Towards the end of 2020 I had the opportunity to work with the newly engaged TV starts Heather Rae Young and Tarek El Moussa. There was a good six weeks of planning and preparation going into this photo shoot which included building their mood boards, checking dates with assistants and some back-and-forth with PR, also booking my team and setting a very clear vision for the outcome of this shoot and planning the flow of their session. I had several zoom calls with my hair stylist, makeup artist and assistant to make sure everything goes smoothly on the day of the photo shoot.
I always try to point out to my students how important it is that photographers plan their sessions very well. I did not do such thorough planning for the first couple of years of my career and when I started implementing it, it has changed my creative process forever and my images started getting so much better and it has made my job significantly easier.
I talk about this and a lot of other aspects of my creative process in a free webinar that anyone can access at this link:
But now back to Heather and Tarek. If you don’t know who they are, Tarek is mostly known for his show “Flip or Flop” with his ex-wife Christina Anstead on HGTV. Besides that show he has started some new ones like Flipping 101 and he also has several other businesses in real estate. Heather Rae Young, a former playboy model and recently has gained a lot of interest with her show on Netflix which is called ‘Selling Sunset’ and her engagement to Tarek.
I’ve always enjoyed Flip or Flop, I loved seeing these fixer uppers in our neighborhood being turned into gorgeous houses but Selling Sunset is seriously one of the most addicting shows I’ve ever seen. First I wasn’t a fan and when I saw the trailer I thought, meh but as I started watching it I just couldn’t stop. Not only you can see these gorgeous multimillion dollar houses in Beverly Hills but the women on this show are nothing short of beautiful and extra just like the luxurious houses they are selling.
Heather has been one of my favorites all along but little did I know much about her before I had the opportunity to work with her. She is seriously one of the sweetest of all influencers - or celebrities if you will - I’ve ever photographed. She’s gorgeous, successful, has really been killing it lately and yet she is a down to earth, sweet human who is not too “famous” to say ‘thank you’ and ‘please’ and I just adore this about her! I feel like so many people in her industry tend forget where they come from and their personalities change in a negative way.
It was so nice to experience that there are people in this industry who can still remain kind and sweet to others regardless of their status or the size of their bank accounts.
Aall that said, we had a great time during their photoshoot in my studio. Witnessing their love in front of my camera was just amazing. Things have happened fast for them some say, but you can see that there is genuine, true love and admiration between these two and I wish nothing but the best for them!
We had two separate mood boards: one for Heather‘s solo images and another one for the couples shots. Our goal was to create gorgeous solo images of Heather with a touch of glamour and old Hollywood vibes and some GQ inspired, sexy couples portraits for the two of them. It was a contemporary, in-studio engagement session. Notice how she has so much resemblance to Marilyn Monroe on one of the looks we did?
I had no idea that they will love these photos so much that they ended wanting to use them for their Save the Date cards! This photo shoot did not start out as an engagement session but it kind of turned into it by the end. This gave me the idea that I want to make this a thing. In studio engagement photos are so unique, they are very different from your typical engagement photos so why not create a trend out of it?
Their photos since then has been featured in magazines around the world. Once the photos were published they started living their ow lives on the internet. Thank you so much People Magazine and The Daily Mail for featuring some my work. You can see the featured photos and read more about Heather and Tarek here:
PEOPLE MAGAZINE article & photos
DAILY MAIL article & photos
If you’re interested in some behind the scenes footage, you can find them on my Instagram amongst my Reels: CLICK HERE