Meet Kylie!

She is one of my favorite girls.  Artsy.  Fun.  Smart.  Adorable.  And obviously, she is very photogenic.

So I was super excited to schedule an outdoor portrait session with Kylie.  Our schedules finally clicked and we met in our small town of Ford City, PA.  I grew up in this town and have always loved the brick streets, industrial vibe, and ethnic townspeople.  My goal was to capture a bit of this town's essence in the images and still highlight Kylie's absolute beauty.

We began our session at the fountain area of a small park in the heart of Ford City.  

And moved to the brick street nearby.

Now, just take a moment and gaze at these images.  Holy cow!!!!  Can you saw "nailed it"?  The evening sun cast the perfect light.  Kylie's best friend, Holly, provided all the glitz and bling as the make-up artist extraordinaire!  And Kylie dressed to perfection - every outfit accentuated her curves and style. 

Kylie adores her Boxer and asked to have a few shots of them together.  What a dog!  Isn't that photo adorable?

Now you may ask:  "where did that Ratrod come from?"  And I would answer: "from out of nowhere!"

This may have been the most bizarre turn of events I have ever experienced while shooting a session.  Picture me up on a ladder (see the pic above) and Kylie half way down a brick street wearing a black tight mini dress and heels.  Behind Kylie, on the next street over, I spy a really cool vintage truck cruising past and my photographer's mind's eye screams "we gotta use that as a prop".  So, in true crazy photographer fashion, I yell to Kylie to stop that truck and ask if we could use it as a prop for just a shot or two.  No harm asking, right?

Ironically, the man driving the truck had just leaned over to his wife and said (prior to my idea) "I am going to offer these girls my truck to use in their photos".  And there you have it....our very own custom-built RatRod vintage truck.  The driver graciously moves the truck in to position for me and takes a spot over on the sidewalk with his wife and Holly to watch. We now have a side street in town completely blocked off from traffic while we play.  And, oh, did we play.  And thankfully the local police officer who drove past didn't mind us using the street! 

I am in awe.  Everything is just perfect.   But there's just this one minor detail...

Oh yeah, it's this dude sitting on the roof top of a building on the street we are shooting on.  From his vantage point, he sees one very smokin' hot lady dressed to the nines parading around on the street below looking like a super model.  And he is in awe.  And out comes his cell phone and snap, snap, snap goes the shutter.  I am betting there are quite a few "bootleg" images of Kylie floating around his circle of friends on social media.  Too funny!  He enjoyed the rooftop view while we gals below continued our photo shoot.

After a couple hours of posing and smiling on the street, Kylie had just two more photo requests.  She had shown me a print she brought home from Ireland:  a Guinness beer ad and she really wanted to try to replicate and honor the pose and idea.  Guinness should be flattered!  So Holly and I did our best to get her face, neck, shoulders, sweater, lips, glass, eyes, hat (whew) all just right!  It was a team effort and the result was absolutely perfect!

Kylie actually posted this image on the Guiness Facebook page and garnered a response from them:

Guinness  Looks great, Kylie. We’re so impressed, we’d love to send you a goblet glass just like the one in the original photo. Drop us a message.

Swoon....I am just so pleased with the entire session, the images, and the overwhelming positive feedback that both Kylie and I have received from friends, family, and peers.  Likely, this session will go down in history as one of my most favorite and original ones of all time!  I want to thank both Kylie and Holly for really giving their all to make this session what it was - perfect!

Holly Bowser is an exceptional hair stylist and make up artist.  Kylie was in very good hands!

And last but not least, never ever take for granted a friendship that is built on love, trust, and compassion.  I think this final image says it all....true friends for life