Hunter, Kyler, Cole

Hipster Mermaid - Paige

Dreamy Charlee

I will definitely be adding more to this post, or maybe just making a whole other post about this shoot. But I cannot hold these back because I need to get them out and show people! I can imagine her fiance's face now. 

Witchy

I was sitting in my Personal Finance class, listening to my professor go off topic and talk about when he used to live in Spain, and I began to make a list of the photos I wanted to take this summer. While this isn't the first great photo epiphany I had that afternoon, it stuck in my head and wouldn't leave. And when I have a surge of creativity like this, I have to indulge it or be forever haunted by my own ideas. 

I was feeling especially inspired by American Horror Story: Coven, and how fabulous all the witches dressed. I wrote these bullets on my paper that also had "diversified portfolio" scribbled on the top:

• Black Dress?
• Dark eyes
• Dark lips
• Red?
• Necklace
• Headdress? Headband?

Obviously all I knew was that dark eyes and dark lips were the biggest part of my plan. I was relatively unsure of everything else that was to be incorporated in these photos, which is very common with my creative sessions. 

 

I practiced this eyeshadow look on myself the night before:

• Jumbo eyeshadow pencil by NYX in Milk
• Urban pigment from the UD Electric Palette
• Blackout from Naked 2
• Revolt from the UD Electric Palette

Topped off with enormous eyelashes and a blend of Train Bleu by Nars with MAC Cyber. 

The jewelry was the component that completely changed from my original thought. I was envisioning a red-maroon-gold-black color scheme, and had made a huge, gold filligree, bib-style necklace for this shoot. But when I threw the silver pigment in the inner corner of her eyes, the color scheme I had been imagining went to purple-black-silver quite fast. My great-grandmother had incredible taste in jewelry. I used one of her many gorgeous choker necklaces and temporarily removed the clasps to attach it to her head. The necklace on her neck is one of my favorite rhinestone pieces, and the two rings on her hands are just a few costume pieces of my own. 

As it turns out, this was my first creative session of this summer, where my photos of Bethlehem's older sister, December, were taken on the first day of this year. I feel like their photos mark stages of this year for me, and I am very excited about them. 

"Any last words?"

"Only one: BALENCIAGA!"

Avatar-Meets-Lana-Del-Rey or Something - Gabby

"She had blue skin,
And so did he.
He kept it hid
And so did she.
They searched for blue
Their whole life through,
Then passed right by-
And never knew.”
-Shel Silverstein

I like to think that I put a lot of time and thought into the more creatively-driven photos that I take. Sometimes I do, like the Lana Winters photos I did of December back in January. But these photos of my sister were not planned in any way. I was inside of Michaels one afternoon, and saw that their entire selection of fake flowers were on sale. I had a few craftier projects in mind when I started looking at the flowers, but when I came upon these gorgeous, dusty blue ones, I was reminded of Gabby. So I picked out my favorites, called her, and told her I needed to take her photo.

When my creativity gets stimulated, I almost become possessed by it, and can barely focus on anything else.

So I came home, and started throwing blue pigment all over her face. I put a couple streaks of cobalt under her eyes for more definition of her already-enormous eyes, and Role Play Lip Tar. Then we crudely attached the flowers in her hair. Who needs MUA/hair when you're infected with the creative bug? (I like to think I don't, but I usually do)

We went up into the studio, and I used the natural light from the biggest window in the room, and shot for maybe 15 minutes before I decided I loved it.

While I was editing these, I couldn't decide between the dusty, de-saturated look of the first and third photo, or the Avatar-meets-Lana-Del-Rey second photo. Either way, this was a lot of fun and a really good way for me to get kick-started into creative-photo season (end of the semester=more free time)

xoxoxoxoxooxo Cleo