The before is what people see of you on a daily basis. Sometimes the hair could use a bit of fixing up, or you forgot to do one eye when applying your makeup, or the late night schedule has left you with the slightest blue bags under your eyes. People are very forgiving however, and because we are mobile, they generally don’t pay much attention to the little things because we’re being viewed from many angles, different light, lots of expressions as we talk to one another. But put us in front of a camera and we invariably feel scrutinized. The lens may pick up all those aspects of our everyday selves that have been even somewhat neglected. That is where a professional photographer enters the scene to come in and smooth the way toward your other self: the one you imagine in your mind’s eye. Beautiful and self assured; ready to take on whatever comes your way. It’s surprising how often a client will come to the studio for their consultation and not really know the best look for themselves. Closer fitting clothes, for example, work better for curvy women than loose fitting tops or dresses. Any definition of waist and curves is an advantage. And even though you may be drawn to olive green, you may be doing yourself a disservice depending upon your skin tones, the color of your eyes etc.

The after is what I want to focus on. The after portrait shows the journey from where you are to where you’d like to be. The green satin dress in this example is actually just a very long piece of satin that I wrapped around my client and secured with a beautiful sparkling pin. Then a second piece wrapped around her shoulders to complete the look. Elegant. The tones were outstanding with her coloring. She positively glimmers. And because she looked so lovely and acknowledged that, it shows in her lovely expression.

Ever since I was very little, I loved watching transformations. I guess it comes from loving the story of Cinderella. There was this guy who had a tv show, maybe only 15 minutes long, that showed how to apply eyebrows with a stencil (this was the 1950’s) and an eyebrow pencil. It fascinated me to see how different (and improved ) the woman’s look was after the application. And sometimes just tweaking an everyday hairdo can make a huge difference to the total effect. That’s why we always love how we look right after we’ve been to a salon. Fresh and new.

For myself, I only recently discovered color. For years living in the east, I almost exclusively wore black and if I was feeling particularly courageous, grey! Now living on the central coast, I discover that even yellow, which I’d shied away from because I have an olive complexion, looks particularly good on me. Who knew? So be courageous, try something new and different and then document the change and your courage with fine art portraits. I can help you with that!  Call me and we can set up a time for your complimentary consultation. 805-709-7881 or email me at: andrea@andreafine.com