Love

The month of February is going to be all about love. Self love, romantic love, platonic love... This Valentine's season, we are launching our Love Yourself campaign. You have until February 14th to book a session, for that day or any other day, if you want to participate!

 Be my Valentine

Is this for couples only? No! If you are a guy, book a glamor session for your partner and join her at the end for images together; if you are single, book a session for yourself and fall in love with your image again; if you are feeling adventurous book an in-the-sheets session and gift the images to your partner; if you are part of an all-female-couple book a session for both of you together, if you want to treat your parents book a session for them to thank them for loving you and send them to the studio on Valentine's Day to experience it together... The possibilities are endless!

How much does it cost? Lightfolly is know for the experience we offer to our clients, as well as the stunning images we produce. For $99 you will get a portrait session, wardrobe consultation, hair styling, makeup artistry, and a treat of chocolates and champagne for one lucky lady (or couple) who chooses to get photographed ON Valentine's Day! With your portrait order you will also receive our hot seller, the modern 8x12 metal desk portrait (valued at $210).

How do I book? Call us at 307-703-8118 or visit our page www.lightfolly.com/contact.html and send us a message. We can't wait to celebrate the love with you!

**We are giving away UNLIMITED sessions at this value from now until Valentine's Day. Send this link ( http://lightfolly.blogspot.com/2016/01/love.html ) to your partners, sisters, and friends to share the news!**

Before it's too Late

​A little bit over a year ago I started photographing women in a glamour style. It was a timid step on a journey that began with asking my friends to be my models so I could practice and I could build a portfolio. I have wonderful friends! The style had been done before and I wasn't sure my tiny city had an interest for it. But I loved it and had to give it a try, before it was too late for me.

Taken at Shambhala Mountain Center

July 2009

One morning I was at Lila's house, talking about the session we would have together, when her friend and upstairs neighbor stopped by to borrow an egg. I had met her a couple of weeks ago at Lila's baby shower: a relocated "southamerican" like myself, Rose was loud and passionate and the mother of an adorable 5-year-old redhead. She said:

-Oh so you are going to take people's photos?

-I do- I replied. Now I want to specifically make images of women.

-Pregnant women?- she clarified, incredulous.

Oh was I going to see that expression in the faces of others over and over after that day:

-Not just. I want to celebrate women and encourage them to have portraits of themselves.

-Oh that sounds great!- she said. I had photos with a local photographer when I was pregnant. My mother-in-law made me do it, although I didn't see the point at the time. I was huge, tired, uncomfortable in my body... but I went and I had such a miserable experience. The photographer was rough and impatient, and at the end she charged my mother-in-law a fortune for a tiny, horrific framed image of me. At first I wished I had waited and had done images with my baby instead, but after the fact I was glad it was done with.

-I'm sorry you had to go through that. I think most women who have children see the point in having their kids photographed but have a hard time imagining themselves in portraits. I want to change that. And I want the images to come with an experience to match. I would love to show you what I do. Do you want to do a portfolio-building session with me?

It didn't take as much convincing as one might think after the experience she had had. She was sold on the idea of having images for free, and since her and her family were moving to a different state two month later, we had to do it quickly. I looked at my then flexible schedule on my calendar and booked her for a session two weeks later: she was going to be my first model. I say "WAS going to be" because a week later she called me to apologize for having to cancel our session. The move had creep up on her and she had no time. Besides, she didn't really NEEDED any images of herself. I told her I understood, and I did, but the truth is I was disappointed. I took that one step back as a sign that maybe this city wasn't ready for it (imagine that!). I encouraged her to look for a beauty photographer once she settled in Texas and went on to prepare for my other sessions rather sluggishly. The weeks went by, I photographed my three friends and had two sets of models scheduled to test a couple of hair stylists and makeup artists... life moved on  for me.

One evening, a month after my canceled session with Rose, I got a call from Lila, who I had photographed the week before:

-Hey! Your images are not ready yet, lady- I said

-That's not why I'm calling- she replied- I wanted to tell you Rose passed away. She had a heart attack. Jack called me to see if I had any images of her that he could use for the church service.

I was stunned. Six weeks before, I had sat at a table with this woman and we had talked about life, and living abroad, and the full-of-life images I was going to make of her. Images she would love and could pass on to her son. She was 40 years old. This didn't make sense.

I didn't know Rose very well, but I know Lila and they were close. I walked with my friend through her grief, and her fears as she birthed her baby into a world were death comes without warning. I held my own children tight. And I took that experience of not having had the chance to give Rose's family the last images of her as a sign that I had to photograph women. Passionately and unwaveringly.

After my next cancellation from a dancer friend, almost a year later, was followed by an accident in her house that injured her back and left her temporary paralyzed (she has since then fully recovered!), I am not hesitant anymore to insist when people want to cancel. To do everything on my end to ensure that women give their portrait session the priority it deserves. Of course in the great scheme of things, of life and death, of being able to walk, see, hear, of wars and famine, spending time and money on an experience and a product such as photos may seem superficial. But it is the mind behind the thought of wanting to have a portrait session with me what I find transformative, and it is what I want people to follow and commit to. Because a person that wants beauty, who gives half the time and care necessary to invest in this experience, who wants to have heirlooms to pass on to generations that will remember her mostly for her actions, and who have the courage to follow through, can only make the world a better place by extending that mind to everything she does.

muses

When I have encounters with my muses, those sources of inspiration for my work, I can see a glimpse of Muse. How else can there not be a God-like quality to their work?

I draw inspiration for my life from a handful of people, but when it comes to my work, the genius comes from so many sources I couldn't count them: creative director Joy Thigpen inspires me to listen to my simple eye and concept when photographing; creative coach April Bowles-Olin reminds me that I can (and must!) live the life I want with my business as a part of it; designer Joy Cho encourages me to not be shy when expressing my love for colors... academia focused my brain and these women (and sometimes men) remind me to open it up and let it fly...

Today I want to share with you the photographers that inspire my images. Some of them I have followed for quite a while. Others I have recently discovered. They come from all styles and genres and although you probably can't see immediately the influence of their work in mine, if you stick around this year (and specially if you start following them yourself) you'll see a glimpse of Susan's composition, Annie's simplicity, Ray's freshness, and Sue's vintage, creamy look in my own images.

Also, I am pinning images of these photographers, one per week, throughout the entire month of January, so follow me on Pinterest and check it every Thursday to see more of these muses at work.

Annie Leibovitz
She revolutionized the world of contemporary portraits with bold, simple images of celebrities. She gave the cover of Rolling Stones Magazine its signature look. She is famous for, among many others,  the nude image of Demi pregnant, the controversial photo shoot of Miley, and the portrait of Yoko and John the day he was murdered. Annie uses simple lighting set-ups and connects with her subjects in a personal, deep way that permeates through her portraits.

Susan Stripling
She is my favorite wedding photographer out there. She has a self-tought eye and a sense of composition that gives her portraits of brides and couples a fantasy vibe. Her composites are genius, airy and dreamy. She gets inspiration for her simple lighting set-ups from old Japanese horror movies, but when shooting in natural light she finds that light even when it is barely there, and diffuses it away almost magically when there is too much of it. Susan is a courageous woman, both in her life and in her photography.

Ray Collins
This Australian man is living the life and has found a way to get payed to share his view of the world from an angle that's not accessible to most humans. His affair with the camera started 5 years ago when he started photographing his surfer friends in the water. Today he raises before the sun to photograph waves and the way the ocean interacts with man. His images are monumental, powerful, full of life. Ray is in the waves and with the waves, and the connection he has made with the salty water can't be missed in his photographs.

Sue Bryce
Sue is not only my muse, she is my mentor, and from her I learned the bulk of my knowledge when it comes to photographing women. She has been doing glamour photography for 25 years, never stopping even when the industry did, and she has now mastered a creamy and vintage signature look for her images that is all about connection. Sue will photograph women until the day she dies. She knows how to enhance, build up, and empower women before, during, and after they are in front of her lens. I will never get tired to learn and be inspired by this woman.

5 Secrets to Look Fabulous in Pictures

When women I meet find out I photograph women, an overwhelming majority offers a comment along the lines of: I'm not photogenic. I used to tell that to myself until I learned 5 little secrets to get the camera to love me. Today I want to share them with you.

The main secret is to trick the camera to see your best features. If you stand there and smile you may get an image of yourself you love, but it'll probably be more for its candid nature than for the way your body looks. For that, you have to follow the general guidelines that the camera will enlarge, and it will enlarge more anything that it "sees" first, meaning anything that protruding towards it.

1) Your stance: get that hourglass
To show the camera you have a waist, the secret is to create a bend on it. For that, spread your legs a little and put your weight on one leg, bending the knee on the other leg. If you are slim, face the camera and choose either leg. If you are curvy place one leg in front of the other and put your weight on your back leg. For extra shape, stand 45 degrees to the camera, to present a thinner slice of yourself.

Why does this work? It makes your hip stick out either to the side (creating curves if you don't have them) or behind you (minimizing your curves). 

2) Your torso: bring your head closer to the camera and open the neck
If you are heavier on top, bend at the waist a little. Make sure to bend and not hunch. If you are standing at 45 degrees, add lowering your front shoulder.

Why does this work? When you bend at the waist you are sending your hips even further away from the camera and also getting your head closer to it, minimizing the size of your breasts. When you lower your front shoulder you create space between it and the chin, elongating the neck.

3) Your arms: either follow your body line or create open space
If you are slim, you can choose either of these. If you are heavier on the hips, place your hands on the front of your legs and slowly slide them up and around towards your hips, all along imaging you are trying to pin the elbows behind you. This is perhaps the hardest of all the poses.
If you are trying to accentuate your waist, place your hands on it. Make sure to place your hands on your actual waist (which is the narrowest part of your torso), as opposed to the hips, where our hands naturally go. And for an even more dramatic effect, bring your hands closer together in the front.

Why does this work? When we place our arms by our sides, the eye follows their line which is "mocking" an hourglass. Additionally, the hands cover that spot at the top of our legs where it is hard to realistically have a smooth hourglass shape. When we put our hands on our waist we create space between our body and our arms; which emphasizes the idea of space.

4) Your hands: face them away
You may have noticed a pattern here, and the hands are no exception. Try to always have the hands sideways or turned 45 degrees away from the camera.

Why does this work? The hands will look slimmer and more slender when they are not facing the camera because the general widening effects of the lens ate minimized. One extra tip about hands? Relax them! Fists, claws, and stiff hands all make you look older and/or less flattering.

5) Your chin: forward and down
After making sure you are standing nice and tall, and relaxing your shoulders, elongate the neck towards the camera. Yup. Just like a turtle. Make sure to not lift your chin as you do it; simply stretch it out. Then bring your chin slightly down. If you have a full face, bring it down even further. One exception: if you are going for that supermodel look, lift that chin up. But not all can get away with this one (I can't)!

Why does this work? Elongating your neck takes care of your double chin. If you go too far out or fail to relax your shoulders, it won't work. It will still look a little awkward until you bring your chin down, and it will dreadful from the side, but that's not where the camera is so don't worry! Bringing the chin down had the added benefit to open your eyes and allow you to connect with the camera. You will have to practice in the mirror to see how far to go: it is different for every face. 

That's it. No plastic surgery, no Photoshoping, no magic. Well, yes, try it and you'll see that there is a little bit of magic taking place.

Joyful Robin

Yes, you guessed it. Robin is the skilled hand behind the hair transformations in Lightfolly's portraits. During regular hours she works at Luna Salon & Spa, and as part of our team she explores her creative side and brings Medusas and Rapunzels to life. But this blonde bundle of Joy wanted to be on the other side of the camera, both to make images of herself that she could cherish but also to have a taste of the experience our clients go through. She was fun and flirty and bold and she reminded me of how important it is to play and to let go of the idea we have of ourselves. And of others.

Robin moved back to Laramie to be near her mom around the same time I moved here, 2.5 years ago. It is not surprising that in such short time she found her niche, her community, and her family: an adorable puppy and an adventurous man. They do yoga together and share take-out on late nights, after this workaholic beauty leaves the salon. She is learning to balance her life and she is managing to enjoy it as she does.

Robin's legs are extraordinary. Her body is strong and luscious. Her lips are full and sexy. But above all, Robin has a presence and a look that wakes you up. There are few things more cheer-inducing than her pink lips. Look at that smile!