I decided a space to share some of my creative ideas might actually be a great outlet and also a necessity to help people get a peak at my creative process prior to working with me — or just because they’re curious. That said, I want to start out this first entry by introducing a beauty concept I developed with Taylor Hawkins called “BLOOM”.
I typically don’t really shoot in accordance to seasons but recently I recognized the importance of cataloging my body of work by capturing imagery that reflects changes within myself as well. BLOOM was a concept I worked on with Taylor as we have been working together on a beauty workshop for models looking to enhance their beauty portfolios. We brainstormed on how to provide the highest value to our audience and decided what better way to convey that value than with a concept that not only reflects the change in seasons, but also the opportunity to “bloom” those dormant buds to becoming better models.
The concept brought forth this desire to show how we flesh out and execute this idea through beauty photography, which led to this movement toward images that evoke the beauty of new growth, the embracing of Spring, and the freedom and levity of creation. BLOOM, focusing on the play of Spring and its colors thru dewy make up looks, a reflection of a well watered garden, and bright but subtle colors that are reminiscent of the flowers we used as props to bring it all together.
We were graced with the talents of Tasia Mitropoulos, a NYC Makeup Artist who took this concept and blew it out the water. We presented her with the idea and gave her creative freedom to incorporate the floral props to make the make up stand out. I brought in one of my favorite lighting assistants, Myles Tate, to help with keying in on the lighting because I knew how important that would be to articulating this story. Myles brought baby Penelope along and she became my favorite assistant ever! Look how cayute:
I knew for lighting I wanted something airy and ethereal. Bright but with a bit of shadow to keep the images visually stimulating. In tandem to this lighting style, I wanted to shoot this on the macro level for rich details and in a exaggerated and playful way to continue to play into the levity of Spring time. So for the close ups I used my tried and true 105mm macro and my 85mm. To really play around in those exaggerated lines, I brought in my 16-35mm lens to see what fun we could get when pushing it to its limits. Last, but not least, I knew how important the color and toning would be to truly sell these photographs. I opted in to warmer tones in the shadows, focusing on how the colors harmonized with the flowers and how the images evoked the bright, fun and airy feel of a spring day. Taylor, as always, brought her A-game on the modeling side of things which only made creating that much easier.
And without further ado, here are the images from our concept: “BLOOM”
