Blog excerpts curtesy of Dorian Unmuted: Living Life On Full Blast
I’ve always wanted to do a glamour photo shoot. If you’re up there in age like myself, you may remember those Glamour Shots from the nineties. [...] You would wear your favorite outfit and they would do your makeup and hair and your pictures would turn out something like these:
[...] So everyone was getting these “glamour shots” but even at my pre-teen age I was not impressed, mostly because they all looked the same. Same poses, same vignette feathering on the edges, same makeup. Even then I did not see why you would pay all that money to get something done just to have your pictures look like everyone else’s.
Fast forward almost three decades to me meeting Nicolette Jackson-Pownall, a photographer who specializes in true glamour shots—in this case, “true” meaning you look like your ultimate best self so there is no way your shots will look like anyone else’s because there is only one you! This was the main thing that drew me to her work—she really is able to capture the essence of the person she’s shooting and it’s evident in the finished shots.
Enter November, 2018; she put a shout-out that she was wanting to include family portraits and was looking for subjects. I thought to myself, this might be the time to do it—I have a family, we could use some great family shots, and my body was looking really right so maybe I could get a few glamour shots in as well.
Nicolette worked all this out with me during the pre-shoot process as far as how to combine everything I was wanting to do into one shoot. At the start, I had no idea what look I wanted for the glamour portion of the shoot but with her guidance I was able to select a makeup look and some clothing items that worked beautifully. My shoot ended up being three in one—I was alone for almost three hours that included getting my makeup done and the fitness and glamour shots, then my husband and son joined me for the last hour for our family shoot portion.
I absolutely had fun shooting with Nicolette during the entire experience, from the early picture and wardrobe planning phase through to the portrait reveal and final images and selection. I honestly did not recognize myself in some of the shots; it’s a humbling experience to see yourself looking like a Self or Vogue magazine cover model.
I like the reminder of my grace the glamour pictures show; it’s really nice to pull these up on the days when I’m feeling less than stellar. I’m so happy I included the fitness portion because it’s important to me for my son to know and respect the many strengths women have, one of them being physical strength. And, fitness is such a big part of my life that I wanted to showcase that aspect. I’m also happy to have some fantastic family shots to add to our collection; the timing of these was great because it captures the last bits of “innocent baby” my son still had in his face—he was ten weeks shy of turning five at the time these pictures were taken. I already know for sure I want to do another family shoot again in a few years when my son is older, I think it will be interesting to see how Nicolette captures his changes on camera.
I think every woman should do a glamour shoot in her lifetime, if for nothing else to be reminded of her own unique beauty. I feel there is so much pressure on women to look a certain way and that there is a warped opinion of what is beautiful, but I also know that as I myself have gotten older my own idea of “beautiful” has changed. When Nicolette and I were going over the selected shots for retouching notes, I specifically asked her to leave some of the lines and wrinkles on my face and some of the stretch marks on my body because they’re part of what make me me. And, as I jokingly sometimes say to people, I earned every single one of those marks—I call them my stripes of honor! [...]
To see read more about Dorian's session with me and see more photos, please visit her blog here.
And to learn more about scheduling your very own designer portrait session, please contact me at nicolette@NJPphotography.com or call 310.622.4580 and let's make your dream photoshoot at reality.