Photo Shoots & Ladders

Photo Shoots & Ladders

Caity in BoHo Chic

THE WEATHER FORECAST for this shoot was not ideal. We had a great location, a great plan for it (see mood board below the gallery), a full team ready to create, and clouds heading our way—allegedly. We lucked out and had beautiful, springtime weather, and bright and warm sunlight. Our stylist, Leah, brought more looks than we could shoot, so we moved as quickly as we could from look to look, making the most of our time at this beautiful property in New Hope, PA (thank you, Christina!).

The goal was to put together a bohemian-styled photoshoot, dreamy and, as I told Leah when first describing the vision, “feeling as if we were somewhere where the internet did not exist.” I think we nailed it so far, in this retrofitted, 100+ year old barn we started in (pictured in all of these photos). There was an obvious remnant of the past still left: this ladder attached to one of the structural beams in the center of the room. I asked the owner, Christina, if she thought it could support our weight, she called her husband, he said it could, and I got up on another ladder and dusted it off as Stephanie finished applying makeup to our model, Caity. We didn’t start on that ladder—I figured we should start with something a little safer (!)—, so we pulled up a chair by the window and started there.

I set up my iPad to work as a portable monitor on a ledge behind me, (it used WiFi to connect to my Canon 5D), and the praise from the team signaled that we were off to a great start. It was tricky, though, because the trees outside were waving in the wind, and so the light spots on Caity changed from second to second. I ended up switching to spot metering mode and focusing on Caity’s face so I could get a handle and decent exposures with the constantly shifting light.

We eventually moved on to the ladder. We had two ladders set up so Caity could get to her spot and I could get to mine. I almost fell right at the start—go figure—, but it was smooth sailing from there (besides or because of the fact that somehow “Dancing Queen” ended up getting played on repeat!). Turned out that the best angle was actually when I got down onto the ladder and aimed up at Caity (as seen below)—go figure even more—, but we got some good shots when we were both on the beam, too!

Check out below some of what we got from this first look! And please check out the other from from this amazing team (click their names for their respective websites):

Model: Caity Beatty

Makeup: Stephanie Powers

Styling: Leah Standish

ALSO, BONUS BONUS: Here’s the mood board I created for it. Try it out for yourself and let me know how you did!