Summer Shoot at the Portrait Gallery, part 5 – Outtakes by In the Long Run Designs

So, as I posted recently, we did a summer shoot at the Portrait Gallery in August. These are a few misc photos shot my Mike from In the Long Run Designs. They are sort of fun because they show some of the behind-the-scenes! Yeah, I’m on my phone. In my defense my husband and baby were at the Natural History museum and sending me funny selfies. :-)

Here’s Caroline modeling and me hanging out:



Group shot!



Shoe shot!





This one is great - there’s Glynnis posing on the balcony at left, Taylor posing at right, and way in the back, on the lower level, me posing!





And of course this one again, because I like it:

Summer Shoot at the Portrait Gallery, part 4 - Mike & Gloria

So, as I posted recently, we did a summer shoot at the Portrait Gallery in August. Last but certainly not least, are the photos taken by Mike from In the Long Run Designs. (https://inthelongrun.wordpress.com/)

I’ll also repost some of what I had said about my costume! You can skip this section if you saw my other posts. :-)

The short version: I decided to wear my Titanic Jump dress. 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! I also think that the netting on the bodice has stretched slightly too under the weight of the beads so it hangs lower than it used to.

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.

And here are Mike’s photos! (I believe Gloria did the photo editing.) I like the rich reds there too, some alternate shots that are sepia or B&W, and I also asked Mike to get some detail shots for me of the beading, which he did!























And of course the preview I posted of Gloria trying to make sure my hair was in place.

Summer Shoot at the Portrait Gallery, part 3 - Dan

So, as I posted recently, we did a summer shoot at the Portrait Gallery in August. These are the photos taken by Dan Arango Photography.

I’ll also repost some of what I had said about my costume! You can skip this section if you saw my other posts. :-)

The short version: I decided to wear my Titanic Jump dress. 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! I also think that the netting on the bodice has stretched slightly too under the weight of the beads so it hangs lower than it used to.

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.

And here are Dan’s photos! I say again, modeling is hard, yo.

I love the rich reds he brought out of my costume here. I really liked Justin’s moodier feel to the photos he took - which is why it was super fun to have three distinct photographers produce photos. I really liked how different all the pics were, and how each photographer had their own sort of vision and color palette.

Summer Shoot at the Portrait Gallery, part 2 - Justin

So, as I posted recently, we did a summer shoot at the Portrait Gallery in August. These are the photos taken by Justin Schneider of Rich and Strange Photography.

I’ll also repost some of what I had said about my costume!

The short version: I decided to wear my Titanic Jump dress. 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! I also think that the netting on the bodice has stretched slightly too under the weight of the beads so it hangs lower than it used to.

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.

And here are Justin’s photos! Modeling is hard, yo. Especially when you aren’t model size and are totally self-conscious. He did a great job anyway. And I’m learning.

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.





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.



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





Just some time-travelers sitting around!



















Tarisa in 1890s





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





Group selfie:



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.