Sarah Dawson | Art for Art | Half Moon Bay

Throughout 2014, I have been working on my year-long personal project, Art for Art. Once a month, I find a fellow photographer whose work I admire, and I photograph them; they photograph me. View the full set of previous shoots in the series here: Art for Art.

Sadly, I skipped November, but I photographed my final Art for Art collaboration in December with my friend Sarah Dawson.

Our Styles

Anna: My style is soft, light, and airy. I think Sarah and I have similar approaches in how we capture people and moments, but her aesthetic can be a bit more bold and dramatic, which I love too.

Sarah: My photography style definitely leans towards feminine, whimsical and romantic. Anna’s style strikes me as editorial – bright, clean and soft.

The Shoot

Anna: It took two months for us to actually schedule and coordinate this shoot, because Sarah is even more of a jetsetter than I am. She spends half her time in Paris, and half her time here in Northern California, and it’s always a delight to catch up with her and hear about her crazy adventures. Sarah suggested the Fitzgerald Marine Preserve as a shoot location, and our styling grew from there, with flower crowns from Melanie Tom of Hawthorn Flower Studio and hair and makeup from Becky Lau (for me) and Tammy Do (for Sarah). I love how it all turned out.

Sarah: I had a great time working with Anna. I feel that we had a similar approach with our photographic vision and direction. She was very attentive to details and the resulting photos reflect just that.

Lessons Learned?

Anna: The best part of these shoots is always getting to see what it’s like to work with another photographer. I love seeing the end results from Sarah and especially love her tilt-shift images too.

Sarah: I loved seeing how Anna worked. To watch what she saw, captured and then on to the final result. It just amazes me how each person can see the same thing differently and create their own version of that beauty.

Here are just a couple of my favorites from Sarah.

Sarah’s tilt-shift lens is so cool. The focus plane is all done in-camera and not in photoshop, which is just such a great effect.

This concludes the Art for Art series of 2014! Thank you to Sarah and to all my fellow photographers who participated in the project. It was a wonderful experience through and through.

Vendors:

Flower Crowns: Hawthorn Flower Studio
Anna’s Hair & Makeup: Becky Lau
Sarah’s Hair & Makeup: Tammy Do

Art for Art is a monthly personal project in which Anna and a fellow photographer photograph each other. See the full series here.

Anna Wu is a San Francisco wedding photographer often around the world. Follow her Art for Art series and professional work at annawu.com and on Facebook.

Art for Art

Melanie Gabrielle | Snowy Winter in New York City

Gabriel Gastelum| Art for Art | Los Angeles Portrait Photography

Gabby Sutori | Art for Art | Barcelona, Spain

Nima Salimi| Art for Art | San Francisco Portrait Photography

Sherry Lu | Art for Art | San Francisco & Vancouver

Rosa Guerra | Art for Art | San Francisco

Fizzah Raza | Art for Art | San Francisco

Jasmine Curtis | Art for Art | San Francisco

Kevin Chin | Art for Art | San Francisco

Matthias | Art for Art | San Francisco

Annie Vovan | Art for Art | Pacific Palisades