This was such a fun shoot, with Nicole, who happens to be a former student of mine. I’ve wanted to photographer her since I met her because, hello, look at her! I waited, though, until she was no longer in my class to ask if she’d like to model for me. I found this quirky little wedding gown in an antique store in the tiny little town of Canyonville, Oregon.

Although I’d taken a photography class (not Nicole’s class, by the way) to The Gray Lab on a field trip, I’d never personally shot in the space. As soon as I got home from said field trip, I booked myself a couple of hours as this really neat natural light studio in downtown Salem, Oregon. It is only a block from my own studio, which made transporting things easy. Although it is a natural light studio, like mine, the lighting is very different.

I knew that I had to place Nicole on that leather seat because it matched her hair. The Kombucha bottle was intentional as well, for the same reason.