House of 3

Part 1- headshots.
The ‘House of 3’ got together at Rhonna’s place in January and we set out to have some creative time together; it would be the first time we were all together ‘IRL’ (in real life)
Janet says face time that did not include a skype call or video camera, it was heavenly!
……we had 2 days which started out with a photo shoot.
We knew that we wanted some photos of us together for the website and to celebrate the beginning of this whole adventure. Rhonna had contacted Nichole Van and Jefra Linn both- and they were excited to be a part of both the photography as well as become ‘resident photographers’ at ‘house of 3’ to constantly instruct and inspire all of us.
Rhonna: I told the Hof3 girls about these 2 fantastic photographers in UT. I KNEW they would have such a cool vision & really wanted to get some photos of us that were out of this world!  I contacted Nichole & when I heard her ideas I got goosebumps!  I was so excited!

We told them a little about what we had in mind, and we headed to Woodland Hills, Utah for our shoot.

Heidi: “it was dangerous for us to be driving and talking in the car, let alone follow directions. We had so much to talk about, we were talking a mile a minute. how many times did we have to call Nichole for directions in addition to the written directions we had?”
As are most January days in Utah Valley, it was a really foggy-inversion kind of day…totally mucky air. But as we drove up the mountain toward Nichole’s home, we climbed out of the clouds and into blue skies.

Janet says (in her best Texas accent), “ What the heck is inversion?” And learned more than she ever thought she could know about it!

This is what Nichole Van had to say about talking to Rhonna, and preparing for the shoot:
“For me, whenever I work with a client on a shoot, I want to know what vibe they’re after. So when Rhonna first contacted me, my first question for her (after squealing and doing my happy jig around the house) What feel do you want these photos to have? What impact? Do you want the
photos to feel fun? Dreamy? Artsy? Like you three laughing on a couch in the snow and trees? Or do you want the photos to be over-the-top WOW?!!!! Rhonna laughed and said “Oh we want WOW!!”

Heidi: “can’t you just hear Rhonna saying that!  well, WOW is what we got. No question”

We didn’t do a whole lot of planning of what we would wear—and how we would coordinate…(I had been traveling from cruise weather to UT to CHA show weather, and Janet was first-trimester-pregnant!)

Janet says…translated means I was glad they were only headshots and not full body shots!

…and it’s not like we were having a ‘family portrait’ done… so it wasn’t about matchy-match… and somehow we wanted to convey the fact that we are INDIVIDUALS, with unique styles and goals…but unified in this endeavor and totally single in purpose and mission at House of 3.

We would first be taking headshots in Nichole’s make-shift studio.
NicholeV:” From there, we all met at my studio for some head shots (and lots of laughter and ogling over all of Jefra’s fun camera toys and Heidi’s cute bags) and then changed clothes for the shoot. All three of them had brought several clothing options to choose from. Once we got over being jealous of
Heidi and ALL the fabulous clothing she finds in Beijing (seriously?! It’s soooo not fair! I’m still coveting those beautiful scarves!)”

(interjecting) Heidi: Serioulsy, just one 12 hour flight, and you too could be outfitted! Cheap bags, jewelry, scarves.. you name it! Come visit ANY time!
Nichole continues: “Jefra, with her great eye, made poor Rhonna change her clothes at least three times, until we hit on the right combo for the shoot: black, denim and punches of bright color.”

(Nichole and her family had just barely moved into a new house up in the mountains-and will be adding an official studio in her basement)..  when we walked in, she had these awesome backdrops mounted to the wall, a couple lights set up and  a big open window.  All of us were instantly in love, and amazed. We had been planning on wearing versions of black, so when we had a big brown and blue damask cloth backdrop, I wasn’t really sure about it, but it turned out amazing, and the contrast w/ all of our blue eyes turned out stunning. I have had headshots done a few times, but never with 2 photographers at work, and I thought it was remarkable…
Same subjects, same location, same lights.. but totally different results. i love how you will see the styles of the photographers as you look at the outcome.

Here is what Jefra chimed in:
“Sometimes I feel pretty inadequate next to Nichole’s skillz and talents so I was super excited to partake in the fun, but also worried about being a little bit superfluous. No point in duplicating the shots that Nichole was getting, so while Nichole was shooting I figured I’d just mess around and shoot what I darn well felt like shooting and see what happened.  I love to shoot with Nichole cause I know she’s getting the “money shots” and I can just do whatever strikes my fancy. We’ve started out so similarly - same city block, same area, same gear, and yet I know when I shoot with her what we see and are getting are vastly different. So what seemed to sum up the feeling that day was freeform, fun, creative and individual. So it’s
interesting, cause where Nichole is so great and has the whole setup and gear and such broad techknow, I usually just shoot based on “blink” and gut reaction and whatever strikes my fancy - in this case grabbing whoever was hanging around and sitting them in front of a tiny bit of wall and shooting - or catching them on the chair or against the sky or whatever looked right.”

Heidi: Jefra’s personality is coming through so clearly in her words, she is SO mellow, easy to talk to and be around, and so willing to share her amazingness! It seems so effortless for her.

Rhonna: Jefra & Nichole work together so well. They are amazingly talented & I loved seeing how they artistically interpreted the exact same photoshoot.  Jefra’s Lensbabies got me all giddy. She let me use it on my camera for a minute just to test out. I”m sold. I ordered one!
These are 2 that Rhonna took w/ Jefra’s “lensbaby”

so, here are some of the outcomes:

Above are the shots from Nichole that we settled on…(so many to choose from!)

the next set are from Jefra Linn… don’t you LOVE the amazing contrast between their styles? we did!!
Check back, or sign up for twitter to be notified as we post MORE on ‘enjoying the process’… behind the scenes! Next time we’ll be showing more from our fabulous snowy photo shoot with Nichole Van and Jefra Linn