saree material and emulate some of the formal Indian wedding eye treatments. Brien Gehring got busy setting up strobes and seamless in studio while I shot the makeup session with my Canon 7D on video. I’ve been shooting more “behind the scenes” videos for my shoots lately in high definition, and they’ve been really well received.

Starsha was on board to adjust wardrobe and hair (I have a studio rule for any session with implied nudity, female assistants on set at all times), as I find it extremely unprofessional to touch a female model and have zero tolerance for it. With that formality out of the way, we joked and had an enjoyable shoot -one that I can be proud to show off to my mom or display in mixed company.

The post processing of this shoot was a different approach for me. I’ve been stuck in a bit of a creative rut from all the Summer wedding processing, and sticking to my niche style of vintage visual styles. My background of 16 years as a creative includes a long history of print and graphic design work – so I was eager to explore more saturated colours and blend graphic design elements into the final look & feel.

Enjoy this behind-the-scenes video of our shoot, and please leave comments if you enjoyed it – or just want to ask a question or two! Thanks Brien, Bonnie, Starsha, Kaylee and Kellie-Lou for all your hard work on and off set! Go Team!

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