Today’s photoshoot blog is brought to you again by my Visual Art Club’s weekly prompt. Our prompt this week was “Transition”, and I actually had to think a lot about what I could do with that with photography. Quadio has other visual artists like videographers, as well as musical artists, to think about when creating their weekly prompts, and I think that’s who this week’s prompt was targeted at. However, that definitely wasn’t going to stop me from doing my best with a photoshoot.
After some web and image searching, I landed on the concept of metamorphosis (otherwise known as the transition from one stage of life to another). Not only are we currently at the winter to spring transition time, but I was also inspired by the (slightly old) trend of butterfly portraits. I decided on a butterfly-inspired portrait/editorial style rooftop shoot. Luckily, my sister was free, and I was really happy to be able to recruit her again for a photoshoot after going several weeks without shooting with her.
With the location set, and a sunny day ahead of us, I got to work on figuring out the “look” I wanted. Makeup wise, I wanted it to be fresh, but very soft and springy. I decided on a pretty natural makeup look, with the addition of some warm blush. The makeup wow factor was going to be a bright eyeshadow, and to go along with the rest of the look, I chose blue. For the outfit, I got one of my old prom dresses out of the back of my closet. The light blue-gray color and beautiful beadwork I thought would really lend itself to an almost ethereal vibe, and it ended up fitting Kate perfectly (minus being a bit too long), so we had to go with it. Not wanting a simple prom look, though, and in mind that it was pretty cool out and the dress has spaghetti strap, we layered a long sleeve white turtleneck underneath.
The real showstopper of the look was going to be the hair. I wanted to go with soft, voluminous curls, and once that was achieved we could add the butterflies. The previous day and half before the shoot, I had spent hours creating butterflies with wire bought at Home Depot. They took a while, and it definitely hurt my fingers to be bending and manipulating the wire, but the end result was enchanting. I fixed these butterflies to bobby pins so we could place them in Kate’s hair, and the look was complete.
Then, camera in hand, we headed off to, you guessed it, the mall parking lot roof. Sun shining brightly in the blue sky, I literally couldn’t have asked for better weather for this photoshoot.
We were pretty much alone on the rooftop, which made the photoshoot go by way easier. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t mind shooting in front of other people, but it’s a lot easier to be more creative when you’re not worried about other people. My favorite shots included blue sky backgrounds and interesting angles (both from a shooting stand point and a modeling standpoint). Here are some of the shots:
While I’m not totally sure if I really captured the theme in the way I wanted to, I’m absolutely in love with these photos. I think they’re so beautiful and elegant, and just overall enchanting. Throughout the course of the shoot, I also realized I’ve begun to shoot primarily in portrait rather than landscape (aka, vertical rather than horizontal). I think the change was invoked by my self-portraits that were better framed portrait-style, but an interesting evolution nevertheless.
Let me know what you think of the photos! I’d love to hear feedback.
Until next time!
EAC Photos 