Cheesecake

Short story:
When I first started thinking about blogging, I wanted to do something that involved vintage pinup art and dessert recipes - it other words, cheesecake and cheesecake. However, the name Cheesecake and Cheesecake was already taken, so I shortened it a bit to Cakes and Cakes.

The reason I mention this is that while I love pinup photography and illustration, it's not something that I've ever really thought I could do myself, since I've never been very photogenic. I take my picture all the damn time now for this blog, though, and I've realized that that's not really true. You'd think years of watching America's Next Top Model would have already shown me the value of knowing my angles, but it wasn't until I spent some time trying to take good photos that I figured out exactly what that meant.

I decided over the weekend to take some pinup style photos, and while there was some trial and error, I'm really pleased with how the exercise turned out. I found this tutorial from pinup model Cherry Dollface really helpful when it came to posing. Here are some of the photos that I thought turned out well.

I should note that I did do a little photoshopping for color correction and to get rid of my clunky thermostat.

I do want to share a few things that I learned in the process. Nothing big (I think the Cherry Dollface tutorial that I linked to covered the really important things), but stuff that seemed to really make a difference.

1. Make sure your clothes fit really well. These shorts were a little big in the waist, and I was sucking in my stomach because I was taking photos of myself without a shirt on (like you do), so the gaping of the waistband was fairly obvious. I ended up pinning the shorts in the back to get a better fit.

2. Higher heels really do make your legs look better. Relative to my height, I have a long torso and short, very muscular legs. Wearing higher heels visually changed those proportions.

3. If you're leaning against a wall, put your weight on your hips, not your shoulders. Too much weight on your upper body flattens out your arms and makes it look like you have bingo wings.

4. Make sure you can see. I normally wear glasses, and when I took them off for some of the pictures, my eyes went unfocused and my face just looked weird. Vague and glazed is not a good look.

I'm interested in hearing what people think of my first attempt at a photoshoot. It feels a little strange to post photos like this, but I do enjoy this style of photography, and I'd really like to play around with it a bit more. I would love to do something like Vavoom Pinup Photography, where they do your hair and makeup and provide you with cute outfits, although it's a little expensive for my budget.