Sweater Weather in Central Park

Dear Diary,

When I did this shoot, the weather had just changed from summer to fall; the world was full of the joyful possibilities of pumpkin pie, colorful leaves, and chunky sweaters.

Then, this weekend happened, and I almost lost my toes to frostbite.

Looking back on the photos from this Sweater Weather shoot reminds me of the fleeting feelings of my favorite season.

I love fall.

And I hate winter.

Here’s some background on the shoot: There’s this really cool club at my school called The Click, and basically, they invite all student photographers to come out for a shoot to learn from one another, collaborate, and take cool photos of models (who also go to our college!)

On this most recent shoot, they asked if I’d be one of their models.

Marina is the social media coordinator for The Click, and she’s the one who invited me to model for them. (You already met her in my Glossier-inspired photoshoot.)

I was stoked.

We met at the southwest corner of Central Park and started exploring.

I loved this shoot because I got to meet people who go to my school that I hadn’t interacted with before. New friends!! Or at least, new collaborators.

Here’s one of the early shots. Gabby took this photo of Angel taking a photo of me. (Can anyone say Inception?) I love it.

A little bit later, Allison captured this dynamic shot.

Cool, right?! My climbing around in the bushes of Central Park wasn’t my own idea, believe it or not, but Jenn’s! She said she wanted to take some photos of me in the bushes, so sit in the shrubbery I did. In fact, in Allison’s shot, I’m looking at Jenn’s camera, just outside of the frame, possibly capturing one of the shots below.

LOOK. AT. THESE.

Processed with VSCO with x1 preset

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset

Processed with VSCO with b5 preset

I mean, wow. This was my first time working with Jenn, and I’m already trying to figure out how to shoot with her again. She said this about the shoot:

“I could immediately tell that your strength is the story in your eyes. I tried to shoot and edit the photos in a way that drew attention to the emotion and story that your eyes were expressing.”

Finally, as the shoot was winding down, Marina grabbed me to go hunting for flowers.

This seems to be becoming a theme for me and Marina, and I’m so not mad at it.

We broke off from the group and quickly found some pretty flowers with a bench for me to sit on. (A little editing makes that bench now invisible from shot one.) Nighttime was fast approaching.

Marina goes, “Lift up your chin so that your face catches the light,” and BOOM. We got this shot.

AMAZING.

If you’ll notice in this series, there are little clouds of color near the corners of each shot.

Behind the scenes scoop: Marina held a few flower petals just in front of the edge of her camera lens to get that effect. It makes the viewer feel like the camera is also in the midst of the flowers. Mind. Blown.

In this last shot, we got lucky with some perfectly-timed wind. Marina also put those flower petals in my hair, but hey, at least this time she didn’t use any glue. 😉

Collaborating with students from school on photoshoots isn’t something I do a ton, but this shoot with The Click made me want to do it way more often.

Here’s all the Instagram’s if you haven’t checked them out yet!

Gabby: @gabby.kres

Allison: @allison.taylor.photography

Jenn: @duppledore

Marina: @marinaelisee

If you made it to the end, leave a comment and let me know which photo was your favorite! What’s your favorite activity in Central Park?

“Fierce and love,”

Nat