Big hair, vintage dress, fake birds and flower headpieces

I've mentioned before that I want to take a little dive in to the conceptual world of photography, as well as modeling and fashion. It's outside my box but a way in which I can use more of my artsy/creative side. I want to throw out a lot of the rules for posing and perfect lighting and correct skin tones. Isn't that what art is about, breaking rules and creating something that is beautiful to you? If it is beautiful to others, than that is just a bonus.

I've met many people over the last few months who I've wanted to use for one of my concepts (because of course I have several running around in my head!). Unfortunately, between my regular schedule of clients and having three children these shoots just kept getting pushed aside. One evening a friend texted me and mentioned that her daughter was interested in modeling and I said "Oh I have all these ideas in my head, I'd love to use her for one! Set a date with me and then I have to execute it!" So we did just that.

For well over two years I've had a concept in my head that I've wanted to do.  This is what was in my head: A black dress, big hair, a birdcage and railroad tracks.  At first I wanted someone with long dark hair and and a dark and dreary day for this shoot. Hailey has short blonde hair, but I decided to go with it. I couldn't really control what the weather would do that day.  A few days before our shoot I  was inspired by one of my favorite photographers, Sue Bryce to create some headpieces. So off to Michaels I went and my girls and I sat at the kitchen table with a hot glue gun and created!

The day of the shoot came and it was a sunny, blue sky day. I was a little bummed but I thought "I can always overlay a dark sky in post". I also decided to abandon the railroad part. Railroads are used, a lot. I had recently taken a run on a road that I loved and thought...that's it!

Here a few of my favorite shots! And after writing this and posting I think I might just play with some dark cloud overlays in a few, just to see! For my portraits I want to be as natural as possible, just fix a few things here and there and done. So it's a little hard telling myself that in my concept photos, it's ok to use to photoshop as a tool and "paintbrush"!

This was actually the second part of our shoot. The first part I wanted to do a softer, flowery, hippie feel. You won't ever hear me say no to a hippie feel for a shoot :) I was on a bike ride one evening and took a dirt road I'd never been on and stumbled upon a small groove of trees that were amazing! So we went there first! Here's a few from that portion! 

I had such a blast with this shoot and I really cannot wait to do more. It's something I need to take the time to do. It's good for the soul.