Ophelia's descent into madness

Poor Ophelia,

Divided from herself and her fair judgement,
Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts.

Hamlet

90's Chic with Tatum Ophelia Hogue

| I've been so excited |
to finally write and share this shoot with all of you! I've waited so long because I wanted to make sure I had ample time to sit down and really go into detail about this particular shoot, because it really deserves the best!  After weeks of rescheduling and trying to find a day that we were both available, I finally locked down a shoot with the amazingly gorgeous and talented Tatum Ophelia Hogue.
  

To say this shoot went amazingly would be an understatement.  I had heard before from other photographers that Tatum was an absolute joy to work with, and they were completely, 100%, incredibly right.  This 14 year old model is a true star, and I have no doubt that she will make it big one day in the near future. 

For such a spectacular model, I needed to come up with a matching shoot.  I had several ideas of different themes we could try, but it came down to a sort of 90's fashion era.  

I was dreaming about holographic shoes and neon, black eyes and black nails, fringe and antlers, and finally, the infamous yin yang.  

I drove to Decatur to do this shoot, which had me really excited because I've never shot in Decatur before! The little town is just amazingly beautiful and historic, providing countless options for locations and so many different interesting backdrops.  The city carried an artistic air that was noticeable right from the bridge leading across the river into it's downtown area.

  I knew that I wanted to go to Delano Park to shoot, because it seemed to be a pretty chill place with several options, one in particular being a tennis court with flowery trees all around.  This location was indescribably perfect for our shoot; the green of the courts and texture of the nets along with the soft, delicate white flowers made for such a naturally beautiful balance, a yin yang of sorts, it was a place made my man, but decorated by the earth. 

Our second location was pretty spectacular as well, because, well, we all know how much I like my abandoned things.  This seemed to be an abandoned portion of the downtown district, though there was a particular building that caught my eye. 
It was white with red lining the windows, and a length of silver plaques enveloping one wall of the place.  

I don't know if I've just been on a lucky streak with my photography lately, but I feel like this shoot really came together well just as the last one did.  Most of this was probably due to Tatum, being as amazing as she is.  

It's just such an amazing feeling when you can honestly see yourself getting better when you look at your work, when you experience a Photoshop break through, when you learn how to get your angles exactly right.  

When you begin to surpass the goals you make for yourself, you allow yourself to become inspired by so many things and you really learn how to appreciate the obstacles you've overcome and the challenges you've faced, because deep in your heart, you know that they are what made you better.  But there is no stopping here, you make new goals and you tread on, with hopes that you'll one day reach your full potential.

That's all for now, guys, thanks for reading my blog.

Check out the images and let me know what you think!

Mesozoic shoot with Tessa Patel

| pretty close to exactly |

a year ago I did a shoot at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens (HBG).  I feel like it's one of those places that can easily be worn out, so I avoided it afterwards, but I figured 12 months was an okay amount of time to put in between shoots at this particular location. The best thing about the HBG is that it has so many different backdrops to offer; there really is no other place like it.  My personal favorite spot in the Gardens is the Butterfly room: from the architecture to the diverse plants and wildlife; everything about that room is just completely beautiful to me.  

The weather for this shoot was absolutely perfect.  I was hoping for a cloudy day, but I had no idea how much texture the clouds would have - how diffused and misty the light would turn out.  The sun cast an angelic tone over the expanse of the gardens.  

I got to meet up with another classmate from Randolph who graduated the same class as me!  It's always so much fun to work with people you know; catching up and talking about our high school experiences was definitely a highlight.  I loved working with Tessa because she is so gorgeous and unique! She is very relaxed and elegant and gives off an extremely chill vibe in the images.

As for wardrobe, we wanted to pick outfits that almost mirrored our location.  We wanted natural, simplistic, and earth toned fabrics and prints (throw in some high wasted shorts and a headband, and I'm immediately obsessed).

I was really inspired by the Mesozoic period when I was editing these. I wanted to implement an film-archaeological atmosphere to the images.  

This has become one of my favorite shoots to date. "What about this shoot made is so memorable?" You might ask. Well, it was one of those days where everything worked together so well, and meshed seamlessly.  The weather, the model, the wardrobe and the editing all went RIGHT.  It's always such a wonderful feeling when that happens.

Check out my images from the shoot and let me know what you think!

Circus Shoot with Yolanda Garcia.

I'm guessing all of you have seen Selena Gomez's new music video (Come and get it).  If you haven't, pause your reading and go watch it right now! It's gorgeous.  I was so inspired by the scenes from the video that I wanted to incorporate the wardrobe from it into a photo shoot! I love the final results.

I got the chance to shoot with the beautiful Yolanda Garcia again! It's always such a pleasure to work with her.  She knows exactly what she's doing, and so our shoots just breeze by.  

I was in Hanceville again taking pictures (I think it's the new modeling capital of Alabama).  And I have the same struggle every time I'm there:  finding new locations.  This time, we drove all over the place looking for expansive fields.  We came across this cornfield that we couldn't resist stopping at!  I think the corn really gives a great variety of lines to the images, and the green contrasted so well with the white dress. 

Right across the street from the cornfield was a random patch of yellow flowers.  It was kind of in someone's yard.. so sorry about that. lol Their dog tried to attack us.  Not really, but I am rather scared of dogs, so I thought he was going to attack us.  He just wanted to model and jump around in the back of the pictures. 

As for our last location, we were really excited about the field we found!  It was what we had been looking for all day.  

Take a look at the pictures and let me know what you think!

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