I had the utmost joy to photograph the beautiful Erica in this recent Paris Film Noir shoot.
Now I love a challenge as much as anyone and this beautiful gal studied medieval tapestry and wanted to use the medieval as a creative starting point for her shoot.
To be quite honest, medieval Paris is not exactly my forté but what a great opportunity to get to know and to be inspired by a new world, idea, and her individual story.
And what a dream it was to photograph the beautiful, joyous, creative energy of this girl that was was made for the camera.
We went through the gamut from Game of Thrones to the ultimate Parisian girl and no matter what she did she was fabulous.
I skipped home that day, so very happy with the world, the chance to express a little more of what is bubbling up creatively inside of me and to have had one of the most divine mornings in Paris with my crew and Erica.
Huge thanks to Erica for allowing me to share these photos…
Light and love,
Carla
P.S. If you would like to be captured in a Paris Film Noir shoot and express your creative muse, you can check the details HERE.
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.
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 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.
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!
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?
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!
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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..
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.
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