Last weekend, a long time friend asked me to shoot test photos of her daughter for inclusion on a model resume card. Anna-Marie is almost seventeen, and has been modeling for a few years in catalogs. To help her expand her options into lifestyle modeling, we shot a few different looks in a park setting with mostly natural light and a reflector disk.
I first met her when she was born. Yes, time flies and babies grow up to be young adults. For me, it is like someone spun the clock too fast because it seems like just yesterday when she was so tiny.
Anna-Marie is the daughter of a blonde German woman and an African American man, and I believe this gives her a fantastic presence on camera.
One fellow, who was enamored with her, flirted with her during the photoshoot to ask “How do I get my picture taken with this this beautiful young woman?” When I pointed to the blonde German and said to ask her mom, he scowled and did not believe me. This, of course, made us all laugh. Anna-Marie is fluent in German which surprises people too.
They brought a few different outfits to try, and the look ranged from casual teen to young woman. We shot in a small area in Piedmont Park and we did not have to walk very far to find different backgrounds, hard sunlight, dappled shadows and full shade.
I have retouched a lot of model photos and I can say for a fact, that Anna-Marie’s skin is virtually flawless, which is incredibly rare. She does not even wear makeup. She just does not need it.
I wish her luck in the future and look forward to seeing her in magazines.
