Adelita Style 101: Test Shots

click on this image for a closer look!

styling 101

step 1 • organize your shot list, I drew cute little sketches
step 2 • dig in! set the stage for your "stars"
step 3 • when it's a big shoot, separate your items neatly and tag the shots
step 4 • pick a great photographer like David Bell from Studio 3, Inc.
step 5 • the perfect combination!

When you contact a photographer or they contact you to shoot for your portfolios this is called a "test." I keep busy with client work but whenever I get the chance, I set up my own test shoots! Seattle can be very conservative or at least my clients are, so it's important that I build my portfolio with photos that show off my skills. Booking the right photographer for the right shot is key. David Bell from Studio 3, Inc. is one of the best product guys I know. For this shoot we captured shoes and accessories in painted "boxes." I brought beautiful combinations from my closet and stores lent me handbags, shoes and jewelry. I asked David to coat panels in 3 different sheens of the same color of paint and we flipped them with each shot to get a different effect and reflection. Here we have pumps from shoedazzle.com and jewelry from Betsey Johnson. To see more go to my portfolio page on my website!

Panda Envy

Another must-have from Asia. I would love to prance around the hill in them!

Do you think anyone would care?

Yoko Ono thinking of Japan

Photographs Annie Leibovitz 1970-1990

 
Annie Leibovitz shot this cover for Rolling Stone Magazine in 1980, 5 hours later John Lennon was shot and killed. I have been holding on to this photo of Yoko Ono and Lennon for some time looking for an excuse to post. Sadly, this was not the occasion I was looking for; Yoko Ono expresses her sorrow for her native country Japan.

My dear people of Japan: I feel numb now, as if I was there myself and hit with this disaster as you have been. Only just recently I visited Tokyo, and was delighted how beautiful, clean and quiet the city was! I didn’t expect a disaster like this to happen to the country I love so much.

One year, John, my husband, Sean and I were in the hotel in Tokyo. It was in the morning, and the earthquake suddenly hit three of us. I immediately grabbed Sean, who was still a little boy then. I went into an open closet, holding Sean tightly, and sat in there, keep repeating Namyohorengekyo. After the earthquake subsided, John laughed and said, he didn’t understand why I sat in an open closet. I explained to him that it was important that to be protected by a structure. Well, at least, that was what I was told when I was a child. The earthquake John, Sean and I experienced was not at all like the one you just experienced. But still my body is now shaking tonight from the memory of it.

So I feel deeply for you for having experienced the earthquake that was the severest in the history of Japan. It must have been so, so horrible. I extend my sympathy and love to each one of you. I’m very sorry that you had to go through what you went through. My heart is with you all the way.

Japan's 8.9 earthquake and aftershocks devastate Japan.

Click on photos above to go to National Geographic article.

Photograph from Kyodo/Reuters

Evacuees cling to one another in Tokyo's Shinjuku Central Park after the magnitude 8.9 earthquake in Japan. Miles from the epicenter, Tokyo felt the effects, about four million homes in the Tokyo area are without power.

As of this morning, it is believed that roughly 9,500 in Minamisanriku -- a town of 17,000 in Miyagi Prefecture -- remain missing or unaccounted for. As of Saturday evening there, police said that 621 were confirmed dead, with thousands more missing. More than 210,000 had been evacuated. A nuclear powerplant's explosion added to the devastation late last night. Please go to the American Red Cross to see how you can help.

Source: Photos from National Geographic, Info from National Geographic and Washington Post

Spring Stripes

Jelly loves stripes too! Click on this image for a closer look!

Nearly every Spring, nautical stripes make a big comeback. Is it the thought of sailing away in the breeze, a gentle rain falling over the sail? Is it the dreamy low moan of foghorns looking for their first catch? Can't you just see the bridge open up at the ship canal to reveal a parade of white crafts? All of these thoughts make me feel just a little bit better about the prelude before Summer, the rainy days when I can wear those navy and white stripes.