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Behind the Scenes at the Selene Shoot

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Let me state the obvious right off the bat, photoshoots are fun. They are fun to plan. I enjoy arranging color palettes, choosing a model, and dreaming up concepts. It is basically a creative-type’s dream project.

The not so obvious side of photoshoots is spreadsheets. You guys, there are so many friggin’ spread sheets. There is a sample spreadsheet for making the photo sample, there are spreadsheets that document every look down to the earrings, there are spreadsheets that detail every single shot that the photoshoot needs to yield. I could go on…

All this work is done in advance with the hope that the shoot will go off without a hitch. The Selene shoot was one of those occasions where the grey Portland clouds parted (literally) and everything went smooth as possible.

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Our model, Kiersten, was incredibly sweet and bubbly. She was even nice when creepy dudes tried their hardest to photobomb our shoot. She would laugh sweetly every time I had to jam my hands down her skirt to re-adjust her tucked-in camisole.

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Usually, we shoot at more remote locations or in the studio, so shooting in public was a new challenge. For the most part people were incredibly nice and accommodating. Pedestrians would patiently wait for Evie to snap a shot, then would politely scurry in front of Kiersten, trying carefully not to disrupt us.

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Our photographer, Evie, was willing to scale anything just to get the shot. She was engaging and and full of energy, which is definitely a plus on a 10 hour day of shooting!

And lastly, it didn’t even rain! This is particularly miraculous, given that we were bold enough to plan an outdoor shoot in Portland, in February.

Haley Glenn

Editorial Director

Five years ago, Haley left the apparel industry to join the world of home sewing. She has been empowering women to sew ever since – first through years of in-person teaching at Sew LA, and now through her writing at Colette. Haley writes tutorials and articles on our blog, teaches sewalongs, and writes and edits for our magazine, Seamwork.

Comments

Dana Tougas

April 27, 2016 #

Thanks for sharing! I’ve always wanted to know, how much fitting of the patterns do you do for the models before the shoot?

Haley

April 27, 2016 #

Models coming in previous to photoshoots to have an really extensive set of measurements taken by the pattern team. Then Wallis, our patternmaker, makes basic adjustments to the pattern. In Kiersten case, we graded from a 12 at the waist to a 14 at the hip.

egrace

April 27, 2016 #

How cool is all that – especially love you chose a female photographer and include pictures of her!
Thank you.

Jessica

April 27, 2016 #

That sounds like so much work … but so much fun! You Excel ninja! So lucky you managed this on a day when there was no rain, and that photo of the photo bomber cracked me up. Do enjoy the variety of places and models you’ve used in your shoots!