The Shoot, The Vision and then, that Smile

The day began with a simple shoot objective: to build a portfolio of modeling images for Ashley with a fashion feel to them. The morning was foggy and overcast so I was excited to see what we would get. The first shot was meant to be a test. In fact, Ashley said she wasn’t even aware that I was ready to shoot photos. I love the calmness and mystique. I believe that Ashley took on the mood of her surroundings and it showed in throughout this modeling shoot.

You can view the entire Modeling in Melbourne gallery of images from this shoot on my facebook page.

The vision: to capture some high-fashion images with a variety of moods and poses taking advantage of the props that mother nature was providing naturally admist the backdrop of the river and train trestle. The trestle was the perfect location. The colors and textures contrasted with the background, but beautifully complimented Ashley’s hair and skin which lead to some beautiful shots.

After a serious of very striking, moody poses, I coaxed out of her a smile, and I knew at the moment I clicked this shutter that it would be one of my portrait favorites. As photographers, we see smiles of all kinds, some cheesy, forced and even some over the top ones, but when a true natural one is captured it is pure magic. After taking a series of such serious shots all morning, this smiling one stood out even more! That is why I couldn’t resist entering this image into the iHeartFaces.com Smile Photo Challenge contest. You can check it out or enter your own submission on their site.

Drowning in Pictures!

On Monday, I did a double photo session with our youngest daughter, Kylie, who is about to start her senior year. She is also a spokesmodel for my photography business, Cheri Wenger Design Photography so we did a DREAM session...twice the photos, twice the fun!

She and I are both not morning people so I wasn’t sure how waking at 6 am was gonna correlate into getting ANY good pictures, but I think you will agree that we did more than alright! She started off with a cute silky sundress to have a slightly more formal look with plans to change into shorts & a tee.

Living in Melbourne, FL provides awesome opportunities to shoot photos at the beach. We just couldn’t make the true sunrise at 5:30...no way, no how that would happen with either of us! We did some in the water, but she didn’t want to get too wet since we were just getting started. We played with bubbles. Note: it really helps to have an assistant for that shot so they can direct the bubbles while you snap away! We managed to get a photo or two, but I am gonna try that again, like planned, in her shorts and colorful t-shirt, which by the way, we never got to shoot. We'll save that for another more fun and playful photo session.

Hey, you don’t know what a success this really was. We didn’t have even one squabble AND despite sweating our tutus off, there were plenty of smiles and great shots. Now, we took a break at Starbucks for breakfast and some passionfruit lemonades to revive ourselves! Here are some of the shots taken by the Indian River along with a few from the beach session.  

You know, I have always said that I am an evening person and my daughter is just like me, in more ways than one! She comes alive in pictures and I just seem to have more creative ideas for shots, angles and lighting. No, this couldn't have anything to do with staying up late working on design stuff for my business! As you can see by all these photos, I am in picture and editing overload, but lovin' every minute of it! The handheld ponytail shots at sunset are my mommy faves, and hers too!

If you want to see the complete gallery of photos from the a.m. and sunset photo sessions, check out my  facebook page or go to my Cheri Wenger Design Photography website and you will see them as two of the featured galleries. Be sure to leave me a guest book message on my website and to hit the like button on my facebook page! Thanks.