We Be Striking a Pose: Our First Styled Shoot with Salon Ethos

The clock read 5:00 a.m. Dun, dun, dun.

Five am??
Yes, 5:00 a.m.
Get up, Rona, let's go! Today's the first!

Those are the thoughts that prodded me out of bed early, (VERY EARLY) on a Sunday morning. I am the poster child for sleeping in, just ask my husband. Crusty eyes, drool and all. (how's that for beauty sleep?) But this particular morning was different. I actually popped out of bed energetic and ready to get out of the house. (After I took care of the crusty eyes, of course. )

Kristina of Salon Ethos and I have been planning these styled photoshoots for months and today was the first shoot of 3 we were doing. She was getting her hairstyling skills on for our models and I was doing my thing with the camera. We were very excited and though the weather looked questionable and cloudy, we knew that it was going to turn out just fine. At least, we hoped so.

I showed up at 6 a.m. to pick up Kristina and the minute she answered the door, I had to laugh to myself.  Kristina is a dedicated artist to her craft of hair, so why didn't it surprise me that her hair was completely done and ready to go, but her pajamas and make-up were still in the works? My sister was every bit as excited as I was, but the look in her huge eyes also said "oh my gosh are we really up this early?"

Yes, we are really doing this.

Our model was Claire, who you may remember from her photoshoot here.

Kristina of Salon Ethos worked her magic on Claire's hair and after a few hours of hairspray, girl talk, and doughnuts (big ups to Claire's husband, Jon for patiently enduring the hairspray fumes, picking up doughnuts, and ignoring girly chatter that probably interrupted his sports watching more times than he anticipated), we were ready to go.

And oh, when girls who love hair, fashion, and photography get together watch out world. Because despite the clouds, the wind, and rain, we be striking a pose. For realz.

I'm so proud and excited to present to you the skills of Kristina of Salon Ethos. Below are a few of my favorite shots.

You can view the entire shoot here on my Facebook page.

Jon & Claire. 2011.

These past few months as I've been working towards building my portfolio, brainstorming on different ways to design my photography business website, etc. there are a few things I'm noticing. One of them is that I still get a bit nervous before each shoot, even if it's just with friends who are wonderfully supportive. In fact, I just recently confessed to my husband that literally right when we're driving to the photoshoot site, the thought of "Um, I don't want to do this, why did I ask them to do this shoot, oh maybe they'll cancel?" actually crosses my mind. That fearful type of thinking tries to take hold of me even within the first few shots. It's like my nerves are staggering any type of creative flow.

And then....it happens.

With each shot fired on my lil' ol Canon during a photoshoot, that fear slowly loses it's grip on my mind. I like to think that that  God's creative spirit beat down Mr. Fear and said you got no business here, so get the steppin'. And it's in those moments do I slowly feel a courage to direct each photo, to direct my subject's poses, to smile and enjoy this wonderful medium of creativity called photography.

It's freakin' great.

I'm a firm believer in the fact that God can use anything, (like, ANYTHING) for His glory. And after spending some time with these wonderful friends of ours, I can see how God is using my camera as a way to reconnect with friends my husband and I have not seen in a while. The weather was amazing for a city shoot and so we capitalized on all the grit and concrete the city has to offer and blended it with the style and edge that is Claire and Jon.

I love details and so the colors and accessories Claire chose along with the amazing tattoos that both of them sport (gosh, I wish I were tough enough to get a tattoo...like, even a itty bitty one) made for great photographs. Jon had new a tattoo in the works (you'll see it in the shots) and it just blended so well with the urban theme we were going for. After the shoot the four of us had dinner, caught up on life, chatted about God, and laughed a ton. It's been too long since we'd seen them and I'm so glad something as simple as a photoshoot became a way for friends to spend time together.

With that being said, below are a few of my favorites from our time with Claire and Jon. You can view the entire album on my Facebook page here, under Claire and Jon's album.