Now that Easter is over for another year, I am able to write about my experience shooting a pinup Easter shoot with Sarah from Red Leopard Photography.

I have worked with Sarah on many occasions and always have a lot of fun, share many laughs and create some beautiful images. I love how Sarah uses soft lights to create really dreamy images; she has an eye for detail and is really organized when it comes to making a shoot come together.

For this shoot, we were inspired by really old images of Easter pinup girls. We loved how funny, awkward and cute some of the images were and wanted to create our own version. We were particularly drawn towards some of the outfits the girls wore and the shadows the studio lights created. Here are some of our favourite inspiration images:

Once we had the concept, we had to figure out what outfit we would shoot. We loved the short body suits, the fur trims and the head cap with bunny ears. We didn’t know anywhere that sold anything like it so it was up to me to create the outfit from scratch. No problem right?

The only time I had to go to the fabric store was Sunday morning so I made sure I had a pattern, plan and everything ready to go. I found a 1950’s one-piece bathing suit pattern from Mrs Depew Vintage and printed it out.
Pattern link here: ‪http://mrsdepew.com/beach…/one-piece-bathing-suit.html

I used a stretch crushed velvet material from the clearance section, bought a packet of bunny ears/tail, and some pink feather trim. All of it was on sale so I was pretty happy.

I had to modify the pattern as I didn’t like how the crotch sat. I ended up cutting out the croth, turning the bottom into more of a skirt shape and made some crushed velvet underwear that was ridiculously large (because of the stretch, the fabric shrunk on the body so bigger was better). I sewed the feather trim around the bottom of the body suit, along the neckline and attached the bunny tail.

For the head piece I used one of my brother’s old hoodies as a pattern template, sewed the pieces together, added the ribbon at the bottom so I could tie it under my neck and then added the feather trim around the edge where my face would pop out. I was originally going to cut a hole at the top of the hat and have the ear pop through from underneath but because the fabric was so stretchy, I thought the hole may gape and my hair may stick out. But luckily, the ears blended really well on top of the hat and it looks great all put together. I finished the outfit Monday night and the shoot was Tuesday.

 

Come Tuesday, I made the drive down to the Red Leopard Photography studio based near Busselton. Although it’s a 2-hour drive, I like to rock out to old cd’s and have a massive sing a long all the way down.

I did my hair and lipstick upon arrival as I find my hair falls and gets flat if it’s in a hot car for a long period of time. In no time, we put on some vintage tunes and started shooting. We referred to our inspiration images, played with heavy shadows, silly face expressions and props. Once we got going, the shoot went seamlessly and we both had a lot of fun.

One of the highlights of my shoot was getting to wear my ballet pointe shoes again. I used to be a ballerina but as study got heavier and my health declined I had to give it up. I’m definitely not as flexible as I used to be, nor can my muscles stand standing on pointe for a long time but as I’m slowly working on my strength back, I’m looking forward to being back to my ballet self soon enough. But for the Easter shoot, many of our inspiration images had ballet shoes so we thought it would be fitting. I just personally wish my form was as it used to be.

Overall the day went really well. I know I had a lot of fun and the images turned out just how we wanted them to. I have shared some of my favourites below. I like the mix of colour for the modern pinup and the black and white for a more authentic vintage feel.

If you are in Perth or travelling down south, I highly recommend stopping by Red Leopard and booking a shoot. Sarah is a true professional, makes you feel right at home and can direct you as needed to make sure you look your absolute best on camera.

Contact Sarah from Red Leopard for your own photography experience:

https://www.facebook.com/RedLeopardPhotography/

@redleopardphotography

Miss MonMon xx