Seafoam and Spikes with Anna Baginski

| I drove to Charleston |

a week ago to collaborate with the beautiful Anna Baginski.  Anna found me on Instagram after I shot with Aimee Katherine Dillard, and asked if I'd be interested in shooting with her.  Well, it turns out that it was a match made in heaven because we were both moving to South Carolina on the same day. 

I was so excited to work with Anna because she was so insanely beautiful and sounded like such a nice person.  And I was going to get to go to Charleston, which is amazing. 

Our first location was a small portion of beach on the Battery.  It was full of rocks and sand and misty green water.  The wind was subtly and beautiful and picked up strands of her hair perfectly. 

Our second location was a scape of grass along the border of the ocean, with no sand barrier.  The rich grass complimented her striped leggings and band t.

The third location was mainly chosen for my "9 circles of Hell" series that I'm working on.  Unfortunately I cannot post these because they will soon be published in FOM.  It was a dock that looked out to the sun setting on the sea through the clouds.

Check out the images. 

Another Vogue Feature

| Can I just elaborate |

on how amazing I think Vogue Italia is for providing photographers such an amazing opportunity? They truly are inspiring, and have really allowed me to realize my own style and have helped me to try new ways of editing and composing that I would have never attempted.  They make me work so much harder. 

Cassalei Jackson Portraits

 | Hello all! |

Wow, it's been a while, hasn't it?  I've been quite busy and haven't had much time to actually sit down and write a decent post.  I'm very behind and I'm hoping that I'll be back on track by tomorrow.  

As most of you from my facebook probably know, I recently had the pleasure of shooting some portraits for MP2's Cassalei Jackson.  For those of you who aren't familiar with Cassalei, she is an amazingly talented singer and actress from LA, and happens to be the daughter of the beautiful celebrity Shar Jackson (Think Moesha).   

Cassie is so down to earth and ambitious and an extremely beautiful person inside and out.  It was so much fun getting to know her and her mother over the past few weeks.  

We drove out to Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge to do some very nature-oriented portraits.  The scenery on the island is absolutely breathtaking, so I'm really happy I got the chance to capture it.  It was the perfect backdrop to our photo session.

Check out some pictures from the set.

   

Polluted Soul with Brittney Flanders

| A Lost Beauty |

There was once a girl who dreamed,

played in the dirt and danced in the rain.

A world taught her that beauty was everything.

And so she sold her soul to lipstick and mascara,

hair curlers and razors.

She was theirs for the taking.

| A Burning Inside |

The girl grew up too fast,

Lost her way and darkened.

Sold her soul to a pack of cigarettes and a handle,

A biker and a bandit.

A hard crowd to please. 

| A Fallen Flower |

She grew more beautiful every day,

Plastic makeup and corsets.

Sold her soul for false love,

an irreparable wound, a quick demise. 

A deflowering of the mind.

| The Purge |

The beautifully broken girl,

Grew sick with heartache, done with life.

Purged her soul of black,

of sorrow, of regret.

All too familiar with the ways of the world.

Lace | Ash shoot with Audree Elizabeth

| SO SOMTHING BIG HAPPENED |

Continue reading until the end to find out.

Audree and I go way back.  She was in the first shoot of mine that I ever really considered "editorial." Even though I look back on those pictures now and cringe, I think that shoot was a really big step for me and allowed me to really advance in this industry.  She has grown up so much since I saw her a year ago, and I've progressed so much as a photographer, that when we got together, we ROCKED the shoot. I mean literally. We stood on giant rocks.

Audree has such great bone structure and such great hair; I wanted to really do something that I felt like I couldn't do with anyone else.  So I hit the thrift shops, and I found some of my favorite dresses TO DATE! At least for photo specific purposes.  

I happened upon a beautiful long dark blue velvet dress.  have I mentioned how much I adore velvet?  I buy it any time I find it in a thrift store.  I love velvet so much because it catches the light like no other fabric! It is so royal looking and has such a decadence about it.  The next dress I found was a paisley-floral type print dress that boasted my favorite color: oxblood, and was perfectly topped off with a beautiful lace collar.  It has lace? It now belongs to Janna.  So I strolled the isles a bit more, content with my selections, but just in case there was something spectacular I was missing. THERE WAS.

Right before me lay a beautiful, lavender, silk dress from the 80's.  I was like, is this real life?
AND IT WAS!  Lavender is one of those colors that I can never resist.  It looks good on everyone, it is great for every season, and it never goes out of style.

Let me clear just one thing up. I may have made this thrifting journey sound super dramatic and time consuming. I was only in the store for a good 7 or 8 minutes. Just so we're clear. 

I decided on Sharon Johnson Park for location because I remembered they had this awesome rock design.  I thought that the oxblood paisley-floral dress would really be complimented by the dark gray and silver tones of the large stones.

The weather was nearly unbearable.  I felt so sorry that Audree had to wear velvet in like 100% Humidity.  Not only that, but the air was extremely sticky and hard to breathe in.  We could hear the thunder clouds rolling in.

I wanted to really expand upon the wardrobe and display within the photos a really subtle retro atmosphere, so I used poses that were significant of the era and actions that described the "theoretical view" of women and their roles during that time period.

Please take a look at the photos and tell me what you think.

***ANNOUNCEMENT***

I recently found out that three of my photographs are being featured on Vogue Italia's Website.  I will post them below.
You can view them here:
http://www.vogue.it/en/photovogue/Portfolio/5729bce9-d60c-45b2-869e-94c4ed69c44f/Image

| Back to reality |

Here are some shots of Audree I took exactly a year ago.

And here are the shots from the other day.

Seeing the progress I've made in just a short year really inspires me to keep pushing on.