Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Good Genes – AKA Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

/ Sarah / 3 Comments

I don’t tend to get hung up on “beauty”.

For starters, the concept is subjective – thank God. While you may think blonde hair and blue eyes is the definition of beauty, someone else may go for red heads with piercing green eyes.

My grandmother was considered a beauty. She had raven black hair, flawless skin and amazing bone structure. She did dabble in modelling. We have photos of her wearing early 1950s wedding dresses, with outstanding workmanship since young brides could finally feel good about wearing a big white dress post-war. What she learned during her time as a fashion model stayed with her entire life; never look directly into the camera, never stand straight on, and never, ever leave your arms hanging down by your sides.

When I started my love affair with photography, Gramma would look at my images and even those that weren’t top-notch were deemed perfection by her. She would analyze the light, angle and emotion in the photograph and announce, “This isn’t portrait, this is a STUDY.”

This was the highest form of compliment one could hope to get. Gramma would say not everyone could be a model. There was a certain quality one needed to have; an attitude if you will, that came from an artful soul. All the foot posing and gazing into the horizon couldn’t make someone photogenic. It had to come from within.

Fast forward several decades to this past Monday. Little Sister owns and operates an environmentally responsible hair salon and spa. She wanted to promote the business and her stylists by holding a portfolio day. Five hours later we had shot six models with numerous styles. One of those models was my niece, M&M.

The irony here is that M&M was the poster girl for Tomboys growing up. She identified with animals, dogs in particular, and was the first one to dive into a snowdrift when it came time to play outside. Sign her up if you need a ball player, or want to go for a hike. But makeup? Hairspray? GLITTER??

LS wanted a highly stylized look for her models. I wasn’t sure M&M was going to buy into the idea, after all, there was a lot of primping going on.

But once I got her to myself, something happened.

and again….

Gramma would be proud….

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

/ Sarah / 1 Comment

There are very few weekends where I get to “do my own thing”. While I spend them doing things I enjoy, usually with the boys or as a family, this past weekend was all about “the girls”.

My dear friend is getting married next week in Dominican Republic, so it is only right that we celebrated her last weekend as a “free” woman with some quality estrogen time. For blogging purposes, let’s call her…. Val.

This is Val.

Don’t worry, she’s very happy about getting married. I think the veil is giving her a headache. And it’s borrowed, and every woman knows a borrowed veil can make a girl a little down in the mouth. Don’t worry, she will look happy very soon.

 This is Val’s cake. Maybe the reason she looks the way she does above, is because she never got a piece fo her cake……

This is Val, getting happy. As you can see, she is a talented person and her favorite color is blue.

This is “Chandy”. She was the hostess and is the Maid of Honor. Please excuse the poor quality of the photo – it’s an action shot as Chandy was teaching her guests the proper technique for her Smurf drink. She has a lovely home and had a great spread of food – which is the goal of every capable hostess.

 

This is Chandy’s living room. As you can see, there was a conference underway at the same time as the pedicures, which necessitated the presence of the Crackberries…. Fortunately, this took place BEFORE the Smurf drinks came out. Here you also see “Janine” and…uh…”Ellen”.

Val is happy here – it’s before the veil fell out the first of 174 times in the evening. “Jody” thinks it’s a sign of very healthy hair. Jody is Val’s stylist for her destination wedding. Yes, Val has “people”.

This is Chandy taking pictures of “The Sisters”. These two are pee-your-pants-funny and should be hired for every bachelorette party, bat mitzvah or Friday night. This camera is the one that recorded parts of the evening that you will not find here…and has hopefully been confiscated by Val….

This is Val being brave and allowing “Lesley” to fit her with false eyelashes. Val just wanted to be as aluring as Lesley. Since Lesley is the local “Lash Pusher” it only made sense that she put them on Val.

This is everybody. Everybody gathered at Val and her beau’s place before painting the town red. The plan was to hit a couple of bars…we hit one – or did it hit us back?

This is Val going to bed. You can tell she used to be a dancer – she’s so graceful! I don’t know how she got up the stairs. I don’t know how she got undressed. I do know how she got in my truck and it involved assistance. She doesn’t know…

This is Val the next morning. Look at how bright and chipper she looks! She made sure she was up and cooked a full breakfast for her out-of-town guests. Val will be a good wife! I would have told them to be quiet as they left to get their Egg McMuffin.

Congratulations to you both. Will be thinking of you next week!!!!!!