Trashing the dress with Ilsa...

Trashing the dress has become quite popular, I've visited various Trash the Dress websites (www.trashthedress.com) and found most of the pictures to be breathtaking. Something about taking a gorgeous dress and putting it in a rustic picture, or floating in it!!

A few weeks ago I noticed an 'offer' add on freecycle for a wedding dress, I shot off an email to the giver telling her she should trash it in a photoshoot!! She wasn't up for a trash session, so I told her if I could find a model I would be ecstatic about trashing her dress!!

After talking to 'this girl' all afternoon about the dress I found out she was Erin Lucas from "The River"... although now she is on "The Lounge", our local radio station. She offered to deliver the dress, and that's when we found out we were neighbors. Hahaha!!

I posted on my FB status that I was in search of a model, and right away a stream of replies poured in. I found the PERFECT model, Ilsa!! She has somewhat of a portfolio of a shoot she had previously done and she DEFINITELY had 'the look'. Being my first time shooting I knew it would be much easier shooting someone that was comfortable in front of the camera, and definitely knew how to 'play' for it. Ilsa did an AMAZING job with very little directing at all - seriously, she could be a model!! She made my job SO easy!
This shoot was challenging for me in so many ways, for one... the above picture was set in very difficult lighting. I had to shoot completely manually which is something I'm just learning to do, and selecting the right ISO and aperture was a challenge. It was SO good for me! I learned so much and I'm SO grateful for the experience!!
A lot of people think "Trash the Dress" is literally... rip it to shreds and DESTROY it! I've seen a few tasteful shoots where the dress is completely destroyed... but others I've seen are just dreadful and I chose a more tasteful approach to trashing. My inspirations came from shoots of friends, and online trashing sites. Other then that, Ilsa and I just went with it. We headed to the river bottom and just started walking... There are so many fabulous spots down there for a shoot, we spent 2 1/2 hours just walking and shooting and ended up with over 900 pictures!!

We would have kept going but it got DARK and my camera was no longer recognizing there was a person somewhere in all that darkness. Not to mention... two Caucasian girls, alone, in the dark... IN THE RIVER BOTTOM... is as little bit scary. ;)
I have some pretty great 'blooper' shots... and wish that I had gotten more. Ilsa was SUCH a trooper! There were some pretty funny 'falls'... like when we were not planning on getting into the creek... and she fell-in. TOO funny! It ended up being my favorite place to shoot.

Then there was a native lady that wanted Ilsa to give her the dress because she was 'ruining a gorgeous dress'. LOL!! It was interesting having onlookers - I was so impressed with Ilsa though, she didn't even flinch and just kept on posing!

It was an incredibly fun night, and I'm so glad I found that dress on freecycle!!! I'm definitely going to be keeping my eyes open for nice wedding dresses from now on. The dress is muddy-ish, but I think there might be one-more shoot left in it. Maybe not nice land shots... but definitely capable of another water shoot.

The complete session of Trashing the Dress is on Facebook, with 800 + pictures left to edit. It's going to be a full week of editing!!