I thought it might be interesting to include some behind the scenes photos and information of some of the more conceptual stuff I have been doing lately, if only for some sort of a personal account of the whole process. So I thought I'd start with my Zia shoot that I did back in March. I came up with the idea when I was in the shower one day, which is in and of itself an amazing thing because ideas never come to me in the shower. I know this is when a lot of people get their ideas, or at least that's what all those memes floating around the internet seem to be suggesting, but I usually get all my ideas as I'm trying (note the word trying) to fall asleep. But this one was special and came at a time when I could truly appreciate its awesomeness! And it inspired me to do a lot more photos like this, so let's hope it continues!

I had been looking through my favorite photographers' flickr accounts and just generally enjoying their work and being amazed at their creativity. After about a week or so of obsessing about how amazing they were, I started thinking to myself "I don't want to just take normal photos of families or people for the rest of forever." Don't get me wrong, I love taking photos of people and I have found that I enjoy photographing families and teenagers (just don't ask me to do a wedding...), but it doesn't stretch me at all. I want to be able to take my photographs to the extreme and try things I haven't tried before. So 'lo and behold, as I was showering one day, I was thinking of how I could be this creative. And all of a sudden an idea came to me that I had a lot of friends from a lot of different states (there's a lot of variety out at BYU, in the "domestic / all 50 states are represented" kind of way. We're still severely lacking in the other country/anything other than White/Caucasian area). Anyway, each state has it's own motto or something it's known for, so I thought wouldn't it be cool if I created a photo representing each state? So to test my new idea I decided to use my roommate, Bri, who is from New Mexico first.

New Mexico is known as the "Land of Enchantment" and uses the Zia, or sun, symbol often. It's actually a part of their state flag. I guess they must really like the sun. So I thought I needed something with reds and yellows like the sun, and maybe turquoise, because for some reason turquoise just seems magical to me. Then I began to experiment with my friend Cora on Bri's makeup and hair. These were just taken with my phone. I figured I didn't need super nice quality of makeup and hair styles taking up space on my hard drive.

 

Bri always jokes that she could make a photo album filled with embarrassing photos of myself. I think I've got enough of her to start my own photo album. I think I feel a contest coming on...

 

As for the costume, the three of us decided a trip to DI (Deseret Industries) was in order. We found a lace curtain, and about 10 yards of this coral/red fabric. Perfect. Then we found some cool props that I didn't necessarily use in this photo shoot, but that I hope to use in the future. We did use the horn at her waist (it was from a tacky Christmas wreath that I'm guessing was made in the 80s) in some photos, even though it didn't make it into the final photo I decided to go with.

Having figured that out at about Saturday night around midnight, we decided since she was a pseudo- sun goddess, we needed the actual photograph to be sunny, so we waited until the next day. After church on Sunday, we came back to my apartment and began to once again get Bri all dressed up. Then we headed up the canyon. I had envisioned going all the way to the top of Squaw Peak, which would have given us an awesome view of the sky with her standing on what would look like the edge of the world. BUT, the road was closed for another week because it's Utah and they do things like that there. Lame. So we tried taking some photos a little lower, but it just wasn't epic enough for me. See what I mean?:

And do you see how I believe I have my own fair share of embarrassing photos of Bri? But disregarding Bri's awesome modeling skills, the huge mound of dirt behind her, otherwise known as a mountain, did not lend itself to the whole sun goddess/Zia/Land of Enchantment idea. So then we went to the lake, because it's flat out there and there wouldn't be any mountains in the way, right? Right, but.... it was super windy! Blast! Literally.... It was so cold that we got out of the car for about two minutes and thought "I think we should move on." So finally, as a last resort, I convinced Cora and Bri to give me one last shot and try somewhere that they weren't necessarily thrilled to try out.

Y mount! Yeah! My thinking process: "big mountain, no mountains behind it blocking my view of the sky, the sun is setting NOW, and it's close. Maybe the sunset will look really nice. It'll do." Their thinking process: "The sun is setting, I'm freezing, and there's lots of people there. I look really weird to be walking around in public right now. No way."

I won. :)

And I'm glad I did because it ended up being perfect! With Cora throwing Bri's train in the air (super windy by the lake apparently does not mean its super windy on the mountain) I got the exact picture I wanted! Here's the original image of the photo I decided to use:

And after snapping a photo of the sky from my apartment parking lot for a new background a few days later, here it is with the the more dramatic background. The final image:

It's a little rough around the edges in some areas, but I think it's a good start to trying to do some more conceptual and fun pieces!