Last year was a crazy year for Dawn Fry Photo, both for the business and in my personal life. Early in the year, my dad went into the hospital for a "routine" heart procedure, and over the course of the next couple of months, he stayed in the hospital with compounding complications. Throughout all of this, I was trying to continue to run my business, I spent a week in furthering education taking business classes, and on top of it all I was travelling back and forth the 6 hours to visit my dad. His health continued to decline, and he passed in July.
Just before his passing, we had our DFP Elite Spokesmodel Mother Daughter retreat. The retreat was truly the highlight of the year for me. My wonderful Elite level spokesmodels, their moms, a fantastic hair and makeup artist, and 2 wonderful assistants and I spent the weekend in an AMAZING luxury guest ranch and created some super creative images. We were creative, we laughed, we had fun, we relaxed, we reflected, and we enjoyed our amazing surroundings. There was good coffee, good stories, and good times. It was a wonderful weekend away with a great group of people.
Though it was an amazing time, the week after we returned my dad passed away. And because of this, it took me a long time to come back to these photos. I just couldn't bring myself to do it until now. But I am so glad I finally did, because I am so proud of this shoot. I am excited to share it with you now, in it's entirety. This will be broken up into 3 blog posts, so check back often for the latest post with new images. Here we go!
We stayed at the amazing Rancho Mirando in Fischer, TX. It's impossible to capture the massive beauty of this place in photographs. It is truly breathtaking.
We started out the weekend with a big group dinner and hang out the first night. Then the next morning the work began. We set up our photo sets, and the super talented, McKenna Bailey with Glow by Mac began working on the girls' hair and makeup.
Our first set was created in one of the beautiful rooms of the house. Before the trip, I spray-painted an ivory painter's tarp with red stripes. We added crushed red velvet side curtains (fabric bought on clearance) with ivory tassels (found in the dollar bin at Michael's craft store). The ringmaster stand was created with a metal drink bucket (found at Target). I spray painted on the red triangles and hot glued red foam stars to the white sections. By sheer luck, the vintage metal horse was part of the decor of the house.
Lori and Allye (pictured below) helped me set everything up. Lori is Mac's momma and owner of Visible Soul Photography in Houston. She is amazing. Allye is a former DFP Elite Spokesmodel from Vandegrift High School, and she came back with us to be our social media coordinator and videographer for this retreat. She was absolutely invaluable to the trip and I adore her. You will see her awesome videography work at the end of this post, and on the homepage of my website.
First up was our circus ringmaster, Morgan S., from Georgetown High School. For Morgan's costume, we rented a vintage long coat and a top hat from Austin's Lucy In Disguise. I added a small grouping of red and black feathers to the hat for a pop of color. The coat had a little bit of Steampunk flare with clock face buttons and lots of black lace. Morgan paired it with some back pants and tall boots. It looked amazing in the photos.
Morgan's portion of the shoot was just the beginning! I will post more from the other two spokesmodels in the next couple of days. In the meantime, check out this AH-MAZING video Ally created from the trip. SO. MUCH. FUN!
It makes me smile just watching it. Enjoy!
~Dawn
Dawn Fry Photo Elite Spokesmodel Retreat 2016
Austin's Dawn Fry Photo Elite Senior Spokesmodel Mother/Daughter Retreat and stylized photo shoot. Our Dark Circus Theme was created and styled by Dawn Fry and Ledda Hernandez. Set and costuming by Dawn Fry, hair and makeup by McKenna Bailey, assistance by Lori Bailey, social media and videography by Allye Brillante. Song license through Songfreedom.com
1 Comments
Jun 19, 2017, 2:10:33 PM
Christie - Great job on video Ally! Thank you Dawn for your creative vision and a memorable weekend we will never forget.