Carolyn Miller / Springboard Models Photoshoot in Lincoln, NE | September 25, 2010

Wow! This past week has been so chaotic! Handling back to back weekend appearances while trying to stay on top of school is such a hard task, but I’m proud to say I made it through all of my exams and projects! 

As most of you already know, I flew to Lincoln, Nebraska to have my official photoshoot with Carolyn Miller of Blinq Studios and Springboard Models this past weekend. The flight to Omaha was relatively smooth, except I was freezing cold! I hugged MinMin, my panda son to stay warm and comfy. When my plane touched down in Omaha, I must say, it looked quite dreary and gray outside, but when I walked into the terminal, my sister queen Lizzy and her Mom, Linda gave me a very warm welcome. My other sister queen, Francesca (we filmed a video in the airport you can watch by clicking here) arrived the next day from St. Louis. 

Friday night, all of the America’s U.S. Miss Queens (Francesca, Lizzy, Lexi, and myself) along with Megan Wettach’s other national title holders for World’s Glamorous Miss drove to downtown Lincoln to eat at the famous Lazlo’s Brewery. Thank goodness Robin of Springboard Models had made us a reservation because the place was packed! Our group sat upstairs in the VIP area and had our own room and set of servers. The service was great and the food was sensational! I usually don’t like most sauces or dips, but Francesca persuaded me to try the Spinach & Artichoke dip and it actually pretty good! I’m not hopping on the dip train or anything any time soon, but I liked it better than I thought I would. For my main course, I had a 6 oz. filet mignon which was amazing! 

Following dinner, we all hit the streets with Carolyn for a photoshoot. Megan, Robin,and all of the wonderful Moms stopped traffic in downtown so Carolyn could get some great shots of us 8 girls in the streets of downtown Lincoln. I can’t wait to see those photos! 

And even though we were out late, that would never stop us from being punctual for early morning shoot the following day. We arrived at Springboard Models at 6:45 ready to turn on our glam faces. We blasted Far East Movement, Leighton Meester, MGMT, Usher, and Lady Gaga from Robin’s speakers to get ourselves going for the shoot. 

Ashley Hanson did my hair and makeup and I must say, she did an outstanding job. She swept a variety of royal purples on my eyes and smoked it out. I love how she did my hair because it was a very relaxed, bedhead style with tons of curl and volume, but still looked polished. We shot in the studio for 2-3 hours before we all piled into 2 big cars and drove to a cement factory for our real location. I was very excited for this portion of the shoot!

The cement factory was incredible. There were high mountains of sand that we took to our advantage along with railroad tracks with empty cars. It was pretty cold, so us queens wore our jackets over our evening gowns or different wardrobes before we had to shoot.

I have to give a shout out to my friend, Jenny Valliere, who is the reigning World’s Glamorous Miss. My buttercream yellow gown has quite the train along with the flowing cape that hangs off my right shoulder…that’s a lot of fabric on the hem. My Mom and older sister would have killed me if I brought this gown home with sand and mud on the hem, so Jenny crouched behind us and held my extra fabric off the ground. JENNY, YOU ARE INCREDIBLE. :) *kiss!* 

Carolyn is SUCH an incredible photographer and you can definitely tell she has endless passion. Her vision is unique and Robin’s eye will definitely give us spectacular photos! 

I can’t wait to see the finished photos! As soon as I get them, I’ll post them ASAP! 

In the meantime, enjoy more of these behind the scenes photos!

OH! I almost forgot! Lizzy, my beautiful sister queen is also an up and coming photographer! We got some shots together while I was waiting for my turn with Carolyn. These two photos are my favorite! 

This photo makes me feel like I’m modeling couture wedding gowns :)

Also, I feel it is important for me to say that I am VERY glad that everyone who goes to the University of Texas at Austin is safe and sound from the shooting yesterday. My boyfriend, Jonathan called me and I was so scared for him. It just seems so surreal and unbelievable. I am thankful that he is safe and so are all of the other students who attend UT.