A Photo Shoot with my Favorite Girl

Okay, so I admit it. I totally ambushed my daughter on Wednesday afternoon. The temperature was a balmy 75 degrees, and there was a cold front due to blow in the next day, bringing winter temperatures along with it for the next few weeks. I had ordered a traditional Chinese Hanfu dress for her a few weeks ago to take some photos in. I got the idea after my portrait class at the zoo ended up in a high fashion Asian shoot with models at the beginning of October. So with a nod to her heritage, I ordered two dresses: one very traditional and the other more modern. One has yet to arrive, but I received the hanfu dress a week or so ago. I casually mentioned it to her over dinner one night. I am not sure she thought I was actually serious about the whole thing. However, with the last day of warm weather upon us, I had to take the bull by the horns and be ready to move fast when she came home from school. This involved getting props…a Chinese fan and a lantern with fairy lights. It also involved getting makeup for Lily. We obviously don’t have the same color palette, and she has worn make up maybe a handful of times. She walked in the door and I asked told her we were taking these pictures today and we had to hurry because with the time change last weekend, we had less than an hour and a half to get ready and get these done. There may have been a few “Whoa, what are you doing exactly?” comments coming from Lily as I started tying up her hair and putting in the jade pins. Then came the make up and jade earrings and necklace that are mine from when we lived in Asia. Then I said a small internal prayer that the dress would fit and started wrapping her up in it and then tying the waistband of the skirt. Luckily, she knew quite a bit about the dress itself and was pretty helpful. Then we sped off to a small wooden bridge that Tallinn and I walk over all the time about two miles from our house. We ended up having fun. There are several that turned out pretty good. I am taking a “dark and moody” photography class online right now…it is based out of my women’s photography classes I took from a group in Australia…but is being taught by a woman from Scotland. My homework this week was inside photos, so I took a few shots of Lily in her room as the last of the light started fading outside. She was a good sport about it all, even though most of the time she was complaining, she still had a smile on her face. Portrait photography is not my thing, so she was really nice to let me just practice a lot with her. By the way…it is currently 28 degrees here.