One of My Favorite Photo Shoots To Date

Almost two years ago, Hollie called me about taking photos of her sweet 6 month old daughter Madi. I was so nervous--it was the first time I'd taken photos of someone that wasn't family! But Hollie and Madi were great, and I've done several photos for them over the years.

A couple months ago, Hollie called me again, and showed me this photo on Pinterest that she wanted to use as inspiration for the next session:

Source: pinksugarphotography.typepad.com via Meredith on Pinterest

{PS- If you aren't familiar with Pink Sugar Photography, be sure to click on the source link--AMAZING}

I don't mind at all when people show me inspiration photos that they love prior to a photo shoot, but there's always that balance as a photographer from trying to take that inspiration without copying the other photographer too closely--'cause let's face it, even if imitation is the highest form of flattery, no one likes to be copied exactly. But on the other hand, we all draw inspiration from each others' work...nearly every photographer has a "Photos I Love" board on Pinterest, right?

So, when someone brings me an inspiration photo, what I usually try to do is talk with the person to narrow down what the person loves--is it the lighting, the poses, the type of location, the outfits, etc in order to be able to capture the feel without being too literal. For Hollie, I think it was mostly the field and the warm lighting that she loved, so I decided to use my brother and sister-in-law's back property that I used for the self-portraits for Lee Jeans and go with a sunset shoot. And then, Oregon weather didn't cooperate at all, and gave us cloudy and overcast for the next two weeks. Once we had a day of sun, we jumped on it, and this is what I came up with...I think (hope--you tell me!) that it does a good job capturing the "feel" of Hollie's inspiration photo without being too literal: