I am so glad you stumbled on my old blog! I have much newer online hangouts.
My teaching website is: The Prop Styling Experience
My Instagram is @robinzachary
I am busy teaching one on one intensives, and group online classes via Zoom and would love to connect with you. While I am not updating this blog, there is so much useful information here so keep browsing.
Happy Styling!
~Robin
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If you've wished you could be a person who dreams up ideas for photo shoots, shops for beautiful things all day, plays with fabrics and color swatches, picks out tableware, props and clothing and gets invited to product launches and gets paid for it…then commercial photo styling may just be the career you've been looking for. This class will make you feel like a stylist and learn to start acting like one. Now taking registration for my Prop & Styling Workshop which begins May 30th. This will be an introduction. Over 4 Saturday sessions, we'll cover composition and color palettes, art direction, mood boards, sourcing props, styling kits, planning the shoot and then shooting. I'll share my trade secrets and resources gathered from 20 years in the business. You'll love the small group setting at a beautiful daylight studio in Chelsea. Click for registration or email me right away for more information. A big thank you to Janelle Gonyea for the beautiful logo design.
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I hear from so many people who ask me "How did you become a stylist?" "What was your career path like?", so I know it's on a lot of minds. The desire to live and breathe creativity, to shop constantly and live in bright airy photo studios or go on location to gorgeous places sounds like an incredible way to earn a living! First off I don't want to scare you, but it a LOT of work! If you follow many talented stylists and photographers on Instagram, all you see is the carefully curated results of many hours of hard work and the daily photos that you see in a feed were probably not shot every day as it appears. So what I'm trying to say, is it's a lot harder than it looks!
My path began after college where I studied Fine Art, Art History, and worked at the college newspaper. I followed the path of a graphic designer after which I accidentally fell into magazines. Working at a magazine gave me the opportunity to learn how to create shots for editorial content. It was a small magazine which doesn't even exist now, but it was up to me to find the props, book the photographer and style the set to convey the point that we were making in the story.
Many years and many magazines later I landed at Bridal Guide Magazine as the Creative Director. My days were filled with pretty gowns, gorgeous flowers, jewelry, tableware and the shoots were my responsibility to plan. We travelled all over the country and the Caribbean to photograph the fashion and beauty stories, but the still life, i.e., the product, wedding details, cake, flowers and tabletop shoots were all done in studios in NYC. While there were editors responsible for pulling in a lot of these items, I worked with the photographer to set up and take the perfect shot.
I am grateful that Bridal Guide was a small company because I had the ability to do so much. I used to take the bouquets home from the shoots, cut them apart and see how they were put together. I needed to come up with backdrops and surfaces for every shoot so I found the best prop houses to rent from and stores to buy fabrics, papers and other materials. Sometimes I worked with a great up-and-coming wedding planner (there are so many, now famous, to name) to visualize a theme wedding even before it was trendy to have a theme wedding. I painted and taped and rigged and schlepped things to shoots. Each and every interaction was a learning experience that added to my toolkit of styling skills. When I was ready to leave my full-time job, I knew what I needed to do to reinvent myself as a freelance stylist.
Fast forward to how this relates to you. If you read accounts from various stylists like Chelsea Fuss or Emily Henderson you will see that there really is no one path. We all do it differently. You have to envision your dream and do what it takes to make it a reality. I'm still working as a stylist, but the most rewarding experiences I have had thus far have included teaching and coaching aspiring stylists. I've logged over 7 years at FIT and now my new styling class is launching in April. If you want to chat or know that this is what you want to do, please get in touch. I would love to meet you and help you kickstart your new career.
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It's been a strange year, but looking back lots of wonderful things happened. Some personal challenges kept me from keeping up with adding new content to this blog but I heard from so many people who found it and got in touch none-the-less. The kind words have been such an inspiration and motivating force. I've picked up so many great new clients and said goodbye to a few long time clients this year. I'm still teaching styling classes but the best news is I launched my one-on-one consulting business and have helped many stylists find their focus and refine their portfolios to better present their talents to the world. I hope I hear from you in the new year. Oh yeah and I finally joined Instagram. Peace. Crafting and styling by Robin Zachary. Photo by Alexandra Grablewski.
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I get asked all the time, what are my "Top 5 tips for styling a great photo", so I have decided to do a post explaining it all.
GO TO THE LIGHT: My favorite shots use beautiful, natural window light so it helps to have a spot with pretty white window frames and white walls to be your backdrop as in this photo found on Pinterest via Swandive.
This single stem pale pink peony in a bottle is so simple and pretty. The table is placed to the side of window so this is a great example of side lighting. Notice the lightest parts of the flower closest to the window and the shadows on the far side of the flower. The extra bonus is shooting on such an angle that you get the soft focus windows trailing off into the distance. It adds interest to the background as well as beautiful varied lighting coming through each of the window panes. I love this shot for so many reasons most notably the textured wood table and the simple subject, but if you have this window situation in your house this will greatly improve your photos. I guarantee it!
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It's no secret that I love hearts. Enjoy this day and tell some special people that you love them! See my Pinterest board for more pics that show my infatuation with hearts. Photo and crafting by Robin Zachary.
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I've been dying for some new food photos for my portfolio for some time now. I love the vibe on food shoots—there's a balance between creativity and hard work—and food stylists are such great people to collaborate with. I had the pleasure of working with veteran stylists Grady and Mariann and photographer David Lazarus today. David and I just wrapped a shoot for Bridal Guide last month and he asked me to join them. I was grateful to be included. What a great way to start the new year!
I don't have the shots David took yet, but here are some of my photos of the props I gathered, a combination of handmade ceramics, tin pieces and kitchen tools. I've been into the dark industrial look of vintage utilitarian pieces. Can't wait to show you the food shots.
Photos and styling by Robin Zachary.
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Styling and photography by Robin Zachary. Flowers by The Little Glass Slipper. Invitation by Wedding Paper Divas.
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I made this twig and pine cone star for a client a couple of years back and I still love to look at the photo. Here's my original post on how I made it. How to make a Twig and Pine Cone Star.
Happy Holidays!
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I'm working on styling a tabletop shoot for Bridal Guide next week and here's my inspiration.
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