Nicole 150

This fine portrait marks the end of an excellent, memorable photo shoot. Nicole is the 81st Lady behind Crystal Veil.

A word of thanks goes to Nel for allowing us the use of her house and garden.

Nicole, thank you so much for accepting my invitation to do a photo shoot in vintage prescription glasses. It was certainly not an everyday invitation for a girl on her lunch break and it speaks for your open minded approach that you took up the challenge. You got the picture straightaway after seeing some examples of my work. Having one previous photo shoot under your belt was instrumental as well. You told me about your own glasses collection which enables you to choose the right frame to go along with your outfit of the day. It made sense that you were curious about your looks in frame styles from decades long before you were born. Your motivation was demonstrated again during the preparatory phase. It always helps when a model sends me the information about her prescription and PD as soon as possible. The pictures you sent to me were invaluable as they showed you in a variety of frames. This enabled me to select suitable glasses for you.

Lots of work went into this selection as you were the first model ever with a prescription of +1.75 / +2.00. This part of my collection had been gathering dust in my attic for ages so it took me a week to get it reorganized and cleaned. It was an exciting prospect that at least a part of all those hundreds of glasses could be brought to life. When I started my project in 2009, the intention was to use this weblog as a digital catalog of my entire collection (1000 pairs for short sight and 1000 pairs for long sight). The vast majority of the minus glasses has long been documented but most of the plus glasses remained hidden treasures. Longsighted young ladies are a minority compared with their shortsighted sisters. I also noticed that longsighted ladies tend to be more shy about their looks in glasses than shortsighted ladies. This may have to do with the additional exposure of the eyes behind magnifying lenses. I once had a relationship with an Irish lady who was quite longsighted (+ 7.50). She told me that she was always picked out by the teacher whenever there were problems in the classroom. And she believed that this was all because of her glasses. Nothing to hide.... I did a dozen photo shoots in Ireland (2013) and again the stigma on plus glasses was affirmed. There are far more longsighted young people in Ireland than on the continent. So my hopes were high but only one of my Irish models was longsighted. Afterwards, a shortsighted model volunteered to pose in glasses for long sight to fill at least a small part of the void. In my opinion she did a fine job and she was fascinated to see her pictures. Big eyes instead of small eyes.... She saw some of your portraits two weeks ago and said "This is the real thing. Her portraits are so much better than mine. You can tell the difference. She is beautiful and she looks great in all these glasses".

Nicole, she was absolutely right. The selection process in the living room was simply amazing. It seldom happens that almost every pair on the table works for a model. It was delightful to witness that you really have a perfect face for glasses. When the posing got under way, you took directions very well and it was wonderful to see you gradually getting into your stride as a model. One of your many assets is the intensity of the look in your green eyes, accentuated by the slight magnification of the lenses in the glasses. All in all, you posed in forty pairs. The majority of these glasses was never shown in any of my 100+ previous photo shoots.

You told me beforehand that you did not consider yourself photogenic. I hope the photos will make you change your mind about that. Some acting skills were necessary during the final part of your photo shoot. You said that you were never much of an actress but in my humble opinion this was another example of self underestimation. Your series in the black Valentine glasses testifies to that. Your posing quality equals that of the best contributors to the Valentine Special on my previous weblog.

We only got halfway the selection table and some 60 glasses are eagerly waiting for their chance to land on your nose. You have shown that you can carry a photo shoot with ease. Nicole, thank you so much! I am looking forward to work with you again in the near future.