Portrait Inspiration Archives | Page 2 of 2

May 28, 2015

in Personal Branding, Portrait Inspiration, Uncategorized

Parisian Urban Bride

All Photos Copyright Carla Coulson

The idea for this shoot actually came from my wedding!!

I loved getting married in Paris, it was the most fuss free event of my life. I was dressed at home, did my own make-up (hadn’t met my fab make-up artist at this point) walked with a couple of friends to our local cafe, dropped into the boulangerie to say hello and was shot on the street with my darling, dogs and Paris in the background. Our wedding was in the middle of market day in the 4th and I loved coming out with a simple bouquet of flowers to be welcomed by friends amongst the fishmonger, the butcher and my favourite florist. It felt so Parisian!

When the gorgeous Helene from Cest Ma Robe told me she wanted to shoot a range of designer wedding gowns I thought it would be fun for our gorgeous ‘bride’ to be an Urban bride.

Now gals not only can you get married in Paris but you can be married in Matthew Williamson, Azzaro, Rachel Zoe and vintage Dior.

Sounds like a dream? Helene had the genius idea to gather together a collection of designer bridal gowns for the chic, the boho, the hippy, the romantic and the funky bride and here’s the great news..drum roll.. you can rent them. Yes you no longer need to get a mortgage to get married. Ain’t that the best news.

So if you are soon to be married in Paris (shout out to gorgeous friend Louisa) check out Cest Ma Robe.

All Photos Copyright Carla Coulson

Huge thanks to beautiful Monika from WM Models, to the talented stylist Joy Dreyfus and Veronique Marot for the hair and make-up.

If you would like to know more about a Personal Branding shoot click here.

“I have great hopes that we shall love each other all our lives as much as if we had never married at all.” Lord Byron

Check out my Portrait Lightroom Presets here.

November 5, 2013

in Personal Branding, Portrait Inspiration

by Carla

41 Comments

La Contessa – Portrait Shoot Paris

La Contessa Copyright Carla Coulson

Now you may be wondering why this glamorous woman is feeding chickens in the middle of the Jardin du Tuileries? There is a reason..

La Contessa Copyright Carla Coulson

The beautiful Elizabeth Kirkpatrick (aka La Contessa) has been the proud owner of the Vintage Hen House in the San Francisco area up until recently and has been the mother of chickens for as long as she can remember.

La Contessa Copyright Carla Coulson

La Contessa is my dream client in every sense, she loves fashion, she once lived in Florence, she is as kooky as I am and loves the theatrical – we are a match made in photographer’s heaven.

La Contessa had a dream (you can read about it here) to bring her beautiful boys to Paris and have a shoot with them as she has done for the past 20 something years as a gift for their father’s birthday.

La Contessa Copyright Carla Coulson

Well, Carla woke at 3am one night with a photo in her dreams. It was one of her favourite Bruce Weber pics of all time. The Duchess of Devonshire feeding her chickens in front of her beautiful home.

Gorgeous sons Nicholas and Kristopher Copyright Carla Coulson

So Carla called in the chickens, contacted La Contessa and we had photo bingo! La Contessa had had Mr. Weber’s picture stuck to her fridge for about the past 20 years. Much excitement down the phone from San Fran to Paris!

La Contessa Copyright Carla Coulson

Now when you come all the way to Paris with an opera coat it seems a shame not to take one walk through the French sculpture section of the Louvre? Non?

La Contessa Copyright Carla Coulson

La Contessa being her glamorous self studying French sculpture.

La Contessa Copyright Carla Coulson

Ahhh…

La Contessa Copyright Carla Coulson

Now La Contessa and her boys have been doing a shoot every year for their Florentine father’s birthday so I thought what could be better than these gorgeous guys shooting their beautiful mum. What troopers!

La Contessa Copyright Carla Coulson

Brownie points for the rest of their lives!

La Contessa Copyright Carla Coulson

Before the drama of the chickens and the Louvre we whipped into a cafe for a pit stop and a couple of pics.

La Contessa Copyright Carla Coulson

How lucky to be staying in Rue du Chateau? The planets were aligning for La Contessa and I in ways we never imagined!!

La Contessa Copyright Carla Coulson

And you can imagine what the locals thought of this glamourpuss buying the bread..

La Contessa Copyright Carla Coulson

On the steps of her adorable apartment..See where she stayed..

So La Contessa had a dream and so did Carla and in one glorious day both our dreams came true. A huge round of applause, numerous ‘encore, encore’ to La Contessa, Nicholas and Kristopher for their patience, beauty and creativity.

“One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.” Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Check out my Portrait Lightroom Presets here.

October 14, 2013

in Personal Branding, Portrait Inspiration

by Carla

9 Comments

Creating A Young Opera Singer’s Portfolio

Chloe Manford Copyright Carla Coulson

I loved every minute of this job, planning it, discussing it, dreaming about it, choosing the props for it and shooting it on the day!

Talk about a dream job! To create images for the beautiful Chloe Manford and her fab sister Amy, both young opera singers at WAAPA that evoke their favourite opera’s and they could use for their professional portfolios.

Chloe Manford Copyright Carla Coulson

You may remember some pics of Amy with the super cute peacock? Can’t wait to show more from Amy’s shoot too.

Luckily the girl’s mum was along on the shoot and was fabulous with a hot glue gun and loads of fern, leaves and berry to create the decoration of our ladder in the spirit of a Midsummer’s Night Dream in the above pics.

Chloe Manford Copyright Carla Coulson

A different mood and spirit for this pic.

Chloe Manford Copyright Carla Coulson

I love creating variety when shooting and when she walked in this beautiful dress she looked so young, fresh and stunning I couldn’t resist shooting her in this simple way to show off her divine personality and beauty.

Chloe Manford Copyright Carla Coulson

More gorgeous Chloe..

Chloe Manford Copyright Carla Coulson

A little Brooke Shields..no?

Chloe Manford Copyright Carla Coulson

Back to serious opera moments. When the wind swept through the windows she looked like she had stepped out of Flemish painting. I loved it..

Chloe Manford Copyright Carla Coulson

More fabulous Flemish painting action..

Chloe Manford Copyright Carla Coulson

And we all had fun doing this pic.. we needed professional feather throwers from above and what an amazing job they did!!

Shooting Tips:

The above shots look simple but we planned the concepts almost 3 months in advance.

I searched for a beautiful location

Clothes were of great importance.

We storyboarded the ideas

Gathered the props, ladders, leaves and flowers, feathers, crowns,

A pro hairdresser worked on the hair and a fab make-up artist did the make-up

All photos were shot using natural light and oh I brought along my fan!

And the gorgeous girls brought their beauty and talent.. A HUGE THANK-YOU TO CHLOE AND AMY.

And their super mum worked tirelessly in the background… Thanks to you too Sallie..

I hope you enjoyed this shoot…It was tonnes of fun.

“An opera begins long before the curtain goes up and ends long after it has come down. It starts in my imagination, it becomes my life, and it stays part of my life long after I’ve left the opera house.” Marie Callas

Check out my Portrait Lightroom Presets here.

September 9, 2013

in Personal Branding, Portrait Inspiration

by Carla

15 Comments

A Parisian Ballgown On A Budget

All photos of Wayne Chick Copyright Carla Coulson

What happens when you arrive in Paris for a photo shoot but you couldn’t fit your gown in your luggage??

All photos of Wayne Chick Copyright Carla Coulson

Well this didn’t pose a problem for super Make-up Artist Wayne Chick. She simply grabbed Le Monde, the staplers, a roll of sticky tape and got to work..

All photos of Wayne Chick Copyright Carla Coulson

Has the Le Monde ever looked so good?

All photos of Wayne Chick Copyright Carla Coulson

The locals were shocked and awed at her beautiful creation.

All photos of Wayne Chick Copyright Carla Coulson

Oops …she forgot her Louis Vuitton handbag and her Christian Louboutins but fortunately stunning Wayne had a couple of fab red ‘handbags’ and the ever so chic black Havainas on hand.

All photos of Wayne Chick Copyright Carla Coulson

Wayne literally stopped traffic and we were excited about this man as he was excited about her outfit. Loved him and his fabulous look.

All photos of Wayne Chick Copyright Carla Coulson

A little flash dance for the crowd (which was gathering fast)

All photos of Wayne Chick Copyright Carla Coulson

Ohh what a feeling!!

All photos of Wayne Chick Copyright Carla Coulson

And off she rode into the Parisian afternoon wrapped in Le Monde.

All photos of Wayne Chick Copyright Carla Coulson

A huge round of applause to the beautiful Wayne Chick. Too much fun to be had in one day.

Stay tuned as the wonderful Wayne will soon let us in on some of her natural make-up secrets that make her one of Australias’ best make-up artists.

“People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news.” A. J. Liebling

If you want to know how you can live more wholeheartedly, reconnect to your joy, creativity and purpose, download my Free Workbook above.

March 28, 2013

in Photography Tips, Portrait Inspiration

by Carla

19 Comments

What I learnt Shooting These Photos At The Moulin Rouge

Looking back through my archives of photos is like time travelling and these shots taking at the Moulin Rouge take me back to the beginning of my arrival in Paris. How very lucky I was to work with the fabulous dancers the Moulin Rouge and Le Lido de Paris, they taught me so much.

I remember when I finally had the go-ahead to shoot the girls on stage and it was up to me to decide what to shoot, how to shoot them and what mood to create I had to think about it a lot long before starting.

One of the greatest difficulties for us photographers is where to start especially when we have a smorgasboard of options, incredible costumes, beautiful girls and locations.

Here’s What I learnt shooting these pics:

1. Research some ideas and choose a theme that you would like to start with.

2. I wanted to create a portrait series of the dancers. I had seen lots of pics live on stage image so I wanted to take them out of that environment and create a timeless feeling.

3. I wanted something moody so the light selection was really important. I chose to use just one main light on the girls and surround them in darkness.

4. My pictures previously had been full of energy, movement and life and I decided to challenge myself and photograph ‘silence’! I asked the girls to always have their eyes down and not to look at me as though they were in a dream.

5. I wanted the slightest blur to give the feeling of a dream. Working on a shutter speed of 1/60th second I asked the girls to take the smallest steps forward and backward and this is how we created the blur.

6. Dancers are brilliant to photograph as they are aware of every movement their body makes and they are always striving for elegance and poise. But I didn’t want photos that were stiff so we worked together to use their form to create interesting portrait shapes and then relaxed the poses so they looked natural.

7. Having wonderful costumes is a dream, the same as adding fashion to a portrait shoot. The shoot takes on an entirely different feel and this is something I always incorporate into my portraits.

8. I gave the girls roles to play, asked them to think of a certain situation or moments to transport them and their mood and voila I took the pic.

You too can apply some of the above examples next time you shoot. Ask yourself what you want to achieve, what mood, feel and research before you start taking pics.

I will be teaching the way I work and how to create emotion in your photos and incorporate fashion into your portraits this summer in Paris at the Picture This Workshop !! I’d love you to join me.. For the full story check here.

I would love to hear if you thought this helpful..

“I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.??? Steve jobs

PS: If you know a photographer who might like to learn more about combining fashion and portraiture please feel free to share..x

Check out my Portrait Lightroom Presets here.

Parisian Urban Bride

La Contessa – Portrait Shoot Paris

Creating A Young Opera Singer’s Portfolio

A Parisian Ballgown On A Budget

What I learnt Shooting These Photos At The Moulin Rouge

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