Cosmetology Photo Shoot

Saturday, we spent most of the day at Deondra's much anticipated photo shoot. Her cosmetology class worked with make-up artist to the stars, Rudy Sotomayor, to create a fashion show and photo shoot that was prepared by the students with his help. It was really amazing and the students got to see the behind-the-scenes work for a fashion show. The students were put into groups (before school was out) and selected a themes for the models. My daughter's group had two students that modeled and one that did make-up and helped the photographer. They also had five models from an agency, plus one little girl from our church. Their group picked themes that included a child model who was dressed to mimick the older model. Trust me when I say, we had a time trying to find someone that looked liked Deondra as a child! One little girl that we know really well, would've been perfect, but she is too unpredictable to rely on (tantrum diva). Last minute we remembered that Mi'Kenzy had hair that was a tad darker than Deondra's and skin tone that wasn't much darker than her. She did a really good job for never having modeled before or being around us other than at church. Only problem we had was mom didn't send her shoes as promised, so I had to make a quick run to Kohls to get a pair (took them back afterwards). My store manager at Belk, let us borrow clothes and accessories for our group. I was in charge of keeping up with them, which was a job and a half, but I tackled it! lol
Here's Deondra and Mi'Kenzy strutting their stuff! So pretty!

She was so thrilled to follow Deondra around!

Finishing touches on Deondra's makeup

Mi'Kenzy getting her big girl look! Such a professional 5 year old!

Robyn doing her thing!



Rudy was pretty much there to oversee what they did and help where necessary. He has really been a huge blessing to their class. He was in a car accident in New York a couple of years ago that almost took his life. Doctors had to remove part of his skull, which left him in a coma for two months. He was brought home to Fort Worth, where he has been in therapy and recovering quickly. He is amazingly regaining his skills and decided to use this second chance at life to help others by volunteering at the school. This is an amazing opportunity for the girls that they probably wouldn't have had otherwise. He loves the girls like little sisters and I have to say Deondra is one of his favorites. She made him a mousepad in her Communications class that has his picture on it, and he proudly tells everybody about it! God has truly blessed this young man, and I hope he continues to use his gift to help others. Of course, being caught up in the moment, means I forgot to take a picture of him, but I found one on his website. I couldn't figure out how to link the video to this post, so I have a separate post that shows the video about his recovery.
Rudy Sotomayor