rooms(s) in our home for photo ops-your input requested...

[chanteuseCarey]

I've gotten tired of having pics taken of me wearing my vintage garb shot in front of a white bedroom door!

After seeing many FL who's pics are taken of themselves in their rooms and outside- I wanna do that too! Our home is not necessarily vintage in its decor but could be called perhaps vintage-inspired in its look/style?? I refer to the decor of our interiors and design of the gardens as English Garden/English style. Its a small but sweet house, and it is truly US as a family! Very different than how others we know decorate.

I invite all to look up my Picture Trail album of recent house pics showing the interior design of the rooms. Especially the living room inside, I think could be very nice as a backdrop for photos.

Please let me know what you think...

Also peruse the album of our front and back gardens. The front yard has most of the roses, including a metal gazebo. The garden pics shown are from 2007. The sides of the gazebo are now completely covered in roses. The front beds you see are from when we first redid the front with the brick area, the beds around the gazebo are now entirely filled in with roses and boxwood around the edges. In high summer you cannot see the front of the house for the roses.

Here a couple of pics of the living room, there is now a vintage steamer trunk in the corner down from the piano- at the window with the antique french desk, along with a small vintage suitcase. Could be a nice corner for photo ops... the fireplace would be nice to use too.

Here is the link to the two albums:
http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/16374882
http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/16117284
BTW, our home's exterior is painted periwinkle blue with white trim with a custom made spindle fence that DH and I built... We say we are the brightest house on the block! When looking for our house, we tell people to start to drive down our street, and just look for the house with all the ROSES!

 

[AmateisGal]

I, for one, LOVE your house! That's the kind of style I want to have whenever I buy a house someday. For now, I'm just trying to get my apartment to look that way as much as possible.

 

[chanteuseCarey]

to get the look...

Thank you AmateisGal! fftopic: I have two fav MZ, one store, a few books to recommend as they helped us fine tune what we wanted to do here.

For maybe five or six years I saw no pictures of rooms painted or done anything like ours, UNTIL I came across English Home magazine. Their interiors looked like mine! The walls had pastel colors, there were flowers on fabrics-yippee! They had colorful gardens, and roses! I have gotten it and The English Garden mz (by same company) for the last 3 or so years, even culling several back issues on evilBay.

The store- Ethan Allen. After looking and looking, where we found a place that had floral fabrics! Hallelujah! Have several pieces from them, including all the drapery treatments. The best.

Good books; Bring it Home ENGLAND by Cheryl MacLachlan, and DESIGNERS in Residence by the Editors of Victoria Magazine, text by Claire Whitcomb. The section by Charlote Moss in particular. I literally had my EA designer scan in lots of pages from these two books and EH mz issues so she could know what kind of look we wanted. Two other fun books, the houses shown are enormously extravagant, and the details n in the rooms are amazing. Still fun for a coffee table books (cheaper to get these on Amazon) A Passion for Blue and White by Carolyne Roehm, and A Flair for Living by Charlotte Moss.

I, for one, LOVE your house! That's the kind of style I want to have whenever I buy a house someday. For now, I'm just trying to get my apartment to look that way as much as possible.

 

[MrNewportCustom]

Speaking as a photographer, any room but the bathroom.

Also, as evidenced by the first photo, never, EVER take a photo facing perpendicular to any wall, window, mirror, door, etc. You'll notice that the flash always bites back. Always shoot at an angle of at least 30 degrees. Makes for a much nicer, less static picture. Move furniture, if you have to. The rest of your shots look great.

Absolutely beautiful home you have there!


Lee

 

[Darhling]

Try every room out! have fun, do poses and RELAX! Then look at the pics on the computer screen to see what looks best in regards to the lighting, flash/no flash etc.

But I could take my own advice, so far I have only used the hall and my dressingroom It is just a bit hard without a live-in photographer :lol:

 

[BlancheDubois]

You have a beautiful home! Thank you so much for sharing these pictures. The only thing missing in my opinion is a painted fireplace screen in florals to match the room.

This is just a lovely, lovely home, inside and out.

 

[chanteuseCarey]

thank you Blanche and Darhling...

Our home decor is really an extension of the roses and gardens in the front, back and side yards. We have brought the gardens inside! As one can tell, at our house we all love color and flowers here! We have over 100 antique and modern roses here.

Darhling, you have seen all the great photos the guys post up in the Hats section? These guys must have a tripod- cuz I think they are taking their own pics.

I am very fortunate that DH enjoys all the outfit picture taking I request him to do for me. For every posted pic, Every shot I ask for, at least four pics usually get taken and the best of the four gets to be the final selected.

 

[Foofoogal]

Our home decor is really an extension of the roses and gardens in the front, back and side yards.

This is interesting. I am in process of purchasing a home with gorgeous huge irises. I am seriously thinking of using this theme thruout my home. I am so excited.
Funny thing about roses. I see the beauty of them but less so than alot of other flowers.

 

[BinkieBaumont]

"Your Gracious drawing room is very "Colefax & Fowler" I think you need a few "Huge" flower arrangements dotted about the place, and a fur throw rug on a corner of the couch would certainly add "Luxe""

 

[Spiffy]

Hopefully helpful...

I think your best bet would be an interior location near a window. For indoor portraits natural light is simplest, as you won't need to mess with flash or rearrange the lights already existing in the room. You also wouldn't need to worry about weather, rearranging furniture everyday to get your shots if you had a set "outfit pose" area.

To mix it up a bit, why not photograph outdoors in your roses? I'm sure they are in full bloom now, and the best (if inconvenient) hours to photograph outdoors are early AM (before 10) or afternoon (after 2). This will keep your subjects from squinting and getting washed out (after all, the whole point is the outfit, no?).

Sorry if that was showoff-y or textbook-esque. I had my Digital Photography final exam today so it's all still at the top of my head.

 

[SuperKawaiiMama]

After taking my own outfit shots for a year and a half, I have learnt some valuable lessons.
All my best shots are taken outdoors, the indoor lighting can be too inconsistent what with paint throwing different colours etc..
I take most of my shots of my front veranda where there are no harsh shadows, but great diffused natural light. I also use a plant stand as a make shift tripod. But the secret weapon is the remote control. A $20 investment that pays for itself!
The other lovely thing about taking the pictures outdoors in the same place is that my readers get to see the seasons change with the outfits!

Shot at the beginning of last winter

 

[Laura Chase]

SuperKawaiiMama, your outfit shots are always excellent: vivid, elegant, informative, inspirational!

 

[SuperKawaiiMama]

SuperKawaiiMama, your outfit shots are always excellent: vivid, elegant, informative, inspirational!

Thank you so much! I've spent a lot of time on improving the caliber of what I bring to the table.

 

[AmateisGal]

Thank you AmateisGal! fftopic: I have two fav MZ, one store, a few books to recommend as they helped us fine tune what we wanted to do here.

For maybe five or six years I saw no pictures of rooms painted or done anything like ours, UNTIL I came across English Home magazine. Their interiors looked like mine! The walls had pastel colors, there were flowers on fabrics-yippee! They had colorful gardens, and roses! I have gotten it and The English Garden mz (by same company) for the last 3 or so years, even culling several back issues on evilBay.

The store- Ethan Allen. After looking and looking, where we found a place that had floral fabrics! Hallelujah! Have several pieces from them, including all the drapery treatments. The best.

Good books; Bring it Home ENGLAND by Cheryl MacLachlan, and DESIGNERS in Residence by the Editors of Victoria Magazine, text by Claire Whitcomb. The section by Charlote Moss in particular. I literally had my EA designer scan in lots of pages from these two books and EH mz issues so she could know what kind of look we wanted. Two other fun books, the houses shown are enormously extravagant, and the details n in the rooms are amazing. Still fun for a coffee table books (cheaper to get these on Amazon) A Passion for Blue and White by Carolyne Roehm, and A Flair for Living by Charlotte Moss.

Thank you for all this great info!

 

[chanteuseCarey]

thanks ladies for all your replies- first "settings" pics

Since I had on a pastel outfit that says "Spring" I decided to have these shot outside on the rear garden among the roses. The first is on the slate patio next to a pergola post and concrete Italian planter with a British Colonial style ottoman. On the post is Rosa. "Climbing Shot Silk". The second is at the tea table, in front of the side fence. White Rosa. "Sally Holmes", small pink Rosa. "Cornelia". These pics were taken about 1pm, I'm facing with the sun in my eyes unfortunately. The 40s tilt hat, peach silk hand embroidered blouse-made in China, and lt brown corde' purse are all vintage pieces.

 

[chanteuseCarey]

Thank you for your input Binkie...

I have this book. Just wish I had the square footage like he did to work with, though his own home was quite small. I also have the Georgian interiors book by Henrietta Spencer Churchill. I do call it my drawing room! I've thought about adding a throw on the couch... I'll want to test out flower arrangements first as the room is fairly small. Any suggestions as to where in the room to put them?

"Your Gracious drawing room is very "Colefax & Fowler" I think you need a few "Huge" flower arrangements dotted about the place, and a fur throw rug on a corner of the couch would certainly add "Luxe""