Stop Traffick photo shoot

Emily of Stop Traffick Fashion, which sells bags, jewelry, and soon clothing (woo-hoo!) made by survivors of human trafficking, asked a couple of her friends to model for a photo shoot. Being the vain, attention-seeking ham that I am, I immediately said yes!

We set out early on a very rainy Saturday morning to get our hair and make-up done by Millicent at The Wild Hare Salon. Millicent also happens to be a fine artist, and has written a children’s book that I’m trying to convince her to self-publish. We left the salon looking pretty hot, if I do say so myself.

The shoot was held at Bromwell’s (though finding a location was–as always– the cause of some drama for poor Emily).  At street level, Bromwell’s looks like an unassuming fireplace showroom.  Wrong! As many times as I’ve walked past that building, I never knew about the fun stuff going on above the store. I really need to start looking UP.

We dragged our stuff inside, took the old (I’m talking hand-operated old) elevator up to artist Evan Hildebrandt‘s studio on the 3rd floor, and started to get settled in.

Photographer and fine artist Colin (who, coincidentally enough, went to school with Millicent! ) took the time to show us around, and let me tell you, this place is huge. And gorgeous. Loads of natural light comes in through the insanely large windows, the original wood floors are still in place, there are old safes and unused elevator shafts and metal roll-down gates that serve as reminders of the building’s dusty-but-not-forgotten history.

We put on some music and Colin started shooting, which meant I had to hold in my stomach and try to keep my eyes from crossing. I tried to pay attention to what he was doing with lighting and angles and whatnot since I need to learn this stuff, but honestly, sucking my tummy in and willing my hair not to frizz took all of my concentration.

Luckily, the other girls didn’t seem to have those problems. Emily even braved the fire escape in the rain and wind and heels, which just goes to show how dedicated she is. You couldn’t drag me onto my fire escape on a sunny day in the middle of June.

We used as much of the building as possible, including the rear stairwell (complete with peeling paint–score!), Bromwell’s art gallery on the 2nd floor, and the amazing 4th floor living space of Bromwell’s owners, the McLorey family. I’d be insanely jealous if they weren’t so darn gracious. Hmmph.

We took a crepe break between takes, and were pretty pooped by the time we finished the shoot more than six hours later, at exactly four o’clock. My camera was tired too, as it ran out of batteries just as I realized I wasn’t in any of my pictures.  Ah, well. It was bound to happen sooner or later.

What did you do last weekend?