Gift to Military Spouses

His casting call said "Gift to Military Spouses" and so I replied.  It was a number of weeks before we were able to schedule a shoot.  That one got cancelled due to my illness.  Finally, the day before the second scheduled shoot, I realize that I know little to nothing about the genre and haven't even considered what clothing to bring! I sent a panicked email to the photographer and he calmly replied, "Don't worry...we have sizes 2 to 16 already here."  Ack!  I was a size 16 once.  So I looked around and tried to find things that might work.  I love making last minute costumes for Halloween so it really was very much the same thing. I pulled a rabbit out of my hat and felt as ready as I could be for the next day.

When I arrived at the industrial building, I could not figure out where to park so I call him and he met me out front and showed me where to park.  When I got parked and got out, I felt incredibly flustered.  Usually I am fairly self assured but the concern with my size and age and wardrobe choices had me a mess. Also, my hair and makeup was being done there, so I was a blank slate, so to speak. There I was, older, heavier and uglier than he expected. I was not feeling self assured.

I did have a few ideas ready.  The shoot would be pinup and Hollywood glamour.  The pinup had me most worried about costuming but I had a few military pinup ideas and outfits.  For the Hollywood glamour I had a nice basic formal gown.We went inside and looked at my ideas book and the clothing that I had brought along.  He liked the ideas and we discussed which would work best and how he can make changes as needed using photoshop. He showed me some of his current work including one cute Statue of
Liberty photo that he was about to enter into a calendar contest.  His work was phenomenal.  It was interesting looking at the before and after shots.

The hair and makeup artist arrived looking like a pinup herself.  She was simply adorable and I said so.  The photographer piped up agreeing and complaining that she never let him shoot her.  He also mentioned that she really needed some photos of herself on her Facebook advertising pages.  She got to work on me.  Hair was first.  My hair doesn't take a curl well so I warned her and she used extra styling gel.  When she started working on my makeup, I suggested to the photographer to "quick, get a shot now while she is busy concentrating!" We bantered back and forth like that a bit and she finally agreed to a couple photos of her in action.  She was afraid she would get distracted and ruin my eye liner or something but she didn't. 

Once I was all dolled up, she left and we got to shooting.  We did a bit of military pinup, a bit of silly pinup using and outfit from the studio and finally some Hollywood glamour in my formal gown.  When we were finished we took a cursory glance at them on his computer and he edited one that needed very little work and emailed it to me right then.  There are more coming and I can't wait to see the ones he decides to finish.  I am having him print one of the glamour shots for my husband.  I think he will like it.