Fred Fraser Commercial Photographer

Liz Bell, the brains behind the beauty at Liz Bell Agency.

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Ivan Sayers a fashion historian, shot for VFE, June 2010 issue. Click the pic for a larger version on a more viewable black background.

In one of those strange 6 degrees of separation situations it turns out Mr. Sayers has a dress that was passed on to Liz and I from my mother who in turn received it from her mother who found it while going through a trunk with her mother. In case you’ve lost track, that would be my great grandmother. However, the dress was made for her mother, my great-great grandmother Mary Josephine Timmis, 1852 – 1918, from Montreal.

My Mom passed the dress on to us a few years back thinking we might be able to do something with it – so, naturally, we photographed it as part of a fashion story with a bit of a modern twist … Modern because I am certain that if we were going to be true to the period the model would not have been cavorting around in her underwear in front of the camera. After we had shot the dress Liz decided that it would be best to find a home for it – one that would either put it to good use or restore it to it’s original condition (my Mom had made some alterations to it so she could wear it back in the days when I was a wee beach baby on the shores of Sydney). Liz took it to a vintage clothing shop where Mr Sayers found it. During the course of conversation with Mr. Sayers, while I was setting up the camera for the photo of him, I mentioned the dress and as I described it he said it was possible that he had it in his possession. I forwarded on the photos below so he could confirm.

As far as the family historical records go the dress appears to have been made in the 1870′s by my great-great grandmother.

Click on the photo to see the rest of the shoot.

I used to have matte boxes for my cameras – it made producing in camera effects a lot easier. However, coming over all McGyver-like produces a delicious unpredictability that, when coupled with the advantage of instant feedback you get shooting digitally provides, makes trying to juggle filters and hand holding worth the effort.

Victoria is between agents at the moment and I will have a link for her soon.

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Liz finds Shannon in a coffee shop – that story here. My story for this shoot is a digital start on a look that begs to be shot on film, but I don’t have any color film in the fridge, but I do have some ten year old Fujiroid (I’ll bet Fuji hates that people call it that) and so the digital camera takes a back seat.

I love it when an unplan comes together. Click the pic for more/bigger. Sorry if your monitor is too small to see the pics enlarged.

A portrait of Wendy DeKruyff from Dream as shot for Vancouver Fashion Ezine.

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