Photo shoot!

Okay, I’ll admit it. Getting followed around by an awesome photographer yesterday evening ‘on location’ was pretty fun. At first I was nervous, but she made me feel so comfortable that I was willing to follow her anywhere (including, at one point, lying on a wet stone fountain wall to get a good shot.)

Before the shoot I had to beautify (as y’all remember me Twittering about).

Let’s call it Beautifying Heidi (no small task)

1. Hair. I showed up in my yoga clothes and my regular hair cut lady washed, blew-dry and then “styled.” (Flat iron so it looked silky–even from the back!)

2. Clothes. I zipped over to GAP after the hair got slicked up looking for solid colored shirts that would match my book jacket without being the exact same color and also look descent on me. Tall order. Purple washes me out, yellow is okay, but I really wanted something blue. So I bought five shirts. Two with a nice rope-like neck-line, two with puffy peasant sleeves, and a plain turquoise one. Then dashed for my make-up appointment.

3. Make-up. I should clarify, that me and make-up are not friends. We never have been. I don’t really know how to apply it, I never learned. My sister made me up for my high school pictures and for my wedding. But now she lives in Oregon with infant twins, so she was clearly unavailable for the job. So my friend’s husband owns a Dermatology clinic that is also very much a beautifying place (lypo, Botox, you-name-it-they-got-it). So I sat in the waiting room feeling weird (like the first time you go to the gynocologist and you just know everyone is wondering why you are there.) But luckily there was only one old man sitting there. The lady welcomed me in (my friend had warned her about my make-up aversion) and she said, “First we’ll do your eyebrows.” I’m like, “okay, that’s fine.” Closed my eyes and then felt hot wax crawl across my forehead. Then a bandaid like thing then a stinging ZIIIIPPP. Okay.

Me: “Are you waxing my eyebrows?”
Her: “Yes. Is that okay?”
Me: “Um. Sure?”

Then came the make-up. She was so sweet and didn’t put on too much, but still when she held up the mirror I was so fearful I would look like this:

Because clearly that is someone with too much make-up.

After I took off some of the mascara I looked fine, like my mother-in-law said, “You look like you, only brighter.”

So last step:

The Photoshoot!

She wanted to take some simple images against a green wall. I leaned over on my elbows and she shot me from across the way. She encouraged me to play with my hair and toss it around etc.

Me: (bubble over my head) Do you know how much it cost to get this straight and silky? NO PLAYING.
Me: (in real life) Sure!

She sort of got what I was going for right away. (As I mentioned, she is a pro.)

And we just had a lovely, lovely time. Her daughter is a big YA fan and was so excited that her mom was photographing an author. They both want to come to my release party and Anne asked if I was ever famous if she could be my personal photographer. I was so flattered, said YES of course, but told her not to quit her day job waiting for that. =)

Honestly, after getting the agent offer, the Putnam offer, and the cover…this was my favorite SEA related thing so far. It was just very very very cool.

So 500 shots later, we were finished. And I felt like a minor celebrity for reals.
Thanks, Anne Knudsen for trying to find the heart of the book in your shots.

Without further adieu here are the pics of her taking my pics. (NONE OF THESE ARE ANNE’s official photos. Will post those later date. She will send me 200 of her favorites and I get to choose from those for my author pic, press kit, and website etc. (oh and of course twitter and the like!)

Enjoy!

Posing

More posing

Anne showing me the pics so far (so many!)

Hubby took this one while Anne was photographing me. That’s the ‘look’ she liked the best.