Collaborating with Thea: Elegance & Perfection

It's been months since I've seen Thea, one of my friends and blogger who attended Blogger's Brunch. We both have to plan out to make our collaboration professional. Our ways of planning is communication, choices of both location and outfits, specific date and time. Sometimes we usually change due to work or any important schedule.

Our first plan of choice to organize our shoot in the Botanical Garden in Glasnevin. Since I've already known the place, any specific area can be good enough for the shooting. Unfortunately, doing the Botanical Garden can sometimes look to green and distracting. In my experience, the Botanic Garden is the best place for an actual portrait pic.

Our second choice of location is the National Gallery of Ireland. It was a one time I've made my first portrait shot in the gallery two years ago, still, it is the perfect place. So why is it better? Everything around the gallery is neutral by looks through walls and space. But the only problem is there are so many people surround the spaces. So my solution is to find a spot in the gallery where there is less crowd and even quieter.

I met Thea at the front of the gallery at St. Claire's Street as we proceed up from the reception to the toilet near the archive gallery. It was like minutes of waiting. I then started to do my Instagram stories, as I video blogged to my audience about the collaboration. So anyway, just as Thea finished changing, we then proceed to the atrium of the gallery. It was all a bit quiet. Kids were at the play area near the cloakroom passage and a few tourist.

As I took out my camera, I instructed Thea on the spot and position for her image. Sometimes, it is relevant to change spots whether it's suitable or it needs to match the neutrality between the walls and outfit. It creates the perfect aesthetics and lifestyle. It's more of a matching theme... or a bit of matching "colours." To make it more of an aesthetic lifestyle for Instagram, an idea of such is to take shot of the outfit and accessories. It starts from the shoulders to the feet... so no head please! Yeah of course, I did include the statue in the background. With both the walls and floors along with the statue matching the outfit... a perfect combination in style which makes it the same use of neutral and dark colours. That's how the elegance works!

Ok, let's jump to the next outfit.

It is really nice to see Thea in a beautifully dark blue-ish polka dot dress. Describing it as more on elegance and perfection of a true woman. So, we then carry on to find another quiet area in the gallery. The only place the stairway leading the library and archives below and the other gallery wing above. As I proceed shooting Thea's full body picture, I allow her to change any movement or position. It can be a bit obvious that a model just stands there doing nothing while a photographer is taking a pic. It's just like a taking a picture of a statue. So after my full body picture-taking, I let Thea come towards the stair railings for a portrait pic. The best thing is to let her look around the area rather than looking straight into my camera. The results of her pictures was a merit!

The next one is to have her sitting on the stairs for more on picture-taking of her dress and accessories. I went for a close-up on her bracelet and handbag from Jeenaa (@jeenaaofficial). It went so viral I couldn't been more proud!

Our picture-taking in the gallery was a successful attempt. We plan to make our way outside for another shoot. As we were walking at St. Claire's Street, I started doing my Instagram Stories blog along with Thea. It was fun doing it with her. As we made our stop at Kildare Street, we proceed our outdoor shoot at the Kildare Street Hotel as a background. I included the hanging flower pot and a green plant-like mat covering the steel fence. It's a little inspiration from a blogger in the UK @mariajblogs. I worked my composition in portrait. As we moved to a different spot, I included the building background of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. I did my best to make an attempt on capturing Thea, with an empty road and now people walking by. The result was a bit somehow successful.

We walked about to 15 Molesworth Street for another unique place to shoot. An idea popped straight away in my head. The idea was to let Thea stand in front of a baby blue-coloured Georgian door. I took around multiple full body shots, changing the angle of my position. Just then, I instructed Thea on leaning the steel fence with her left back shoulder. Just to let her relax calmly and yeah! My plan is to take a good few shots in portrait. All I did is changing my portrait views by zooming in and out.

Successful... but more on elegance and gracefulness. We walked all the way to Molesworth Street to Dawson Street. We decided to make our final shot near the park in St Stephen's Green. From better to worst, St Stephen's Green is packed with people walking. The best place to shoot is a building covered with green leaves (or ferns or unknown plants?). I then carried on shooting the same style since Molesworth. Full-body body picture-taking by standing up and sitting down. It was a bundle of shots I've taken as I noticed a lot of people looking at us. But really... I just ignored them completely. The biggest one is taking shots of Thea in a close-up view. It is a portrait shot when you try to come a bit closer. The main focus is to capture her face and a bit on the shoulders... and yes, hand movement works best too. Still, I changed different positions to capture a better portrait shot.

The overall experience is that you need to give it a specific theme or lifestyle when you take a shoot of your model. Outfits, makeup, accessories or location may be considered... but, I recommend that style and confidence builds up your model's appearance. Also, rely on the model's emotion and expression. You don't need to judge your model's looks. All you need to do is let them make their move of expressing in front of the camera. In a way, Thea's style relies on the aesthetics and expression. It creates a perfect image relating to its theme. Her choice of outfits is another example. You can either wear an outfit colour that can match the same interior/exterior colour of the building.

But anyway, what do you guys think? Do you inspire or appreciate our collaboration? Any thoughts on the style you like? Would you be more aesthetic on what you do or do you prefer you own way?

Let me know in the comments below

Sincerely

Jedd cabreza