Written & photographed by Walter Grio. More photos below.
MISS LYLE STYLE
I first heard about Cheralee Lyle after reading the Spring Forward article on the Style section of the Washingtonian. I went to Cheralee’s website, misslylestyle.com and was impressed with her style and with her website. It was clean, modern, and her photos looked great. It’s funny because I feel that Washington DC is so small and you feel like you know everyone who’s doing something with fashion. But then you realize it’s not that small afterall. Sometimes you just realize you live under a rock.
Originally from Cape Town, South Africa, Cheralee has worked and collaborated with some brands. She moved here less than two years ago and before she could even unpack in her new home, she already held invitations to several shows at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York to write for Elle Magazine SA. Shortly thereafter, she was also featured on Refinery 29 in February 2012.
That said, I was really excited when Cheralee agreed to shoot with me. We ended up taking pictures around the neighborhood in Columbia Heights and also at Union Station. One of my favorite photos is this shot on the escalator at the Columbia Heights Metro. The natural light and the lighting from the rails worked perfectly together. It also helped that the escalator wasn’t working — one of the times you’re actually ok with that.
And surprisingly, I haven’t taken any photos at Union Station before this shoot. Another one of my favorites is Cheralee sitting on the water fountain with Union Station in the background. There’s a tourist bus behind her and if it didn’t say “DC” on it, you would have thought we were in front of a hauptbahnof.
I can’t remember the last time I did a shoot when all I brought was my camera — no lights and no other equipment — just me, the model, and my camera. It’s been a while since I did something like that and it reminded me of when I first started taking pictures in 2006.
As you can see in the photos, Cheralee was very easy to photograph and work with. She was also working with Warby Parker so we were able to use some of their frames and sunglasses. We spent about 35 minutes on Saturday and another 35 minutes on a super rainy Sunday. The rain stopped long enough for us to squeeze in the shoot between thunderstorms and it even provided that perfect cloudy light.
Needless to say, it was pretty easy and actually fun — especially when you’re working with someone as stylish as Miss Lyle.
You can follow Cheralee on her website at misslylestyle.com and also on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
