Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Summer Shoot at the Portrait Gallery, part 1

This past August, Gloria & Mike of In the Long Run Designs, organized a costumed photoshoot at the Portrait Gallery in DC. (https://inthelongrun.wordpress.com/)

I wasn’t entirely sure what to wear partially because I’m not actively sewing much now and we’d been super busy. I wanted to do something historical because of the venue - and then I started thinking about what costumes I might want photographed. I have so many and most of them were made in the old timey DragonCon era before cosplay photoshoots were a thing. And then I hit upon my Titanic Jump dress - I spent a ton of time on it, and it’s so heavy that it’s delicate, and I don’t have good photos of it really. And it would fit the venue - AND I could transport it relatively easily since I planned on changing on site since I can’t really sit in a care in this.

I recently had to do repairs on this gown. I’d had it on display for a while on a dress form, and the beading on the skirt stretched the netting. It ended up being a pretty easy fix, done at the waistline.

I’ll also note that I probably should have scaled the bodice to be a bit smaller and more “empire” of a cut - but I’m bigger busted than Kate Winslet and I tried to proportion the beaded bodice for me. Now I think I’d still make it slightly smaller if I did it again, but what’s done is done!

Everything on this gown was hand done. The trim, the beaded circles, the beaded bodice. The gown weighs about 6 lbs, and other than beads, it’s just cotton netting, tulle, and silk charmeuse. I did sew some organza in the hem of the skirt to help with the weight of the beads.

I have upgraded jewelry and shoes since the DragonCon wearing too - I think the necklace I actually got from my friend Stephanie’s mom. It’s not screen accurate, but it’s a much better match than what I had. The earrings are replica, bought ages ago when Jill Bailey was producing jewelry. Ditto the comb, which I know wasn’t worn with this outfit, but I had it so I was gonna use it because it’s so pretty. (You can see a close-up pic of these on this blog.

I never landed a pair of the Peterman booties, so I tend to wear my American Duchess beaded shoes, which I think work well with the outfit.

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There were three photographers participating - Mike (of In the Long Run), Dan Arengo, and Justin Schneider (Rich and Strange Photography).

Probably what I’m going to do is just post my snaps from the day here and then do a separate post for each photographer, because they all had different styles and produced gorgeous pics. I’ll just post the ones of me, but there were 8 ladies being photographed - in all different styles.

Ok, here are my snaps!

Carolyn in her gorgeous natural form gown.

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I found an Art-o-mat! But the bill slot wasn’t working. :-(

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Just some time-travelers sitting around!

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Tarisa in 1890s

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A close up of the beading as I was packing it away:

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Group selfie:

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And one outtake I really like from In the Long Run Designs - Gloria fixing my hair. I think this is actually a pretty important part of good photos - often one can’t tell if a hair is out of place, or if their train isn’t straight, but it’s important to try to be aware of your costume (and if any of it is really out of place), and then to ASK. Ask someone to look at you and make sure jewelry is straight, that your hair isn’t weird, then nothing is out of place or misaligned. It’ll be a better photo - and less post-processing work for the photographer.

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