Fueling anyone’s inner passion is one of our goals. If we are able to help, we would love to take the challenge! Hence, the New York-Inspired Photo Shoot at Nina Mua for our March event. This was held not only to gather a sweet group of aspiring makeup artists, but also to give them a taste of what their career could be like. Corinne Tweed led the group as Evgeny Milkovich captured every moment.
The inspiration for this event is New York City itself and it was an awesome time to have worked with a new model from EMG at that time, Sadie Petiford. Corinne was highly stirred by the bright yellow cabs that flock the city, but did not let this color overshadow the whole look. That would have been a very expected move! She actually went for another color that complements yellow, which is purple. She also mixed a bit of pink here and there which made the look even more exciting!
Other than makeup, we actually had guests who were already working as photographers and some aspiring ones as well. We can still clearly recall how it became an opportunity for all of us to ask questions to Evgeny, who is a renowned fashion photographer. He is also known to have his works published on Vogue Italia, with makeup looks completed by our graduates in photo shoots. Everyone really wanted to hear what he has to say.
Everyone was overflowing with questions that only an experience individual can answer. Without a doubt, the crowd became even more thrilled knowing that a professional photographer is on-hand. They did not only ask how to take amazing photos, but they were also curious what it is like to be working in the industry. How do you get your first job? How do you get your photos published? What are the work ethics as a photographer, model, and artist? These are among the common things that have been brought up. Quite frankly, a portion of the event became an open forum.
We also didn’t want to miss the chance of teaching our guests on how they can set up their own photo shoot. While studio equipment may be extremely helpful and ideal, one can still hold a photo shoot without these. It’s that time to call friends and family for help in terms of assistance, and also the time to learn how to be resourceful. We are now in 2018 – anything you see can certainly be improvised! For backgrounds, you can use a white, black, or any colored wall that you like. If not, buying fabrics should do the trick. We took photos with white and black backgrounds but we also wanted our photos to have more edge so we purchased a checkered fabric (after all, we’re at the Garment District!) for only $13, and the photos came out unbelievably astounding.
Another great example are the Marc Jacobs earrings we found on Pinterest, which really inspired a big part of the whole makeup look. It was a pair of literal zipper earrings and it reminded us so much of highways. We wanted to incorporate these earrings but we found out that it retailed for more or less $80. Knowing that they are a luxury brand, a sky-high price shouldn’t have surprised us. However, we did not really see the need to purchase it for the intention of a one-time use so we went out of the way to mimic these earrings out of materials you can find at a craft store. We used an old pair of earrings that were already at the studio for the hooks, a zipper, and super glue. Guess how much we brought out of our pockets: $5! Yes, just $5.
Now you know that little to no budget is not an excuse. Look around you. Your inspiration is everywhere. You have the whole world to look at and you don’t necessarily have to copy every little element. You can draw inspiration from it and create something new. Anything you dream of is indeed possible if you look for ways on how to make this happen – whether it means building a certain thing from scratch. Some processes may take a while compared to those who already have enough sources. In the end, you will still get almost the same results; and another thing that this event taught us is the need to be patient and hard working, especially in this industry.
