The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate. I love to grill out, light fireworks, be with friends and family, and most importantly, enjoy the time off.
When the 4th of July approached this year, my wife and I knew that we wanted to do an Independence Day-Themed Photo Shoot for her blog. Not too long ago, Hallie found an American flag tote bag at a boutique in the city called Olive and Bette’s. She knew that she could put an entire outfit together around that bag, so last weekend, she headed over to Olive and Bette’s to try on some outfits.
She ended up choosing a white pair of shorts and a red, white, and blue patterned print top, some jewelry, a pair of flip flops, as well as the American flag tote bag.
Once Hallie chose an outfit, we went to a few other places to find some props. I think that props can really help improve a lifestyle photo shoot. So after a trip to Trader Joe’s, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Gracious Home, we finally had all we needed.
When Hallie finished getting ready, we packed up all the props we needed into our trusty cart and walked over to Central Park to shoot our 4th of July-themed picnic.
I brought a variety of lenses with me for this photo shoot but ended up shooting with my 50mm 1.4 and my 105mm 2.8 for the majority of the time. Our timing was pretty good that day. Since we spent the majority of the day shopping, by the time we were ready to shoot, the sun was setting quite nicely, and the light was fantastic.
We chose a white picnic blanket for this shoot to go with the red, white, and blue theme. I found that the white blanket also worked pretty well as a reflector, which helped to brighten up our scene just a bit.
Hallie and I were both quite pleased with how this photo shoot turned out. It included a really nice variety of outfit and detail shots, and we were quite impressed with ourselves for pulling everything together in just one day.
Here are a few of my favorite shots from our 4th of July-inspired photo shoot in Central Park. You can see the complete post on Sleepless in Sequins.
