I'm back from Japan. Here's why I fell in love with Kyoto.....

Such beauty everywhere

Beautiful Kimonos everywhere

Cherry blossoms season rocks

Japanese markets are amazing. Look at all the shapes, colors and textures.

 I love how even the young people take off their shoes, even in the park!

I love their tea houses. The new ones...

as well as the very old.

How awesome are their animated fortune machines

If you don't like your fotune you can return it.

Coy fish everywhere

So much fun walking around

  Monkeys, need I say more

Bamboo forest, so beautiful and serene.

Amy

Model: Amy

People don't realize how difficult it can be sitting for a portrait. It's one thing if you have a full set, make up and props to hide behind or interact with but just sitting and facing the camera "straight on" is actually quite difficult. This was my first time shooting with Amy which was interesting and fun for the both of us. Needless to say she's gorgeous and I like that she doesn't seem to be aware of how pretty she is. My only request was the bright red lipstick and not a lot of make up. I might do a few more of these kind of portraits with the black, grey and red color scheme since I do like how that worked out.

The Art Of Silence II

Model: Tamara
Make Up: Tamara
Hair: Tamara and Me
Wardrobe and styling: Me



Might be more to come...

The Art Of Silence II - Preview

Played around with some light cropping.

oh my, what lovely legs you have (but what about the face???!!!)

Oh my what lovely.... big, no huge, frizzy.... hair you have.....grrrrrrr

Oh my what lovely make up you're wearing.....

This is from my shoot I did with Tamara back in January. I wanted to do another shoot in the style from the last one. I can't say I have a set plan for this I'm just having fun. Right now I'm just shooting what I feel like without anything too specific. Tamara and I take a dance class together and we've been talking for a while about doing a burlesque inspired shoot. It was so fun. Not too much to say since the setup was pretty much the same as last time. Only tricky thing was getting a good pose in the small amount of "light" space. She really couldn't do any big poses without loosing a limb and I always had to be careful to avoid weird fore shorting in the sitting poses. I played around with a few "masked by the dark" poses. Was fun but didn't pay off quite as much as I thought it would. Tamara was great though, I like that she can really get into a character. She also did her own make up which I have to say, I thought turned out fabulous and reacted beautifully to the lighting. Thanks Tamara for a fun day!

I've been super busy with various things. For one I've been getting into collage and more mixed media projects. I'm trying to loosen up my style and collage and mixed media is a great way to let loose. Up until last week I was pretty good about doing some little project everyday this week not so much. Hoping to start again next week. I have some film shots to post too but haven't had the time to look through all the shots as there are a lot. So much to say, so much to do, so little time. But life is good!

The Art Of Silence

Model: Jane

Make Up: Lauren Weber

preview

Well it's been a while. I was kind of burnt out after my last show. It was a lot of work putting everything together. While I'm eternally grateful for every opportunity I get to display my work, it sometimes kind of takes the fun out of things. It took me a while to want to take pictures again.


I finally decided to just do a simple shoot and not put too much thought into it. I love theater and I'm crazy about any form of dance. Jane had this cute costume she put together for Halloween that inspired this shoot.

Lighting in progress, not looken so great.

All I wanted was to sort of fake kind of a stage look and make the character feel alone in a vast dark space.


I ran into a bunch of problems which took me far too long to figure out. By the time we started shooting I was pooped. As always, I learned a ton and had a lot of fun.

Lauren hard at work.

I feel very lucky to have friends who are willing to give up entire days to collaborate on my projects. Thank you very much Lauren and Jane!

Home sweet home

Took these this summer with my TLR camera.

Ella on top of the Tiaun.

The Tiaun is a 8,875 ft / 2,705 m mountain peak in Graubünden, Switzerland. It is one of my favorite mountains. The view from the peak is breathtaking.

My parents and Ella hanging out on the way down.

Our neighbors on the Schmittner Alp. The husband is an amazing painter.

The view from the bottom of the Tiaun down on to the Schmittner Alp.