yoga content creation for a Delray Beach yogini
The clouds were dark grey, thick and heavy with rain as I was driving to Keslee’s photoshoot. Will we be able to create the photos she needs ASAP for a yoga clothing company sponsoring her posts?
It definitely didn’t look like photoshoot weather when I was driving to the agreed location to meet her. Keslee and I made plans for a one-hour yoga content creation photoshoot in Boca Raton. The clouds were dark grey, thick and heavy with rain and as I was driving, a torrential downpour started. Windshield wipers swinging like crazy from side to side, I could hardly see the road in front of me. “It’s pouring where I am,” she texts me. “Let’s meet at our location and see how it is”, I reply to her. Will we be able to create the photos she must create for one of the brands sponsoring her posts?
When we get to our photoshoot location by a lake, the skies have cleared, there isn’t even a drizzle, but for how long?
Keslee has one outfit, but a series of poses she must capture in photos for the campaign that a yoga clothing company Alo is sponsoring. She made a list of poses which makes our flow more efficient. We get to work.
We start on the sidewalk next to the lake and play there first.
We then go to a different section with tall grass, and I LOVE the photos we create there. See if you can spot two dragonflies in one of them ;)
My goal as a photographer is to create a variety of images for my clients.
Even though we are photographing in ONE general location, I aim to find DIFFERENT BACKDROPS for photos so photos don’t all look the same.
As we venture into a woody area, Keslee attempts another handstand on the path and says, “No, there are no more handstands left in me for today.” Here is what we create under the canopy of freshly washed oak trees and shrubs:
In precisely one hour we finish all the poses Keslee needed to capture, and it starts drizzling again! We are elated - perfect timing for a perfect photoshoot!
As we head back to the parking lot, I get inspired by the bridge (that I have seen thousands of times! photographers love bridges - leading lines, you know :)) Keslee is game to play even though it is raining. You can actually see slight streaks of rain drops falling in these photos.
And on the very final walk back to the car, I take a couple of photos by the lake, with a heron in the back as a supporting model.
When I was a beginner in photography, rain was my worst photographic nightmare. Now, I love the dramatic skies of before or after the rain, and even photographing in the rain is something I find inspiring. Pretty blue skies get boring after a while, and since we are looking to create scroll-stopping images for a social media content creator, different is good.
Check out this reel see some behind-the-scenes magic of that day.
I cannot believe how strong and powerful this Goddess is and I admire the pretzel shapes that she bends herself into!
behind-the-scenes magic of a yoga photoshoot
Interested in a content-creation session to boost your social media growth? I love working with creatives and spiritual entrepreneurs and helping them grow their businesses.
Just like that, in one hour’s time we created all these photos. I sent all color corrected photos to Keslee less than 48 hours after we photographed. I knew she needed them as soon as possible and I was excited to see what we created together. I have even put together this piece for her, which my followers suggested a title “The Thinker, The Observer, The Doer.”
other yoga photoshoots:
salty morning yoga photoshoot
We have fifteen minutes before the sun rises and since we still need to get to the rocks, where we will be photographing, we practically jog as soon as we park the car at Spanish River Beach.
As soon as we step off the wooden boardwalk and sink our toes into the sand, the salty ocean air gives me a grand sense of calm and at the same time energizes me. There is a topless forty-something man with long hair who greets us with a huge smile,
"Good morning. What a gift!", as he gestures toward the ocean.
We have fifteen minutes before the sun rises and since we still need to get to the rocks, where we will be photographing, we practically jog as soon as we park the car at Spanish River Beach.
As soon as we step off the wooden boardwalk and sink our toes into the sand, the salty ocean air gives me a grand sense of calm and at the same time energizes me. There is a topless forty-something man with long hair who greets us with a huge smile,
"Good morning. What a gift!", as he gestures toward the ocean.
A gift it is indeed, Tisa and I agree and jog toward the rocks.
"My yoga journey started three years ago," Tisa says. "I was very depressed during that time. I just started meditating and doing yoga, and it lifted me. I learned with YouTube videos practicing in my living room. I also go to free yoga classes in Mizner Park on Saturday mornings. I apply the things I learn on the mat to life in general - things like patience, not focusing on the aesthetic, but on the feeling, the essence, of something."
Tisa is originally from the Virgin Islands, where she is planning on returning at the end of the year. Right now she works as a doula, and is preparing to take a yoga teacher certification course.
"Where I am from, people run track, they are not much into yoga. I want to bring yoga with me to the islands, I am really excited about teaching it to other people."
Once we finish photographing, I realize that my parking meter is about to expire, so we quickly pick up our things and, again, practically jog back to the car.
The man with long hair is still there, playing Frisbee by himself.
"What a gift," I smile to myself.
a singing yogi
Imagine taking a hot yoga class that makes you feel like you have worked out such DEEP muscles in your body that you didn't even know existed and all the toxins evaporated from your body leaving you light, sweat pouring down your face which you gave up wiping, and you are feeling proud for having shown up.
Imagine taking a hot yoga class that makes you feel like you have worked out such DEEP muscles in your body that you didn't even know existed and all the toxins evaporated from your body leaving you light, sweat pouring down your face which you gave up wiping, and you are feeling proud for having shown up. And when lie there on your back, in a corpse pose, and your mind has left your body, you hear the sound of an accordion that vibrates through your body and the entire room, making you resonate with the bodies of all the other yogis who joined you for this ninety minutes of practice. And in unison with the sweet and grand sounds of accordion you hear an angelic voice singing that sounds like something between Sanskrit and Brazilian Portuguese. That was my experience with Jessica, who teaches yoga at Anuttara Yoga.
It wasn't until later that I discovered that there are yoga lessons with live music, but Jessica gave me a glimpse of it.
We photograph in Sanborn Square in downtown Boca Raton on a Thursday afternoon, and the fruits of our labor can be seen here.
She talks with a sing-songy Brazilian accent and literally FLOWS from one pose to another so fast at times that I ask her to go back to this or that pose so I can take a better shot of her.
When the sun almost gone, we decide to play with a dress or a non-yoga outfit. With the words "I have this sari, you gonna die when you see it", she goes to her card and brings out a huge basket filled with colorful outfits and dresses. When she pulls out this golden five-mile sari, my eyes start gleaming. She wraps herself in this sari and sits next to the fountain while I click away, trying to find THE SHOT. Afterwards Jessica said that her mom almost had a heart attack when she saw this photo:
Then we play with another Sari, a green one, and just as we are both about to leave, she - to catch a movie with her boyfriend and me - back home to my babies, she changes into this simple and elegant outfit of black top with open back and wide flowy blue pants. She looks like a ballerina and she confesses to me that she is also a dancer! I ask her to dance on this huge stage of Sanborn Square. And when she starts jumping up high in the air and leaping in effortless pirouettes, I realize that the next photoshoot we will be doing with this goddess will be a dance shoot!
Get to know this Goddess for yourself - attend one of her classes and see what brilliant light she shares with the world.
personal branding photoshoot for a new yoga teacher
"Please don't mention anything to them about our photographing in the gardens", I caution my model and client, Denise, before we enter Morikami Museum and Gardens.
"Of course", she nods in agreement as we open the heavy doors.
"We are just ordinary park visitors going for a stroll", I mumble to myself as we approach the cashier, an elderly gentleman named Joe.
“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.”
"Please don't mention anything to them about our photographing in the gardens", I caution my model and client, Denise, before we enter Morikami Museum and Gardens.
"Of course", she nods in agreement as we open the heavy doors.
"We are just ordinary park visitors going for a stroll", I mumble to myself as we approach the cashier, an elderly gentleman named Joe.
"That will be $15 per person and you cannot bring a bag of clothes with you into the park, ma'am, though your camera bag is ok," as he sternly gives me a look over.
"How did he know?" we both laugh as we head back out for Denise to change in the car. "I thought we were so discreet about it! These guys are experts at spotting photographers." My camera bag, by the way, doesn't look like a traditional camera bag. Once, when attending a photography workshop, as several of us, students, were going down in a elevator together, one lady pointed at my hot pink Cheeky Lime camera bag and asked, "Is that your lunch bag?" How dare she? I LOVE my camera bag for its extra-ordinarity. Anyway, thankfully, we were granted the permission to photograph in the park and we decided to do outfit changes in the car.
One of our most favorite images from the photoshoot is the one above. When I saw it through the viewfinder as I was taking it, I knew it would be one of the best shots. She is such a Goddess!
Even though the gardens had just opened, the serene place was already full of people being photographed and photographing. The heat index was rising so we got to business right away, deciding to play by the water first.
"Do you want me to splash the water around?"
"Great idea!" I say, and as she starts splashing the water toward me, we both giggle, but I am afraid to get water on my camera, so I suggest she try throwing the water towards the sky. This is what came out of it:
It is worth mentioning that Denise first contacted me when I was on vacation in Turkey. Even though she was eager to get her photographs taken right away, when I told her that I would be back in two weeks, she agreed to wait for me. And once I came back and we talked on the phone about her photoshoot,
I found out that Denise loves to travel and the country that she is especially drawn to is Italy. I had an obsession with Italy myself so I can completely understand why.
She also told me about how her fledgling yoga business is geared more toward children, and when I met her in person she struck me as a kid herself. This woman with a successful corporate career where she gets to travel worldwide has a contagious laughter and playful attitude of a cheerful kid!
During our photoshoot, whenever I asked Denise to give me a non-smiling expression, she would comply for a few seconds and then burst out laughing. After a few more tries I realized that it was her personality and after having taken a couple shots with a contemplative, introspective expression on her face, I decided not to persist anymore and just photographer this goddess the way she was naturally, smiling, bursting with joy, and happiness.
A contemplative expression on her face…
Until she burst into laughter seconds later!
"Look up! What is that? Is that an eagle?" she points to the top of a pine tree towering over us.
"It is!", I say as I continue to photograph her. In addition to the eagle, we also encountered a bright green lizard that I made friends with while I was waiting for Denise to change in her car. We also saw one of those long-necked black birds that spread their wings to soak up the sun. And lots of humans, of course, with many of whom Denise would casually start chatting and laughing.
We played by the water, on a giant rock, and Denise danced between tall trees. We didn't explore the entire park and I wanted to keep photographing, but we were both exhausted from the heat AND working (modeling is serious business, ask anyone who was photographed for two hours!) I think it just means that there will be a sequel to this photoshoot :)
This picture above sums up Denise's essence and personality :)
As Fyodor Dostoevsky said, “If you wish to glimpse inside a human soul and get to know a man, don't bother analyzing his ways of being silent, of talking, of weeping, of seeing how much he is moved by noble ideas; you will get better results if you just watch him laugh. If he laughs well, he's a good man.”
I would definitely want this gentle and lighthearted woman to teach yoga to my daughters.
Another absolute favorite of both Denise and mine.
Want to join the Goddess party? Call/text me to 561-465-4857 or send me an email and let's talk about making YOUR Goddess Photoshoot a reality!
artistic yoga photography on the beach
Sharp rocks,
slippery rocks;
waves crashing on the huge rocks and sprinkling us with salt water;
Sharp rocks,
slippery rocks;
waves crashing on the huge rocks and sprinkling us with salt water;
fishermen.
We are intruding on their space,
the spot that had been theirs since before we got there.
And after we stay there a little, it becomes our space too and we feel at home there.
As if the rays of the still barely visible sun are warming up the cold fishermen, they smile to us and are ready to let us use their rocks, and even offer to move out of the way for the perfect shot.
Now as we leave this beach and give way to the new people who are coming to sing glory to the new day, they feel like they are stepping onto our territory because everything in our look and our stance says that this is our beach and our sea.
The city is waking up. People are walking, jogging, bulldozering around.
The sun just appeared above the horizon and the day barely began, but both my model Tamara and I feel like we did something HUGE that day. Three days before my departure for a vacation, Tamara and I put this photoshoot together in a matter of a few hours' worth of text messages (we had worked before) and the result of our collaboration you can see here.
My favorite images from our photoshoot are the ones with the city of Boca Raton in the background, the open bridge and boats going about their business. Most yoga photographs are taken in the nature setting, and they are beautiful, but my dream is to create a series of yoga photographs in the city, as much city as we can get in this part of South Florida, anyway.
A note for non-yogis out there:
Supposedly, you should not say that someone is good at yoga, but you can say that someone has a beautiful [yoga] practice. I overheard an instructor say that to one of the students after a class. :)
So, Tamara has a beautiful yoga practice. There are a lot of wonderful yoga teachers out there, but you know how it is, right? Once you make a connection and like someone's teaching style, you prefer to practice yoga with that person because you now have a relationship. It is like that for me with Tamara.
To learn more about the many talents that this woman has and a bit about how we got to know each other, please read the Goddess Interview with Tamara, in which she also shares some advice to those who are just beginning their yoga journey. Check out the video below to hear Tamara's words on what yoga means to her and what advice she gives her students.
When I was editing these photos while on vacation in Turkey, I resolved to myself to attend at least two yoga classes a week. I want to be strong and balanced, physically and emotionally, and doing yoga at home is not the best option for me because I tend to push myself more when I am in a class setting with others (not to mention actually doing yoga, when you commit to a date and time and having to go to a class to a yoga place, as opposed to saying to yourself that sometime today you are going to practice).
So I am putting yoga on my family calendar so that my husband can watch the kids and I can take care of myself so I can be the best Mommy and wife that I can be for them. And because I'm a Goddess :)