Playdate: The Shugarman Party

Heather wins the distinction of being my first paying client. She booked over 3 months in advance, before I had completed and uploaded more than a few sessions. I hadn’t even set prices yet and so I sent a message to my friend in panic.

“How much should I charge to shoot a group of 6 girls in their 20’s?”

The price my friend quoted (which based on my prices now is a great deal) seemed astronomical at the time. Someone wanted to PAY me to take their picture. After several weeks of begging people to give me a chance it felt so good to have someone say they like my work enough to pay me for it. A big thank you to Heather for giving me the jolt of confidence I needed so badly in the beginning. I just love Heather.

Heather was coming to Dallas for her surprise bachlorette weekend extravaganza (the date and location were the only things that weren’t a surprise), and she had a brilliant idea. She decided to do a bridal part photoshoot with her best friends in the entire world as a way to thank them for everything they were doing for her. As I said before, I think this is soemthing that should be done much more often. In fact, I’m kind of regretting that I didn’t do the same thing! I did a bachlorette type party with my BFFs two nights before my own wedding and I would love to have professional, smiling, laughing pictures with them. I know from the comments left on my Facebook sneak peeks that Heather and her girlfiends love what we ended up with!

MOH D and I went back and forth several times about what they should wear and they ended up coming up with the idea to wear tshirts representing where they are from. I didn’t know who the Astros were (knew they were a sports team but that is it) so I had to ask MOH K where flew in from.

These girls were so awesome. I had just picked up my brand new iPhone that week and when I saw this wall I asked them if they would dance in front of it or me. We turned on some music and they went for it, amidst honking horns and whistles.

Here they are doing the “greatest dance move of all time” according to Heather.

Out of all the spots on Deep Ellum, this is the only one I’ve been kicked out of before and now it has this strange hold on me. I just can’t resist these stairs!

I love working with female clients because refernces to ANTM are always understood.

If you are thinking of doing one of these sessions with your favorite girls, make sure the photographer captures individual portraits of each girl. It’s so fun to see the different personalities shine through when people are placed in front of the camera.

These girls love Heather SOOO much (an easy thing to do, since Heather is very loveable). She has such a great support system to fall back on.

Can you identify where each is from based on their shirts?

THAT SHOT!

Traffic looked clear for a moment so I turned to the girls and said, “Run out into the street, let’s get a picture of the skyline!” It was really dark by then so I opened up my aperture all the way and turned down my shutter speed as low as I dared. The lights in the left corner are a car headed straight for them!

Sometimes I love “bad” photos because of the story they tell. It makes me so happy to see these girls having so much fun working with me!

It was dark, and I didn’t have my flash, and we really needed to turn in, but I wasn’t ready for our time together to end. So I had them follow me over into this random parking lot and we took our final shots under a large light in the parking lot. It was a hot day, and the shoot went long, but you can’t even tell from their faces. You girls are such rockstars!

Heather, I just love you. And you know what I mean when I say THANK YOU for letting me post this shoot. You’ll be happy to know I’ve had another inquiry from another bride who wants to do the same thing! You’re fabulous, and such an inspriation.

Best,

Jenna