First, thank you so much for all of the wonderful & kind words about this issue of Dreamer. The emails and comments have been sweeter than we could have ever expected… to say that we appreciate the amazing support is an understatement!
I had one other feature in this issue I wanted to share. It was the finishing touch on another project I have been working on for the past several months.
I have been in business for 7+ years now… the girls that I work with have moved from sweet little girls to trendy tweens. Through the transition I have found it more and more a challenge to wardrobe & style the shoots with the options out there. There are a million choices for little girls and adults but getting that older (but not too old) look that these little ladies were wanting was frustrating. I love styling and you can regularly find me ‘altering’ pieces here and there, throwing unexpected items together and playing fashion designer in my own closet. So, when Lisa and I started chatting about this dilemma, a little idea sparked. Why not do up a line of our own? (Lisa actually went to school for fashion design making this crazy idea totally doable).
We asked our girls and I interviewed my clients. We found out what they liked and what they didn’t like. We designed a line that fits every function of their daily lives while still allowing them to look totally adorable & stylish (& stay super comfy, too). Every item has been tried and tested by our little ladies, tweaked until we got nothing but oooh’s & ahhh’s (the soft cotton used in these pieces actually had the girls commenting on the fabric… when do 10 yr olds do that?) All the pieces can be mixed & matched (which was another must on their list). I finally got what I had been searching for.
I was so excited when the line was completed just in time to incorporate in my shoot for Dreamer. I love working with this age group and with a little help from Jen (art director extraordinaire) & Michelle (my go-to hair stylist), this line allowed the shoot to come together beautifully.
Without further ado… our first Wander Clothing line. I hope you love it as much as I do!
clothing: wanderclothing.com
art director: jenifer johnston
hair: michelle elliott
portland | OR
I have tons of different interests, passions, directions I like to take things… this last week has been an accumulation of A LOT of them! I am not sure if I am creatively bursting or creatively spent… I can tell you that being able to see so many visions become reality is a pretty great feeling (whether it’s pure high or pure exhaustion). If you’ve ever chatted with me or been to one of my workshops you know I am BIG on opening up your world to everything that interests you. I don’t believe in not doing something just because you haven’t done it before or because it isn’t ‘you’. I say if it seems interesting- dive in! The worst that can happen is that you learn something new to can incorporate in your life. Best thing that can happen? You find what you were born to do.
Doing the type of photography I do means I spend a lot of time with clothing designers, fashion blogs, graphic design… all of them inspire me and weave themselves into my work. I found myself being more and more drawn to these things so when Julie (Ms. ZozoBugBaby herself) and I kept bringing up how fun it would be to create a place where we could put all our ideas and interests, it became pretty apparent this was something that had to be done. Over the next few months Dreamer Journal began to take shape. There were a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of mistakes, a lot of re-do’s and start overs but, in the end, we did it. We created the place that we had dreamed of. It is with much pride & happiness (okay, there were some tears and curse words too) I share with you our second (woo-hoo) issue… the Spring issue of Dreamer Journal :)
clothing: Lisa’s Mini Mad Hattery
hair & make-up: Madeline Roosevelt
styling & photography: me
portland | OR
Kara Layfield: These girls are dolls!! Looks like such a fun shoot! LOVE the clothes. (03.07.2012 01:58pm)
sara: Wow... you can already see the kind of ladies these two beauties are going to grown into. Gorgeous expressions and perspective. LOVE Shannon! (03.07.2012 02:02pm)
Becky: the sweetness in these images just jumps off the screen!! I was so anxiously awaiting the new issue, can't wait to dive in!! (03.07.2012 03:36pm)
shannon @ Lifelong Impressions: Love it! (03.07.2012 03:37pm)
jeramie ritchie: Shannon..you are AMAZING! YOU inspire me!!! I love how you follow your interests and look at the insanely fabulous results...over and over! The issue is fantastic...and your shoot is adorable. Perfection! (03.07.2012 09:12pm)
Tiona Fuller: Your shoots look like they are so much fun! I love all of the styling...and of course - the images!! (03.13.2012 06:57pm)
Just a quick pop in to show off another magazine project I worked on. It was a collaboration with Knuckleheads Clothing for Babiekins magazine. The issue turned out gorgeous. Some of my faves in there… very proud to be a part. Check out the whole issue in it’s awesomeness here.
wardrobe: Knuckleheads & Hula Mula Clothing
hair: Michelle Elliott
portland | OR
elizabeth pellette: These are amazing.. love all of them (02.13.2012 08:33pm)
Kara Layfield: Wow...gorgeous. Totally knocked out of the park! (02.13.2012 08:39pm)
lesley: sigh, you always seem to amaze me with your imagination....totally friggin awesome! (02.13.2012 08:49pm)
Heather H: LOVE, LOVE, LOVE...utterly AMAZING!!!! (02.13.2012 08:59pm)
renee waters: Oh Shannon, once again you rocked my world! :) XOXOXO Thank- you! (02.13.2012 09:06pm)
Kasandra: love this! you have such an amazing eye!! (02.13.2012 09:11pm)
Jeanette: You are freaking rocking my world. now I wanna do a grownup version of this shoot. :) Also - coming to WAshington March 9-13 :) (02.14.2012 12:31am)
ginny: LOVE!! (02.14.2012 12:53am)
Amy C: AH MA ZING!!! Good grief. I just can't stop staring at these!! (02.14.2012 04:06am)
Becky: oh my gosh...those little rockers are too cute! Love these!!! (02.14.2012 02:34pm)
tara s.: you are one amazing lady, shannon! happy valentine's day :) (02.14.2012 08:46pm)
zalaine: This is my favorite. Ever child should have this to look at and see how the power of music is bigger than all of us. You rock, my friend. (02.16.2012 05:43pm)
jeramie ritchie: These are AMAZING!!!!! I love punk shoots! Edgy, fun, and you nailed this!!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!! Very clever and different for a children's fashion shoot! LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! (02.18.2012 03:30am)
teri salvino: WHAAAAT????? This shoot is INSAAAANE!!!!!! UHHHHHMAZING!!!!! (02.19.2012 09:35pm)
Michelle Monson: LOVE this....just beautiful and amazing!!! (02.25.2012 08:44pm)
sally griswold: love these! Being a fellow photographer, and having kiddos, makes me wonder what behind the scenes must have been like for you! LOL. amazing shots, my guess is you worked your butt of for them! (03.14.2012 05:24am)
This is the second shoot of my mentoring day with Kristen and Kristi. Leading up to our day, Kristen and I were texting quite a bit back & forth… one night she was showing me her new website background. She was doing this amazing watercolor inspired color splash. I am a sucker for watercolor (see here) and Ritchie Rags had already sent me an amazing outfit so I was already on the ‘keeping it simple’ train of thought sooo… we grabbed some paint, some seamless, a couple of paintbrushes and went to town!
wardrobe: Ritchie Rags
accessories: Lisa’s Mini Mad Hattery
portland | OR
jeramie ritchie: You know I am over the moon!!!! Everything is complete perfection!!!!!!! Thank you a million!!!!!! (02.10.2012 06:32pm)
Kara Layfield: LOVE these!! Such a cute little model! (02.10.2012 08:27pm)
Julie: I cannot EVEN explain how much I LOOOOOOVE this shoot! I MUST. HAVE. this outfit! (02.10.2012 09:55pm)
Randy Rouse - Executive Producer of [FRAMED]: Shannon, these shots are fantastic. I've loved your style ever since we filmed you last year. It all just works! Hope to see you again. (02.10.2012 10:57pm)
niccolew: You know how much I love these! (02.10.2012 11:09pm)
Roxana: These are really cute, love no. 6. And the "glasses"! Wow, those are such a wonderful touch! (02.12.2012 06:15pm)
Tanja: What a stunning inspirational shoot, absolutely no words for the gorgeous outfit. (08.07.2012 04:10am)
I am an idea collector. I store them everywhere… my computer, my phone, post-its, binders, notebooks. I can’t remember the last time a day went by that I didn’t jot something down somewhere. Needless to say, I have a backlog of things that I would love to accomplish, do, shoot… most days I am just looking for the excuse (and time) to jump in. So when Kristen texted and asked about flying out and doing a couple of concept shoots together I was all over it.
We did two sets during our day. The first set was something that I had just been waiting for the time to do and the second was inspired by Kristen herself (I’ll show off that one in the next post) ;)
I have always been a fan of The Doors. Their music reminds me of my childhood (my mom was a fan)… I’ve always been drawn to musicians/poets (if I could pick a talent it would definitely be songwriter. amazing songwriter.) So when I happened upon their documentary on Netflix, I dug right in and the wheels started turning. I find Jim Morrison completely mesmerizing. He is beautiful… the way he speaks, moves his body… and there is something about an artistic genius that completely owns it that I find fascinating. I just kept thinking what a fantastic photographic subject he would be. So… what’s a girl to do but decide I would try to whip up my own little (more tame & lovable) Doors inspired shoot. I called up my friend that has both a daughter that knows how to channel her inner rock star and a mean talent with the sewing machine (why did everyone around me get that gene but I got skipped??) to collaborate with. We threw in some glitter (thank you Kristen) and some guitar (thank you Kristi) and had some fun in the studio…
![Kristi](http://www.kristimccordphotography.com/%3C!--%20Facebook%20Badge%20START%20--%3E%3Ca%20href=%22https://www.facebook.com/kristi.l.mccord%22%20target=%22_TOP%22%20style=%22font-family:%20"lucida%20grande",tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;%20font-size:%2011px;%20font-variant:%20normal;%20font-style:%20normal;%20font-weight:%20normal;%20color:%20#3B5998;%20text-decoration:%20none;%22%20title=%22Kristi%20Little%20McCord%22%3EKristi%20Little%20McCord%3C/a%3E%3Cbr/%3E%3Ca%20href=%22https://www.facebook.com/kristi.l.mccord%22%20target=%22_TOP%22%20title=%22Kristi%20Little%20McCord%22%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22https://badge.facebook.com/badge/1556486680.3468.1024099009.png%22%20style=%22border:%200px;%22%20/%3E%3C/a%3E%3Cbr/%3E%3Ca%20href=%22http://www.facebook.com/badges/%22%20target=%22_TOP%22%20style=%22font-family:%20"lucida%20grande",tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;%20font-size:%2011px;%20font-variant:%20normal;%20font-style:%20normal;%20font-weight:%20normal;%20color:%20#3B5998;%20text-decoration:%20none;%22%20title=%22Make%20your%20own%20badge!%22%3ECreate%20Your%20Badge%3C/a%3E%3C!--%20Facebook%20Badge%20END%20--%3E){kind=link}
portland | OR
zalaine: Dear Miss Rock Star, you so, do rock. Love, love, love this one, Miss S! (02.09.2012 04:02am)
Roxana: I'm a huge fan of The Doors myself, and these photos are an amazingly cute tribute! :) She is definitely a rockstar! :D Especially in the ones with the microphone. (02.09.2012 07:28am)
Juliet Carey: YOU AMAZE ME!!!!!!!!!!! ALL.THE.TIME :) SO AWESOME! XOXO! (02.09.2012 04:54pm)
viv: awesome shoot....love the doors and jim morrison...I am an idea collector as well, ideas are jotted on napkins, post-its, phone, moleskine etc......so it was getting out of hand so I started using evernote to keep them all in one place, a total sanity saver. (02.10.2012 02:30pm)
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Juliet Carey: Absolutely STUNNING!!! WOW girl...you rock my world!!!! (03.08.2012 12:57am)
Lisa: Starstruck! Wow. (03.08.2012 02:08am)
Alicia Thurston: I LOVE THIS SHANNON! The colours are my thing right now, as I'm revamping my branding, all of these colours are exactly what I'm going for, maybe I'm a tween at heart. ;) Can't wait to see the site up for the launch of the line tomorrow, hoping these gorgeous clothes come in smaller sizes too because I NEED that romper! Perfection in your images as usual. xo (03.08.2012 02:32am)
remi lai: I TOTALLY LOOOOOOOVE THAT FIRST GROUP PHOTO!!! TOTALLY ROCKiN'!!!!! SUPERBLY executed pose!!! Great style!! (03.08.2012 02:52am)
Scarlette: Of course you did. ;) I'm amazed and speechless and at the same time not surprised that you and your fabulous co-artists could create something even more wonderful. Love the clothes, the photographs, the art, the hair and adore these girlies I've watched grow up in life and in front of your lens. :) (03.08.2012 03:24am)
zalaine: Wander, indeed! (03.08.2012 05:48pm)
Tamara: Love these and the back drop. Did you make it or get it somewhere? (03.08.2012 10:33pm)
josh: These are f'in beautiful. (03.09.2012 02:09am)
Deyla Huss Photography: Yeah yeah yeah!!! love it! way to go girl! (03.11.2012 09:00pm)
kristin eldridge photography: wowza. such great contrast! love this shoot! (03.13.2012 02:13am)
Joni Schrantz: I am admittedly not the biggest fan of children's photography, but I absolutely adore your work. This is fabulous, it feels so fashion inspired, I LOVE it! Amazing work! (03.15.2012 12:15am)
Karen: I just wanted to drop you a line and say AMAZING styling and photography .I am so glad I have found you. You Frida Kahlo inspired shoot was AWESOME. (03.15.2012 11:57am)