Alice

Alice
"Every adventure requires a first step". - The Cheshire Cat

Last September I set out to grow in my photography journey. I wanted to create photographs that were more art pieces and dive into fine art with my creative ideas. This was the first photo I created with that mindset. And I am very happy to announce that almost a year later it will be hanging at the Washington State Fair as the winner of the Fair Medal of Originality in Large Color in the Northwest International Exhibition of Photography! I could not be more excited that they chose this photograph as a winner since it really brings me full circle from where I was a year ago at this time.  

This photo was born out of an idea when I acquired the umbrella from my Great-Aunt Alice when she had to move and give away many of her belongings. I ended up with this umbrella and as soon as it was in my hand, I KNEW I would use it for an Alice in Wonderland themed self portrait. It didn't take long for me to sketch out that idea and come up with what you see above.

The below video gives some tidbits of what I was thinking right after I shot this photo back in September 2015. It gives some behind the scenes stuff and why I choose what I did.

While doing this self portrait I was live on Periscope for the first time. Unfortunately the video of me shooting is corrupted and after several attempts to get it to work, I'm pretty sure its gone, but a few of you got to watch it live :) However I do still have the follow up Periscope and that is here:

(or you can see it on you tube at this LINK)

Go and see this portrait at the Washington State Fair from September 2-25!

Net of Wonder

Net of Wonder

"The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever" - Jacques Cousteau

I am very excited to share that this image won Best of Portraits in the Northwest International Photographer Exhibition at the Washington State Fair in the Large Color Division!!!

Net of Wonder brings to life the feeling of being caught between surrender and awe. The image reflects the ocean’s pull, both mysterious and inescapable. It invites viewers to feel the weight of the sea and the beauty that holds them in its grasp.

This is one of those times where I had the above quote first and then created the image. Alex got a Jacques Cousteau book from the library at his school back in May. While reading it to him one night I came across the above quote. Right then I knew I wanted a woman floating in water caught in a net. My mind went wild with ideas and the below image is the final result.

I used Photoshop to create this image and to get it to look just right, but it still started with me having to pose myself with the net. Here you can see my set up for this shot, just a blue background hung on my garage door...

Go see it at the Washington State Fair from September 2-25!

Imaginary Twin

Imaginary Twin
"The Imaginary world has always been the most fun place for me to be" - Claire Forlani

This image is old and new. I shot this back in 2011 as part of my 52 week self portrait project. However over the last few years I have reedited it to give it a different look. I like both for different reasons.

And it looks like I was right to re-edit the photo and am happy to announce that this photo won the Fair Medal for Originality in the Small Monochrome division of the juried Northwest International Exhibit of Photography at the WA State Fair!!!

Here is the image.

Here is the original image from 2011.

Family Totem Pole

Family Totem Pole

Whenever I can incorporate my love for fun creative portraits and vacation, I am all for it.  I knew I wanted my family to be a part of whatever creation I came up with for our Alaska vacation.  I started to think about things that were Alaskan and looked into the histories of the cities we would be visiting. One of the cities we were vising was Ketchikan which has a Totem Pole Park. Perfect. We could be our own totem pole! I came up with a list of a few hats we could wear to make us animals and I made sure to bring those with us.


Info on the edit:

Actually fairly easy to shoot, most of magic came in photoshop. I wanted us to look like we were a wood statue but still like us.

I used layer masks to isolate us so that edits I made only applied to us and nothing else.

I started with running a watercolor action I have. It creates deep dark black lines and really outlines us. I did it at a very low opacity and only used the outline part of it and didn't mess with the color.

I needed us to be brighter and have a more painted look. I created a new layer over us and choose a color that was close to what our actual clothes color was. I used a soft brush and colored over our clothing. Changed that blending mode to Color Dodge. Played with the opacity. Lots of back and forth on this one, tried many colors until getting the right look.

I needed to "paint" our faces to resemble a totem pole. I achieved this by creating a new layer, choosing a color, changed the blending mode to Multiply, then lowered the opacity to my liking.

Last I added a wood texture on top of us. The wood texture I used was a long wavy piece of wood that was taken fairly close up. I changed the blending mode to soft light, and lowering the opacity to about 50% so the wavy wood lines showed but didn't overpower the people.

Leave me a comment if you like this photo! And follow me on facebook and flickr!

Lost Soul

Lost Soul
"Tied up in sorrow, lost in my soul"

This piece explores the feeling of being trapped—whether by memory, regret, or the passage of time. The ghostly figure embodies a lingering presence, a soul caught in transition.  

These self portraits were taken earlier this month aboard the Norwegian Jewel. The video below shows you a quick snippet of me doing this shoot. The first image is my chosen image called "Lost Soul". The second image is the one you saw taken in the video.  Both are part of my ongoing Ghost Series.

When I shoot something like this I like to become my character. It really helps with getting the arm movements or facial expressions correct. To do this I come up with a backstory for the character. This also helps with figuring out what I want from the final image(s) and the message. For this series I was picturing a ghost who was stuck on the ship. That brought me to have several ideas. Is the ghost happy, sad, confused? So I shot all of those. For the ones on the stairs, I went with more confused and sad.

Update: This image received a Judges Choice award at the Northwest International Exhibit of Photography at the Washington State Fair :)

Here is the video of me shooting on the stairs:

And here is the image from the video, "Dazed Ghost"

Leave me a comment if you like this photo! And follow me on facebook and flickr!