Looking Back at a Solidly Excellent 2019

“2018 was a year of change after several years of NO CHANGE, so I'd say that alone made it a successful year. With a new house, who knows what 2019 will bring (hopefully only good things...)!” - from my 2018 Facebook recap This year may not have brought ONLY good things, but I’m still not sure how to adequately describe how much the good outweighed the bad in 2019. I suppose a good start would be to say that the last twelve months made up a solidly wonderful year. In December of 2018, I can clearly remember hoping: This [...]

By |2020-01-02T11:30:06-05:00January 2nd, 2020|Behind the Scenes, Personal Thoughts|4 Comments

Beguiled Beauty Speed Edit [Patrons Only]

My "studio" I used for this set was actually just my guest bedroom. My mom is currently storing a gorgeous day bed she bought while we were living in India, so while I was brainstorming the setup for this set, I thought this daybed would be the perfect piece to include. The only problem was the daybed is not easily movable... and my brother's room is quite narrow (for photo-taking purposes, at least). We had about 5ft x 10ft to work with, but we somehow managed to squeeze the day bed, three people, a dog, and all my lighting equipment [...]

By |2019-10-23T11:28:13-04:00October 22nd, 2019|Behind the Scenes, Patreon|0 Comments

Black Swan Queen Vlog Update [Patrons Only]

I don't have any footage for creating the costume for the Black Swan Queen. Sadness. But that's only because I didn't actually make the costume for this set! As I share in the vlog, I happened to stumble upon the PERFECT costume at the thrift store one day: the bodice was this beautifully beaded creation... and the skirt LEGITIMATELY looked like black feathers! I don't think I could have come up with a more clever design (or even found such incredible fabric for the skirt, at least not at a price that fit the budget), so there wasn't a second [...]

By |2019-10-16T23:56:45-04:00October 17th, 2019|Behind the Scenes, Patreon|0 Comments

Black Swan Queen Speed Edit [Patrons Only]

I shared almost this same text with the last speed edit I posted, but it's still a really good summary of everything I do while editing, so I thought I'd copy it over to this post as well: Generally speaking, it takes me about an hour to edit each photo and I almost always follow these same steps:   1 - Fix all the little things that need a bit of tweaking (small blemishes, recropping, etc.) 2 - Select out the subject so that later on I can make adjustments only to the subject or only to the background 3 [...]

By |2019-10-15T23:51:02-04:00October 15th, 2019|Behind the Scenes, Patreon|0 Comments

Mystic Myne Collaboration: Wicked Wiccan Vlog [Patrons Only]

This costume was a tricky one! While the cloak was ridiculously easy to put together (you'll see what I mean when you watch), the dress underneath was SOOOO finicky! There were a few times when I just wanted to pitch the thing out the window of my Kia Sportage while driving full speed down the highway. But I stuck it out (or ripped it out, on many occasions) and kept on trying. I'll be honest, this isn't my favorite costume I've created, and it's entirely because of the dang gold dress. But I do love how the whole look came [...]

By |2019-09-24T14:33:05-04:00September 26th, 2019|Behind the Scenes, Patreon|0 Comments

Mystic Myne Collaboration: Wicked Wiccan Speed Edit [Patrons Only]

It's always fun putting these speed edits together, maybe because it makes me feel pretty accomplished once I've compiled all the footage and sped it up. It typically takes me about 1 - 2 hours per photo to edit, so to see everything I've done to a photo condensed into less than 10 minutes is both fascinating and rewarding. Generally as I rewatch the speed edit, I can't help but think "oooh! Look at all those things I did!" I've touched on this before (and I WILL one day do a more in depth tutorial), but generally speaking I follow [...]

By |2019-09-24T14:33:42-04:00September 24th, 2019|Behind the Scenes, Patreon|0 Comments

Punk Princess Costume Creation Vlog [Patrons Only]

In this vlog, I share how I created and sources the costume for the Punk Princess Crown look that is part of the collaboration I am currently working on with Mystic Myne Jewelry. Over the next month and a half, we’ll be sharing each of the crowns in the collection, along with fun behind the scenes content detailing the creation of each of these shoots. I’ve prepared fun material like speed edits, before and afters, vlog updates, and access to the full set of images from each shoot (I’ll only be sharing a a couple images from each shoot with [...]

By |2019-09-19T13:09:37-04:00September 19th, 2019|Behind the Scenes, Patreon|0 Comments

My ENTIRE Creative Process Explained: From Idea to Finished Photo

DESPITE the fact that people have asked MULTIPLE times for me to write a post on my entire creative process, I have never actually done it. Until today.   So… I suppose the best place to begin this long asked-for blog post is to start from the beginning: where I actually get my ideas.     I get most of my ideas two different ways. The first is from experiences that either I have had, or someone close to me has been through, while the second is from specific locations I’ve scouted or from props I’ve found at either the [...]

By |2019-05-08T17:39:07-04:00May 8th, 2019|Behind the Scenes|0 Comments

How I Learned to Never, Ever Trespass

I’m going to share some photos today that I thought I would never share. Some photos that I actually shot almost two years ago now, but was too ashamed to post.   Why? Because I actually got in trouble when I shot them. Not big trouble, thankfully, but I was still so uncomfortable with the situation that I uploaded these photos to my hard drive and never looked at them again.     Let me back up and start from the beginning:   When I lived in Boston, there was this field that I drove by every day on the [...]

By |2019-03-14T18:01:34-04:00March 14th, 2019|Behind the Scenes|0 Comments

An Epic Stand-Off: Who Will Win?

Ever since you submitted the idea for today’s blog post, I’ve been visualizing this really epic stand-off between two parties: standards waving in the wind, rows upon rows of cavalry men ready to start the charge... Clearly I read WAY too many fantasy novels, because to provide more of a background, your suggestion was actually just to compare the camera versus the program (Photoshop), and of course my mind has been working in overdrive, imaging the forces of “camera” standing against the forces of “Photoshop” on this really legit battlefield. I’m such a dork. Anyway, to the real question: Who [...]

By |2019-01-16T13:01:37-05:00January 16th, 2019|Behind the Scenes|0 Comments

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