Coffee Buzz

I love to meet new people and getting to know them and discovering who they are is certainly a perk of being a photographer. Kaitlyn is one of my amazing 2012 studio models and the moment I met with her a "creative shoot" theme began to form. She is super sweet, soft spoken and has a quiet beauty about her that, as an artist, I adore. At first sight I thought she had escaped a Monet painting and somewhere there was an empty poppy field or spring garden awaiting her return. Inspired by some coffee filter flowers my daughter and I had recently made and the use of color texture and light of Monet I designed a dress specifically for Kaitlyn using a duct tape dress form for fitting.  After the "shell" of the dress was made over 4,000 coffee filters were dyed, dried, ironed and attached to create the texture, style and color I was looking for in the finished images. This dress took weeks to make and I could not have gotten it done in time without the help of my dear friend Amy, a 2011 studio models’ mom  and Clara, one of my fantastic 2012 studio models. A great big hug and thank you to them, you guys rock! Also, my father-in- law who put up a swing just for this shoot…my hero once again♥ The shoot was both exhilarating and exhausting! I was so happy to finally be shooting but the dress is huge and weighs a TON. It took Kaitlyn, Clara and myself to move it from place to place.  This shoot was definitely a challenge because we didn’t have much time but did have a very heavy, enormous dress so the locations/settings were limited to just a few. Add to that a wet ground and the coffee filter dress’ train did not get along! I really liked having my 15mm on this shoot because I could exaggerate the length of the dress and get closer to what I had envisioned. I am also very happy we brought along an AlienBee (light) since the treed area where the swing was ended up pretty dark by the time we heaved the dress over to it! I am in love with the final images because they are totally outrageous, a little crazy, and definitely unexpected (characteristics I strive for in my work) while being quite, delicate and feminine (all traits of Kaitlyn’s personality).  I’ll add more images soon! I just wanted to get one up for those of you who have been waiting to see it!

This dress has created quite a buzz!