Project Me

This photo shoot happened a few months ago. I had the best intentions of writing this immediately, but I put it off. Then I got really sidetracked. And then, well, then I procrastinated some more. And now I‘ve decided to split it up into parts. So work with me…pretend its early March. Ready, go…

[laugh] “Um…that, would be *high fashion.*”

“Yeah. I know.” I say dejectedly as I close the picture on my phone, thank the sales woman for her time, and walk out of the store.

I didn’t so much care that she was laughing at me, I mean, the whole thing was completely ridiculous – I was on a quest for a white beaded 1940’s gown, in my pajamas at the trendy mall, at noon on the busiest Prom-dress-shopping-Saturday of the year. Of course she was going to laugh at me. I was texting Dan the play-by-play when finally he said, “Christina. [bleeeep]. Take a look in the mirror. Go home before they call the cops. We’ll work with what we have.” I knew we would work with what we had, we didn’t have a choice, but come on – I had to at least find a hat. We HAD to have the hat. So I went to one more store, then another, and then…four more. Maybe it was the combination of the bright lights and muzak, but after 2 hours, I had to get out of there, so I headed back to Goodwill. And maybe it was because I was now desperate, or focused, but I hit the motherload. I found a shirt. It wasn’t a dress, but it had the deep V neckline and had some shine to it. It wasn’t a halter top, but I could rip off the sleeves and it would be passable. I found a skirt that was perfect for another shot. And then I saw a smidge of white peeking out from under a stack of stocking hats. A beanie hat! All I had to do was rip out a few seams, whipstitch the edge, hot glue a ribbon and huge rhinestone bow on it, and ta-da, we were ready to go.

“Project Me” started because I needed some new headshots and Dan needed a model. Even though those pictures were challenging, we had a lot of fun and decided we wanted to do more. So Dan worked on some of the guy portraits, I found more ideas, our friend Brenda wanted in, so we decided to join forces and do another shoot. We looked through the Pinterest board I’d started http://pinterest.com/klingsandthings/project-me and picked out “the one” and then a few others in case we had time. We knew this shot would be tough. The lighting was tricky, the set was trickier, and the posing, well, perfect hand positioning was involved. And we know how that went last time. While I was working on costumes, Dan was working on the setting and lights, and Brenda would be behind the camera.

After I got back from my shopping experiment, I started getting ready – the hair and makeup were as important as the costumes and set. I knew Dan was working on lighting and setting everything up and Brenda was already there so I didn’t want to make them wait too long. I dressed for multiple poses, threw an extra tux, some RED lipstick, and a bunch of scarves into a bag, grabbed a bottle of wine and a pack of cigarettes, and headed for the door. As I walked out, I heard my older son whisper “what did you say Mommy looks like? A Flapper?”

Yeah, this was going to be fun.

…..to be continued…..