I’ve always wanted to dress up for Halloween with a group, but I never had enough friends who wanted to participate until this year. When I moved to Mackinac Island to work at a Starbucks, there were only 8 other employees at that store which created a great opportunity for close friendships. And because of the nature of the small island, we saw each other nearly every single day. By the time Halloween rolled around, we all decided to dress up together and took a vote to narrow it down. Our vote started out with many different options from cowboys to scooby doo to criminals. But ultimately we chose Woodland Creatures. I’m not going to lie, I was a little hesitant about this selection at first, but the moment I realized I could be a forest fairy, my attitude completely changed. So I got to planning.
I originally wanted a large mushroom hat, but after looking at a few on etsy, I realized they were way out of my budget. So, I found a cheap, circle fairy crown with green leaves and added my own mushrooms to it (featured in the image on the right). Now it was time to find the perfect dress. I wasn’t sure if I wanted a brown or green dress, so I just sort of looked around to find a dress that felt right. I found many beautiful, ethereal dresses, but again, most of them were out of my budget. Eventually, after hours of scouring the internet, I found the perfect forest fairy dress. It was short, floofy, and elegant. It was perfect.
Of course I’m not going to go to all this trouble to find a perfect fairy dress, add my perfect fairy makeup and NOT do a photoshoot. I’m a photographer. What did you expect?! I had Blake follow me around the island for this photoshoot and he did a great job! He struggled a lot at first getting the autofocus correct. I made sure not to laugh at him in the moment, but it was a little funny because he kept yelling about the grass. He’d think that he got a perfect photo of me twirling my dress and he’d get so frustrated when he’d double check and it was out of focus because of the grass in front of me. It was a sweet reminder of how far I’ve come, because I remember the days of being fed up with the autofocus. But by the end of the photoshoot, he was killing it! He was making sure I was centered in the frame and in focus. So let this serve as your reminder that if you’re a beginner photographer, it does get easier. Eventually you will learn all the tips and tricks to capturing the perfect photo. Be patient with yourself. You’ll get there just like Blake did. I promise!
P.s. Scroll to the bottom of this post to see some photos of me being- well, me.
As promised, here are 6 photos of me that represent my personality perfectly! Feat. one photo of me trying to eat a caterpillar. My favorite is the one where I'm looking disapprovingly at Blake. I'm sure he made some horrible dad joke haha.