Benita Robledo – Blogger Session
I emailed Benita with high hopes but low expectations. “Okay… if she says she can’t, at least I tried! If she says she can…. I guess I’ll learn how to work this new lens!” I had no idea how to reach out to somebody that had the little blue checkmark on their Instagram and a full scroll-worthy IMDB! And the more I researched her, the more nervous I got.
I was heading home to visit my mother-in-law and wait for my husband, father-in-law, and brother-in-law to return home from their weeklong trip to the Grand Canyon. My MIL said she had to work all day Friday, and I had two options: I could spend the day working out, going to the gym, trying out one of the local climbing gyms. Or I could try to schedule a small photo shoot. Because I’m me, I was like “Sure, I’ll do both!” (why do I always think I have more time than I do?), which led me to scoping out #LancasterBloggers and #PAmodels on Instagram. I scrolled through so many duds before stumbling upon Benita’s page, but I was happy to finally come across it.
We had a lot of fun! She was so smart and genuine with years of experience under her belt, but still looks and acted so youthful! It was my very first blogger session, and I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, so we set up a 2 hour blogger session for 2-3 looks and 1-2 locations, but it really spiraled from there. Benita was SO helpful and walked me through her past photo shoots so that I could set some expectations for the future. She let me know that she had just a few things she needed photographed for sponsorships, but she agreed to bring along a few other outfits just for fun. Thank God she did, because we ended up using them all! We went through 10 different looks and locations in 4 hours of shooting! We both could’ve stopped after 2 hours like we agreed to beforehand, but we were making such great progress and having a total blast that we kept at it!
I did a little location scouting before meeting up with Benita, so I knew there was a backroad outside of town that I wanted to explore if she had the time. Benita being from California and myself living in New York, neither of us knew exactly what to expect for the outskirts of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but we both had the time, and what else would we be doing today, anyway? Along the road was a dilapidated barn, a wall of flowers, a greenhouse, and a field full of tall grass.
And of course- how could we have a blogger session without ending at a coffee shop? Good coffee, cute macaroons, and a whole lotta laughter!
Benita Robledo spent more than 10 years in the film industries in NYC and LA as an actress and director with shows like Agent Carter, Teen Wolf, and Gossip Girl and movies like What Happens in Vegas and Going the Distance. Now she is an ethical fashion blogger, but you could really call her an educator. She taught me so stinking much about where to shop, how to reuse, modifying your wardrobe, pinching your pennies, and more! For my first blogger session, I don’t think it could’ve gone any better!
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