Seniors 2011 - Kayla

On Saturday I had my first senior portrait session of the summer.  Kayla's actually graduating this year (2011) not next, but she needed senior portraits done, so I was glad to help!  She's a cool kid who likes zombies and is going to go to school to be a chef.  Because Kayla's so awesome and she and her mom were so prompt in coming to review the photos from our session, I let her pick which would go on the blog.  So here ya go, Kayla!  Facebook away!

Her cat, Tigger, is huge compared to my two little kitties.  I swear he was almost as big as Kayla and it was pretty adorable.  This shot is the only one like it and everyone (everyone being Kayla, her mom and myself) thinks it just awesome.

We also did some chef portraits in the studio.  Kayla and I were getting along pretty well because we seem to have a similar sense of humor and she ended up "executing" a stuffed cow she brought along to the shoot and then serving him up on a giant spatula.  So horrible, yet so very funny.

After all that ridiculousness, we went to the park for some outdoor shots.  What we didn't realize was that there was a Relay for Life benefit or some such thing going on, so decided against our original plan of bringing her fake gravestone and zombie head along with us.  It might have scared the hundreds of people who aren't normally there.  So instead we did some pretty normal shots, as well as a few variations on an idea she had gotten from a book cover.

I LOVE the tree/leaf idea; it turned out so well.  You did great, Kayla.

Beauty Shoot

Today I had an "event" sort of thing that turned out really well!!  I'm quite proud of my organizing skills, actually.  My friend Jessica North is a hair stylist/MUA but due to health complications hasn't been able to do much recently.  To celebrate her recovery, we had a beauty day and some models came over.  She did hair and makeup and I photographed them.  It was really fun!!

First shoot of the day was with Alex.  I did her senior pictures last year, so it was fun to see her again and talk about how college going for her.  She brought her sister Kacie with her too, who was my helper in getting great smiles out of Alex.  Kacie also stepped in for a few cute sister pictures.  Jessica put Alex's hair in these beautiful soft curls and gave her bright red lipstick.  I think she ended up looking a bit like Sandy from Grease, when she gets the makeover.  It was great!

Second model of the day was Kelsey, one of my sister's friends.   I love Kels, she's an AMAZING model, despite the fact that she doesn't actually model much.  She's also a pretty cool kid, and works at the tattoo shop I got my camera half-sleeve at.  And where I need to go to get it finished.  Kelsey was, by the way, my vampire pin-up, which remains to this day one of my absolute favorite photoshoots ever.

Next was Olivia, another of Christy's friends.  I did her senior pictures, too, actually.  Liv is adorable, and can pull off the 80s look amazingly well, so we put her in a pink sweater I just finished knitting last night and Jessica gave her this poofy side pony-tail and bright eyeshadow to match the sweater.  The total effect was too cute.  At one point during her shoot, my punk rocker friend Adam wandered in to pick Kevin up for band practice and I made him pose with her for two quick frames.  He wasn't really sure what was going on, but it looked pretty sweet.

Last official shoot of the day was Kara, who is erich's DJ friend Trix (not my friend Trix)'s sister.  She messaged me on Model Mayhem awhile back, so I invited her to our event.  She has a super cool asymetrical haircut, so Jessica put the longer side in tight curls, slicked back the other side and spiked out the back.  It looked gorgeous.  She ended up holding Kaleigh's dog Mickey for a little bit and it turned out really cute.

Mickey also got his own little photoshoot, which was extremely difficult as he had no desire to stay on the background.  I managed to get a couple insanely adorable pictures of the little pokemon though.  http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-bw/506.shtml  <-- click this link.  I'm telling you, this dog looks JUST LIKE the pokemon Lillipup.  And yes, I'm 23 and still play Pokemon.  It is awesome.

Jessica left after Kara's session - she was exhausted after a long day!  I was tired too, but after taking a quick look through the day's images, got my energy back.  Trix (my friend, not Kara's brother) did makeup for herself as well as me and we had a dance party to Lady Gaga and Kesha and took pictures of each other.  It was was really silly and very fun, and we got IHOP after.  Definitely a good (and productive) day!  I am going to sleep well.

PS I'm super in love with this pic Trix took of me and my tiger rug with her iPhone (I WANT ONE!)

Creeps and Cars

A couple weeks ago, I photographed horrorpunk band Blitzkid.  Yesterday, I photographed a pretty girl with a sexy car.  Let's review!!

Blitzkid played at The Fallout Shelter, where I bartend.  It's fun when they come through - they bring a big crowd and are pretty cool dudes.  This time around was singer/guitarist TB Monstronsity's last show, which was a huge deal and kind of depressing.  I got to take some portraits of the rest of the band.

It was the first time I got to use the gigantically long black backdrop Trix gave to me (aside from test shots with her earlier in the day), so I was excited.  Plus two light setups are still kind of new and shiny.

So yeah, there's that.


Yesterday, I did a super-gorgeous shoot with a model named Shannon and an Audi R8.  This translates into:  I hung out at and got to shoot in the Audi dealership.  COOL!  They even gave me tea.

And yes, I know that girl-with-car shoots are amazingly cliche.  But this one.....this car.....well, see for yourself.

Senior Model 2012 Application

2012 Senior Model Application for elena dee photography

Here’s what you need to do:

Be graduating from high school in 2012.
Be fun, friendly, have great style, and bring props!
Be comfortable in front of the camera.
Tell everyone you know about elena dee photography.
Have your parent or guardian sign a model release form.
Agree to have your senior portraits done by and represent ONLY elena dee photography.





Here’s what you get:

A FREE senior portrait photo session, that must be shot by May 1st, 2011.  You have the option to shoot again before October 1st for half off the session.
A CD of 10 lo-res images with the elena dee photography logo on them to use on sites such as Facebook.
Model cards with your image on the front (your friends get 12 free wallets for turning them in!)
Free mini book of your images


I will only choose two models from each high school, so not everyone will be selected.  You can email applications to elena@elena-dee.com or inbox me at facebook.com/elenadee.


Name:   __________________________________

Address: _____________________________________________________

Phone: ____________________   Email: ____________________________

School:  _____________________________________     GPA: _______

Facebook?  ________________________


Hobbies/Extracurriculars: 







Why do you want to be a senior model for elena dee photography?







Describe your style and personality:








How did you hear about elena dee photography?







Anything else?  Dreams?  Goals?  Fun facts?  I want to get to know you!

Recap of last month

I know, I know, I haven't updated in a ridiculous amount of time.  Like, 6 weeks.  Ooops.  So let's recap!!

Mid-February, I photographed Danielle and Jason's wedding.  Beautiful wedding and you should see this dress!!!  Oh wait, you can.

Gorgeous, right?!

Almost immediately after that I got the flu, so was out of commission for about a week.  It was terrible, but I'm better now and ready to shoot!

Got a new Alien Bee B400 (it's pink like my hair!) in at the beginning of last month, so that's been crazy exciting.  So far I've taken pictures of my brother, myself, Trix, and my friend Artie's insanely adorable little girl Rowan.  Gotta say, February was (aside from that whole flu misery) a pretty good month!

First Shoot of the Year - Lady Sutton

As I mentioned in my post while in San Antonio (which was amazing!), I recently photographed a model from New York called Lady Sutton.  She's a friend of Trix Morgan's so of course she's pretty damn cool.  We had a Victorian Gothic-esque shoot that started out very prim and proper with a top hat and ribbons and then it moved into a bit of a love affair between Sutton and her hat.

We were shooting my new studio room because my friend Emily moved into the old one.  This room is larger, but has things like filing cabinets and a copy machine in the way, so it's a bit more difficult.  HOWEVER, I am able to do things like side light people in the new room, so I'm happy, despite the battle to put the soft box where the filing cabinet is.  Filing cabinet usually wins this fight.  Copier, however, is a little more movable.  And the new space has room for when I manage to buy another Alien Bee.  I really really want one and now that my trip to San Antonio is over,  I'm hoping to have enough money to get one soon.

I'm also hopefully moving in the spring.  If that happens, it will be to an actual house, not just an apartment and I won't have to compete with copier machines and filing cabinets for studio space.  Said office supplies also tend be exactly where I would really like to put a light, so I kind of hate them.   Having a whole room all to myself is going to be super exciting (and professional!), guys.

Kisses!!!

ImagingUSA 2011 - San Antonio

I'm writing this from the Emily Morgan Hotel in downtown San Antonio.  Loving the name of the hotel, as two of my best friends are Emily (aka werewolf girl) and model Trix Morgan.  San Antonio is a pretty awesome city with great places to go to, and because we got here a few days early to stuff the bags that all the attendees get, I got a chance to explore.  There's an AMAZING sushi restaurant called Sushi Zushi; the Korova, a bar which gets its name from A Clockwork Orange; and a pretty intense mall.  There's also the Alamo, which is directly across the street from the hotel (super weird that it's just this little building in the middle of a big city and right next to the mall.  I'd kind of expected it to be secluded in the desert), and the River Walk.  Everyone was saying "oh, you have to go to the River Walk while you're there!!"  Yeah.  It's true, even if partly because it's pretty difficult to avoid.  For example, it's easier to get to the mall food court from the convention center by using the River Walk than by taking the street.  It's a pretty neat little walk though, and I'll probably take some pictures of it tonight.

Speaking of shooting, earlier today I got out my tripod and photographed a bit of the ImagingUSA Expo (trade show).  Once I get back to Pittsburgh, I'll put the pictures up.  Also when I get back, I'll do what I meant to do before I left for San Antonio and put up a nice little blog about my first photoshoot of the year with Lady Sutton.  She's a friend of Trix's from New York and super awesome, so of course the two of us had to combine forces and make great images.  But she'll get her own blog post, so back to the photo conference.

I've been learning a good bit at Imaging.  Some of the classes have been kind of lame - a lot of it's basic stuff that I already know (like have a facebook page and tag clients in images of them), but it's good for refreshers and reminders, and I've gotten some cool ideas too.  It's also pretty nice to see when the speakers go over things I've been doing, because it gives me hope that I'm doing something right and once I get my name out there a little more, clients will come calling.

Confession: I'm really REALLY hard on myself and because photography is so much who I am, I tend to get  depressed when I have troubles building my business.  Not sure you guys knew that.  But coming to ImagingUSA is definitely a spirit lifter - a reminder that I AM just starting out and WILL succeed.  I'm good, and I'm on the right track.  This might be my last year as a member of the Student Photographic Society and as student volunteer, but there's no way it's my last year of Imaging.  Tomorrow is the last day of the conference, but New Orleans next year, yeah!!!