A photoshoot - for couples? How original.... perhaps not.
Yes I know we have all seen the forced smiley photo shoots in studios, dressed in your finest outfits, skyscraper heels and a face full of make-up, including the guy. And yes some of them do come out pretty good, some are actually really good. Some, not so much.
We've done a photoshoot in the past, very much in this manner, right at the beginning of our relationship - some seven years ago. I have a quirky fringe, fake curls, smokey eyes and way too much foundation. Dann looks like a teenager and well just very young (though with a little model-esque look too) - you can see a photo from that shoot in this blog post from February, second image down!
And we do like these photos - well at least some of them. Our families have copies, and we have one displayed. But of course, seven years later, they are a little dated, and hardly present us as people.
Our next photoshoot was technically our wedding. By far my favourite photos I've ever had taken. I mean they are simply breathtaking. You can see a couple of them here.
And I've done a number of photo shoots since, both on my own and with a friend.
But we've never gone back for another couple shoot.... until now.
We actually met Wayne from Studio1314* at the Chilli and Cheese Festival back in August where he took our photo and we had a chat. A few weeks later he asked about working together. I was intrigued. I'm not going to lie, I am super picky when it comes to photos. I mean really picky, especially studio ones. But I was impressed. So impressed I agreed to a full shoot with Wayne.
Wayne and Lucy who run the studio are both trained photographers with over 20 years experience and have done both studio and location (such as wedding) photography throughout their careers. Having worked for other people they decided to branch out and do it on their own and create a fun and relaxed style of studio photography. So Studio1314 was created. Studio1314 specialise in photography that is all about you. We had a phone consultation, where myself and Wayne chatted away about what makes Dann and I tick. This was trickier than I expected as we are actually quite different people, with different hobbies and likes, but we did settle on a few ideas.
We ended up doing a studio and location shoot! Which was really fun... not your standard, stand and smile and I'll change the background colour that you tend to get. Or let's move 'room' so you're on a chair or inside a hole! It was simple, but it worked. Our location shoot was at the Black Boy pub in Winchester, with a couple of outside shots near the river.
So the big Q... did we like the photos!?! Hell to the yes! I was a little on the fence on whether I was going to like them or not, as they were quite different from what I'm used to for photo shoots. Usually I like about five and the rest I can fault and not be bothered by. When we saw Wayne a couple of days after the shoot to see the photos I have to admit I was a little nervous about seeing them, especially as I knew he would have done a good job, but I might just hate my face in them.
BUT I didn't hate them. I loved them. Hands down the best output of photos from a photo shoot I've ever seen. I mean I think I only disliked two, and that was purely down to my double chin making an unwanted appearance.
Wayne created a number of collections for us, based on out themes, and also some stand alone photos.
Here's a small collection to give you a taste of what Studio1314 can create....
Huge thank you to Wayne at Studio1314 for all the amazing images!
*collaboration post
