Behind the scenes at THE photoshoot...

If you've been following some of my tweets you may have worked out that I had some special guests at my home yesterday, the kind that get you in a panic in the lead up to their visit. Yes a guy with a camera and a super stylish art director!
I thought you might like to see some of behind the scenes action at yesterday's photo shoot. No idea when the story will be published, but will give you a heads up when if I find out.

Left to right: Meisha (graphic designer/director for the day), cute baby belonging to Lou, Chris (Photographer), Louise (writer/journalist)
Emma started the day acting all shy and clinging to my leg but as the shoot progressed she became quite comfortable with the camera.

Chris was very kind and even let her take a few shots of her own.
I really struggled for 3 days to get the place looking decent, trying to clear my accumulated clutter was a big task. Chris, who has been here before was surprised with the transformation "where have all the piles of fabric gone?"
Tidying up involved a big spring clean and a total reorganisation of my sewing room (I'll share the sewing room photos soon).
I must give a big shout out to Pilgrim for helping me with boring task of fabric folding (and dust inhaling) and even a bigger thanks (and big hug) to Estelle for jumping at the chance to style my de-cluttered areas.
Estelle came around on Tuesday with 5 big boxes of cool stuff and an 18mo old who was booked into surgery the next day. I can't believe she didn't tell me to F-off, but she is a top chick and deserves a big fat styling credit. The team was very impressed!Down stairs took 1.5 hours, shots from this angle and that.
Then the upstairs. Poor Chris had tot get in some really awkward positions and that camera is much heavier than it looks.
A lot of discussion about how to shoot what. All up they were here for 2.5 hours, and were really disappointed they didn't have more time because they had to get to another shoot.

I was running so late as Emma had a big sleep in till 9am, she is normally my alarm clock, so you can imagine the chuckles I received when I opened the door in my pyjamas! Chris has shot lots of celebs (we won't drop names), but he likes pyjama clad real people the best :) What a great guy!

The team was even nice enough to tidy up my kitchen whilst I changed and brushed my teeth. Mr Man reckons we should have a camera team round at least once a month, the place has never looked this good. Although, there is lots of stuff just shoved in cupboards and under the stairs because I couldn't find a real home for them! I will try to tackle the cupboard clutter slowly, with the aim of having some order in this house finally.

Chris was very generous with his knowledge and gave me some hints to share with you all when you are taking interior shots:

Use a tripod, and if it's not a particularity stable one, it's best to use the self timer on the camera to avoid camera shake when you press the button.

Always shoot the highest res you can and if you have photoshop shoot in RAW mode (DSLR) as well as Jpeg, this means your shots can be print ready.

If shooting for the web, shoot your subject nice and tight with a shallow depth of field. You need to capture your viewers attention which is a fraction of a second, busy composition just doesn't cut it. Pick a stand out subject and focus on it.

Also don't be afraid to pump up the colour saturation for web destined shots, post production.

And this one is GOLD - if shooting a room with a chair or table, try to include at least one full leg to give a good sense of proportion.

So do you feel like you were right there? I'll take photos of the house whilst its still relatively tidy in the next few days so I can share them with you here.
Hope you enjoyed the behind the scenes action...I need a good lie down.