BTS: What It Takes To Get The Perfect Picture
About twice a year we do a big photo shoot for our websites. When we first started doing these, I thought, “How hard could it be?” Well, I’m here to tell you it’s way harder than it looks. We even tried for a hot minute to style photos ourselves. That was a big mistake. After a little trial and a lot of error, we quickly threw in the proverbial towel and called in the experts. I wanted to take you behind the scenes of recent photo shoots for both stores. You can see the end results on Penny Post’s and Red Barn Mercantile’s websites now. And with special guest appearances from time to time on social media here and here.
Okay, first let me introduce you to the dream team – Angela Newton Roy for photography and Lori Tran and Colleen West of wldwst in Leesburg for styling. These ladies are phenomenal creatives and literal rays of sunshine. Ariel, our Special Projects Manager, and I were so grateful for their energy and positive spirit, especially on day two when we hit the wall with decision-making. I cannot tell you how many decisions you have to make in a day. Actually, in an hour. When doing the styling you are deciding what should be in the picture, what it needs, how far to the left should it go, now to the right(?), and a lot of it’s-missing-something-but-I-don’t-know-whating. There is a lot of that last one. But these ladies made it all seamless and really fun along the way.
Because Red Barn Mercantile and Penny Post have such different personalities, we shoot them in very different ways For Red Barn, we like to style them as if the product were in use, whereas flat lays (which are when you lay the objects face up on a flat surface and take a picture from above) are the best choice for Penny Post. So, that means two different locations. Because we were already heading out to Loudon County to do the shoot, we figured we could do the two shoots back-to-back. That turned out to be more than we could handle, but it was worth figuring out.
After doing photoshoots at my house and Kelley’s house we decided that it was too much to ask of our families to do again, so we scouted a new location and landed on the perfect place in Bluemont, VA. Hayes Cottage is remarkably charming. I mean beyond wonderful. At least to me and Country Living. (They were the cover girl for their October 2022 issue.) I love a good old house filled with old things. Hayes Cottage has that in spades. It’s available to rent and even though it’s only a short drive away it feels like a world away. It was perfect for our shoot and would be perfect for a little getaway. Just sayin’.
Ariel and I drove up the night before the shoot to unload and prep for the next day. It was also useful to be there so we could start bright and early the next day. After a delicious dinner in Purcellville at Magnolias at the Mill we headed back to the house to go straight to our separate corners. Ariel is great to travel with! She needs her quiet time just like I do and doesn’t feel the need to fill the silence which I appreciate. In fact, we both enjoy the silence. I went to my room climbed into the giant, very comfortable bed, pulled out my iPad and listened to a podcast. It was glorious!
The day of the shoot was smooth sailing. Like I said, this is a dream team. They were there to make sure we got the shots we need and were completely open to feedback. No egos just sunshine! One of the great things about Hayes Cottage (and there were many) was it had everything we needed to create great photos – incredible kitchen tile, props galore, beautiful old wood, wonderful framed art, and fantastic textiles and wallpaper. We didn’t need to bring a thing. Except for what we were shooting, of course.
A solid sandwich, as Ariel dubbed it, from Hardware Café in Purcellville kept us going through to 5:00. We asked the ladies, who are all local to Loudon County, where to go for dinner and they unanimously recommended Monk’s BBQ. We were so glad they did. It was just what we wanted after a long day of photos. And, we walked in as they were walking out so great minds think alike.
The next day we packed up our car and headed to Angela’s home studio in Ashburn. Let me tell you she has the most incredible home. I didn’t take any pictures of it, but I wish I had. Angela was an interior designer in a former life and it’s apparent. Her home is stunning which made for another lovely location shoot. The studio was all setup and rolls of paper backdrops lined up like soldiers when we got there. We unloaded and laid everything out on her giant dining room table making it easy for Colleen and Lori to grab what they need.
The ladies got to work right away and blazed through another 8 hours of photo-taking. Ariel and I weighed in on the compositions – a little more to the right, maybe this card instead of that one, we need something in this spot what do you think of this? For the most part, I worked on my computer and Ariel managed all the products we brought. Around 2:00 we hit a wall and just could not bring ourselves to make another decision. But Angela, Colleen, and Lori kept the energy up and made getting what we need so easy!
While I would not recommend two photo shoots in a row, I would definitely recommend this dream team if the need ever arose. And, I absolutely encourage you to check out the Hayes Cottage for your next getaway!
