White Swan

 "I felt it - perfect. It was perfect..."

-Nina, Black Swan

Inspired by the movie "Black Swan" we wanted to do our own interpretation of  White Swan using the winter beach sky.

During the winter months, the sunsets are some of the most intense. As the sun goes down on the horizon there is a small amount of time that the light hits the sand first turning the beach from the dark, gloomy, cold winter into a radiating warmth of light. As you feel the sun hit your body it awakens the spirit as if you are being reborn. 

  

In order to capture the light just right we grabbed Emmett after school as our assistant. When we arrived at the beach we were a gasp at the beauty, even though we sometime take it for granted.

As I started to to shoot Camilla on the soft sand, Emmett kept saying that we needed to go down into the water because the reflection of the sun on the water was perfect. I was hesitant at first because it was so cold and the water even colder. But, he was right and Camilla, as always, loved getting right into the water and wet sand. Emmett and I took turns with the camera and light disc reflector trying to capture the beauty as we both saw it.

Lace mock turtleneck and silver bralette by Free People, 

blush dress from LF boutique, Leggings Anthropologie

Headband from Urban Outfitters.

XX Valerie and Camilla

DANCE

 "He who loves, flies, runs and rejoices; he is free and nothing holds him back."

Henri Matisse

DANCE (II) 1910

A few weeks back we did this shoot with Camilla's friend Lisa. She is such a talented girl in all forms of the arts. She is not only a photographer but a dancer and artist. She inspired this shoot of Dance with her elegance and grace. Lisa also shot the photos of Camilla at the end of our shoot with her. 

I wanted to put Lisa in a flowy dance inspired piece so she is wearing a long silk chiffon skirt as a dress and belted with a vintage silk scarf. The color of the skirt was perfect for her skin and the chiffon provided the exact fluid movement we were looking to capture.

XX Valerie and Camilla

Mon Amie la Rose

"I was born at dawn

Baptized  in dew

I blossomed

Happy and in love

In the rays of the sun."

The beautiful song by Francoise Hardy "Mon Amie la Rose" 

was the inspiration behind our shoot. 

Enjoy her lovely voice and gorgeous face as you listen to the song.

 

The dress Camilla is wearing is a dress she found when she was just twelve years old. I had taken her vintage shopping for the first time to some great shops on Melrose and to the Fairfax flea market. I told her to just look around and if she saw something that spoke to her, grab it. She came up to me after just the first shop and showed me this dress saying "look at this!"

I knew I had found my vintage shopping buddy. 

She had the eye and without any training. My first though was "Brilliant!"

We paired it with the Jeffery Campbell boots I had bought at the LF "sale of the season" last fall and some jewelry from India that her dad brought back. Then headed to our favorite locale that Emmett discovered and shot these photos.

Have a wonderful weekend!

XX

 Valerie and Camilla

Pretty Reckless

An Evening at the beach and more photos from the Alpinestars shoot. Camilla is wearing the Lavender leather jacket from Alpinestars by Denise Focil and amethyst tank by ASTARS. Shoes are Jeffery Campbell, vintage Levis cutoffs, vintage silver bangles and vintage rosary.