one ivy crescent

i had an idea several months ago for our christmas card. we have been talking about different ways to execute the idea and it finally came to fruition this week. pb has a christmas special going on...and about to end...for clients to have their photos made and chirstmas cards designed by him. the ones he has created this season are very cool. (product endorsement time: if you missed out on this spectacular deal with kelly moore photography, sign up for it next year!) in the midst of all of his busyness the past few weeks, we managed to shoot our part of the photo on tuesday evening and wil and em's part yesterday morning. i should have taken a video of both shoots. i have to say this will go down in our book as one of the greatest memories of thanksgiving break.

our shoot: i love pb's studio at night. the street lights on 2nd avenue and the lights on the old walking bridge light the place up in such a great way. (product endorsement #2: stop by kelly moore photography studio, located in the hawthorne suites building on 2nd avenue, and see his gallery. his portrait wall changes each february and you might recognize some of your friends or their children on it.) it feels very urban, and other than rome-ish in there at night. he was working so i arrived around 5:30 with our clothes and props, beer and wine. we had to make this fun! he had it all set up, cranked up some jay-z for me, and we started shooting. i am not naturally a ham in front of the camera like pb or em, so it took some coaxing from behind the camera to get me into it. i like the behind the scenes role a little more...playing the role of the stylist for the shoot. a dream.
pb on the other hand was just as comfortable in front of the camera as he is behind it. he doesn't necessarily "ham it up" either, but he is relaxed. we spent about an hour shooting and looking at the images. we got excited because we could see that our idea was going to work. after we wrapped things up, we walked to harvest moon for dinner...in our christmas card get ups.

wil and em's shoot: these two have no problem getting stoked about having their pictures made. they really didn't know what we had planned for them but they knew our inspiration was the j. crew catalog. they were bouncing off the walls when we arrived at the studio. i was carrying all of the clothes and they had their respective props. pb reviewed the rules for the shoot...watch out for the cords, don't touch the lights, careful for the backdrop, etc.
em went first and loved every minute her her time in front of the camera. we had some beyonce blaring for her background music. we had to tell her it was time to stop so wil could have a turn. he was eager to pose as well. there was a lot of hair flipping and cool stares with his bass guitar in hand...he loosened up even more when he had his 2nd turn with the lacrosse stick as a prop. he requested empire state of mind for his tune. it was hilarious. pb shooting as fast as he could and me running in and out of the set pinning clothes back, tucking in half of a shirt tail for the slouchy look, straightening hair, taking away wads of gum...you know, doing what the stylist does!
when we finished with the shoot and checked out the photos, we knew we had what we wanted. they nailed it.

pb worked on the design and i have to give a shout out to gk as well. she is the master photoshop expert extraordinaire. it is all of those final tweaks that made 4 separate photos merge into one impeccable christmas card. our concept was achieved and we must say, the final product is spot on.

so this is the behind the scenes account of our 2-day photo shoot, christmas card design project. stay tuned for the unveiling of the final work of art.