Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Click Click Click: The Innermix Photo Shoot



Even though our photo shoot last weekend was the first time most of us were meeting in person, it felt like a family reunion. After endless sessions, conference calls, and texting back and forth, the whole Innermix team finally met at L’Image Photography in Glendora. We were in full effect: Q4 came out for the shoot, in addition to our fearless leaders Simply D and Jules, the lovely Juanita, the magician-with-a-makeup-brush Lisa, and my awesome co-workers Julia and Tiffany. I was glad to finally meet everyone in person, not only to get to know the team outside the virtual realm but also to redeem what D calls “The Hair.”

I don’t know what it is about a webcam, but for some reason it makes my hair (hereafter known as The Hair) look an absolute mess. Especially when The Hair was red (Hi, my name is Katherine and I am a compulsive hair dyer), on a computer screen it reads as a lion’s mane. My Mac seems to enhance fly-aways, frizz, and cowlicks to the point that The Hair is comically commented on in every videoconference we’ve had. Given The Hair situation, I was most excited to meet the team and prove that I do, in fact, own a brush.

Luckily, the wonderful Lisa (Styles by Lisa) was there to tame any remnants of The Hair and my midterm exhaustion that showed up on Saturday. Working some magic with an oven, old-school irons, and good old-fashioned blending techniques, Lisa beautified me and the rest of the team (even though they didn’t much help in the first place!) before the camera started snapping.

Lisa tames The Hair

Our photographer for the day was Mitch Merritt. Never having been a part of a real photo shoot myself, Mitch made the experience a fun and educational one. I got the chance to be sort of an assistant for a few of our non-studio locations, holding lights for our edgy alley shots and shooting moving video for the neighborhood set ups. Some people may not be down for that, but the film student inside me jumps at any chance to work as a PA and needless to say I loved it. Check out some of Mitch’s other work on the L’Image website or Facebook page.

Mitch was our main man for the day, but we were having our own little photo shoot of the photo shoot. Of the many things I discovered we had in common that day, Tiffany, Julia, and I are total shutterbugs. We spent the entire day snapping candid shots of our happy little family--getting our hair done, trying on different outfits, taking pictures, and just generally being goofy. Between the three of us, we ended up with about 200 pictures of the photo shoot and a bunch of video footage. Check out our next vlog to see how we put all that together!


Julia and Juanita shoot the shoot

One thing everyone needs to know from this experience is that Jules has absolutely killer fashion sense. As you’ll see when we release the photos, the clothes and accessories she brought to the shoot were absolutely to die for. My favorite pieces were the amazing studded wedge boots (pictured below) and her canary yellow maxi skirt, but it was her array of colorful jeans that inspired me to go HAM at the Gap the next day. I am officially a devotee to her style, and I am seriously considering having WWJW (What Would Jules Wear) bracelets made up—with Jules’ design approval, of course.

Jules' Self Defense School Lesson 1: Fashion can double as weaponry.

We got some really dope shots for "The Innermix Show" as well as Innermix P&P during the session, but what I’ll take away from that more than anything were the bonds formed with our team. I’m a tech junkie and live my life with a cell phone perma-fused to my hand, but there is something about finally meeting people in person that helps everything click. From chatting with Juanita about our mutual love for Once Upon a Time to finding out we had the same weekend plans over boba with Tiffany and Julia to sharing pizza on the floor of the studio when we all got ravenously hungry, it was the perfect example of what Innermix is all about: fun, laughter, advice, and family.

Catch y'all on the flip!
Kat

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