"Feminine Rage" Photo Session
A few weeks ago, I participated in a "Feminine Rage" photo session. It was a blast. @Rileymorganphotography on Instagram spearheaded the photo session. Her ideas and creativity brought a group of 8 girls, models, and photographers together, and we took photos for hours! Everyone was hyping each other up the entire time.
What is feminine rage?
As women, we are subject to many things that cause rage: not having control over our bodies, sexism in workplaces, the pay gap, and violence against women, to name a few. And despite (or in spite of) all that, we keep our heads held high and push through with a smile. That is what feminine rage means to me - putting on a smile even when you want to cry. But, though some women are competitive, women support each other. This session is a perfect example of this. If I had a dollar for every compliment thrown out that day, I wouldn’t have to work anymore! These ladies were on it; there were many “Oooh girl, you look great” and “OMG, that’s perfect.” It was a perfect photo session and filled my bucket.
About the photo session
Riley found castle ruins in Methuen, MA that fit the theme and vibe she was looking for. This is crazy because I grew up in Methuen and never knew it existed.
Sidebar: in school, for every Memorial Day, they made each grade learn a patriotic song and then a few others that we would sing as a school community. One of the songs that they made us sing is called “I Like Methuen.” The lyrics *literally* say, “from the castle walls to the Spicket Falls,” and I never knew about the legit castle. It was written a while ago, but it is on Spotify.
Riley lives far away, so she asked me to check it out a few days early. A week before the shoot, my mom and I drove to the castle, got lost multiple times, and finally realized what road Google Maps was trying to take us to; in our defense, it was a small dirt road that looked like a driveway. When we finally made it, it was beautiful. It was clean and had beautiful trees and flowers in the area. I believe there is also a hiking trail further up the road. I sent the video to Riley, who said we would go there for the photo session.
Leading up to the day, there was a lot of collaboration, not only between myself and Riley (the two photographers) but also among the group as a whole. Riley made a playlist that fit the mood I listened to as I made a Pinterest board for inspiration. The girls in the group chat with all 8 of us sent pictures of clothes so they would all be on theme. I loved how, even in the group chat, they were all hyping each other up.
The day of the photo session came quite quickly. I arrived early and was glad to see Riley starting to set up so I wouldn’t be alone. Riley has worked with these models on other creative projects, so knowing someone who knows the people arriving was great. We were super lucky. It had rained all morning, so no people were in the park. It stopped raining in time for the session and was overcast, the perfect weather for portrait photography.
The models arrived around 12:30, pretty much all at the same time. We started by these beautiful stone stairs with bright purple flowers around them. It was stunning. Once we finished the stairs, we moved on to the ruins. The ruins had one tall section with beautiful archways connected to a corridor-like space. We played around in that area for a bit. At the back of the castle was a massive staircase. It was right over a green around, so we played with taking shots from above which led to some cool ideas. On the other side of the stairs, a massive pine tree had fallen, so naturally, we took pictures incorporating the tree.
We also took a few group pictures in a dried-up fountain in the middle of the castle’s “courtyard.” It made for some cool shots. It was very renaissance fair meets ethereal meets angry. It was fantastic. The models were all experienced and knew exactly what to do. They took it and made our ideas come to life if we gave them any direction.
The last leg of this marathon photo session was “the banquet.” This part was so fun. I brought a table, Riley bought everything, and the girls made an absolute mess—but a fun one. Two girls, Laurel and Alex, had people throw pomegranate juice at them, and they were drenched in it. Alex was giving “Carrie.”
I also learned something new about my camera! My camera has a “multiple exposures” setting. Multiple exposures are what those old wedding photos were. Picture the couple at the altar and their faces above, but kind of transparent. I took a cool picture testing it out. It is probably not something I will do regularly, but with these creative sessions, it can make for a cool effect.
My final thoughts on this photo session are that women supporting women is always beautiful to witness—and how it should be! I love to do sessions like this because I can let out my more creative, messy, abstract side and take liberties I would never take with a client (unless they asked me to).
Look out for more of these sessions! I will definitely be doing more photo sessions like this in the future. For now, check out the gallery from this session!
