OMG I’ve just booked my own destination dream photo shoot !
I’m so excited.
I know Ashleigh is a fabulous photographer.
I get to dress up, like I rarely do (did I say rarely? I meant never) in gowns. I get to feel like a superstar. Like a model being photographed for the cover of Vanity Fair.
I am going to be pampered getting my hair and make up done. I’ve never experienced this either although I have worn eyelashes (at my dance recitals when I was in my 40’s, yep 40’s, but that’s another blog post. Or maybe you’ll see me on an episode of Jerry Springer with my kids…)
I’ll be in the beautiful city of Paris – I hear it’s beautiful- another first for me. Dancing under the Eiffel Tower at dawn...
WAIT - WHAT HAVE I DONE? I belong BEHIND the lens NOT IN FRONT!
I feel myself turning into my nightmare client….
That’s right, I have decided to walk the walk, and gift myself the experience that I encourage every woman I meet to gift to herself -- that every woman deserves a gorgeous portrait of herself, deserves to be celebrated, deserves an empowering day that she will remember for the rest of her life.
When was the last time I had a professional portrait made of myself, for myself? It was in the 1980’s, with my husband, department store style. 80’s lighting, hand under the chin. I don’t even remember why we did them, but in 1999 (or so) I had to dig that photo up for a newspaper article that I had written that needed a bio. And, like so many of us moms, I tried to get out of being in photos with my kids because something was always not perfect about me.
Now reality has set in and I have begun to experience the same emotions and thoughts you have told me you have had or will have when thinking about having your picture taken - all the insecurities, all the objections, all the reasons NOT to do it.
This blog series is my journal to let you see that even though I know what to expect - after all, I have taken many women through the experience - it is totally different when it’s happening to you (me).
So if you have ever dreamed about looking and feeling like a model and gifting yourself a day of pampering, and feeling beautiful - and having beautiful photographs as a reminder - but let that voice in your head talk you out of it,
follow along with me. You will find out you are not alone….
INSECURITY:
Wouldn’t it be better to wait until both girls are available and we can make it a girls’ day out?
Do I really want to spend this money on just me? That would certainly make the cost justifiable. Note: Because it is a destination dream shoot and my photographer is coming to Paris to photograph me, I must commit to (gulp) her 20 image package.
What am I going to do with all these photos of me anyway?
RATIONAL THINKING:
It’s not so much about 20 images, as it is about committing to a day to myself, for myself, and giving myself permission to feel beautiful and projecting that into something tangible. Something that I can take out and appreciate especially when I am having a day when my confidence needs some help. And allowing myself to be in the moment so that I can remember and reconnect with that person that I right now am not sure I have in me because “I am not photogenic. No one ever takes a good picture of me.”
Sometimes it is not all about me. It’s not so much what I am going to do with them, but about which photo of me some day my kids and grand kids will fight over. That’s not just ego, it’s reality. (Some of it is vanity – I don’t want a random snapshot of me to be what is displayed on the easel at my funeral. Or god forbid all over the news if I should go missing.) What legacy are we leaving for our families when we pass? There are decades during which I barely exist in photos.
How many of us have great photos of our grandmothers? If you do, it’s because in their era they didn’t have a camera in their pocket. Personal photographs were special occasions, artwork to be hung on the wall and enjoyed, for prosperity. Still in natural disasters, we see people saving their photographs, their personal history.
I need to show my daughters that it is alright to be proud and confident and feel beautiful enough to invest in myself in more than a selfie and snapshot. And it’s OK to have a team to help me.
It’s time to use the nice china, drink the expensive champagne sometimes, and not wait to do things or spend time with people. Or have photos made!
Do I wish I looked younger? Thinner? Both? Of course, but that’s in the next installment!
It's about shining from the inside...
Want more great tips? Subscribe to this blog, Studio 122 using the button on the right. Be the 1st to know about special events and offers!
Subscribe to our newsletter HERE.
xoxo
brenPhotography is honored by your referral of family and friends.
Thank you.
5 Comments
Apr 15, 2018, 8:55:08 PM
Marie Costello - Brenda, Looking forward to seeing the photos and hearing about your trip this is the most exciting adventure for you I have ever heard. Also looking forward to you meeting my 2 sisters, then doing the photo shoot with all 3 of us. The sisters photo will be so amazing too for all of us and then after the summer want to do a picture of all my daughters and grand daughters. Thank goodness you give such a great commercial at the networking events and to have gone to meet you at your home.
Apr 15, 2018, 8:10:56 PM
Brenda Jankowski - Hi Marie- I am so looking forward to meeting your sisters. I am sure they are as lovely as you!
Apr 15, 2018, 7:55:09 PM
Marie Costello - Brenda, Looking forward to seeing the photos and hearing about your trip this is the most exciting adventure for you I have ever heard. Also looking forward to you meeting my 2 sisters, then doing the photo shoot with all 3 of us. The sisters photo will be so amazing too for all of us and then after the summer want to do a picture of all my daughters and grand daughters. Thank goodness you give such a great commercial at the networking events and to have gone to meet you at your home.
Apr 11, 2018, 6:41:55 AM
Brenda Jankowski - Thanks Mary Fran!
Apr 10, 2018, 11:16:18 PM
Mary Fran Bontempo - First of all, yahoo!!! You're going to Paris! To be photographed! Oh, my gosh! So delighted and happy for you. And of course, as usual, you hit all of the marks in this post, telling women to invest in themselves, not as a matter of vanity (although there ain't nothin' wrong with some of that!), but as a way of preserving a legacy. We all leave one, and having a gorgeous photo to leave behind is how every woman deserves to be remembered. Well said. And have an amazing time in Paris! I'm so jealous!
xo
Mary Fran