We began our photo shoot with the “Tribal” theme.
Tribal: we only had three of our models able to arrive early Thursday morning and participate in this shoot.  It turned out great though because I had a little extra time to help Amanda out with Hair and Make-Up and it was SO MUCH FUN!  I am so blessed to have a job where I get to hang out with such fun people and just go crazy creative with make-up…and feathers…and beads…and paint…who gets to do this?
So Clara, Haley and Angelica…hit me with your best shot!

Mood and Attitude: Bold, bright, earthy, primal, brave, rugged.

The idea: A fashion shoot celebrating the bold color and textures of nature.

The challenge:  With the help of the Kenani B Model Wardrobe assemble a tribal inspired outfit. The best shot should embrace the mood and attitude of the shoot while using nature to accentuate the outfit. This is not a shoot IN nature, it’s ABOUT nature.

What you will need for EACH valentine:

• 3 roundish, long candy love Rolos (We used fun sized Twix bars)
• 1/2 of a black pipe cleaner stem
• 2 pipe cleaners in fire colors (we used one regular and one fluffy pipe cleaner for each valentine)
• Glossy printer paper or cardstock
• red construction paper (I was able to get enough red wrappers for 3 valentines form 1 piece of construction paper)
• Tiny glue dots  (7 per valentine)
• Blast Template
• Printer
• Paper trimmer
• Scissors
• whole punch (we used the 1/4 inch punch)

Making the Dynamite:

1) First, measure your candy so you know how long and wide it needs to be to wrap completely around the candy. Now use your paper trimmer and cut wrappers (3 per valentine).

2) Add a glue dot to the center edge of the long side on the wrapper, set the candy on the glue dot and have your child roll the wrapper around the candy and secure the wrapper with another glue dot. Repeat until all the candy is wrapped.

3) Have your child group the “dynamite sticks” into sets of three (see they are learning too! Look what an awesome parent you are!). While they do that put one glue dot in the center (long side) of ONE dynamite stick from each set of three.

4) Have your child stick the dynamite stick with the glue dot to ONE other stick in its group. While they do this to all the sets you cut black pipe cleaners in half until you have one half for each valentine.

5) Take the two sticks that are stuck together in each set and add a glue dot to the middle, center and have your child add the black pipe cleaner piece over it.   Now put another glue dot over the pipe cleaner and have your child attach the last dynamite stick over the glue dot so now you have your set of three assembled. (It doesn’t matter if they  are not super sturdy, we will be holding them together with pipe cleaners)

Making the Labels:

1) Print out the labels. Template is here. Add your child’s name before you print them or after with a permanent marker.

2) Cut them out and punch holes where the black circles are.

3) Have you child choose two fire colored pipe cleaners out for each valentine. While they do this take the two pipe cleaners and wrap them around the upper center of each dynamite bundle and twist once or twice to secure. Now your dynamite should have 4 “legs” (two of each color, let’s just say red and yellow).

4)  Now take one red “leg” and one yellow “leg and poke them through the holes on the label (one through each hole. Pull the remaining red and yellow “leg” up from behind the label.

5) Use a pencil to curl the pipe cleaners. There is no need to twist them around eachother on the front side of the label as the twisty curls will keep the labels in place. To curl the pipe cleaners, lay the pencil tip over the dynamite with the tip pointing away from the valentine, that way, as you wrap the pipe cleaner the twists will become smaller at the ends.

6) If you want to, add a twist to the “fuse” with just your  finger.

You are done! If you do this I would love to see a photo! It is a lot of fun if you can include your child in the process!

Happy Valentines Day!

Pop open a bottle of sunshine! That’s what it was like photographing this phenomenal Next is Now model. Delaney is warm and friendly, combine that with a fresh and fun personality and you end up with a model who is truly a delight to photograph. One of the coolest things about Delaney was her ability to give and take feedback, because of this we ended up with a great collection of images we both loved. She absolutely nailed the look I had envisioned and the bold makeup only added to the mood. With her expressive eyes and upbeat, try-anything attitude Delaney would be able to pull off any look or style asked of her. She is a talented model and definitely brought a bit of sunny California to a rather chilly Missouri day.

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Ashley was one of the fantastic models I photographed at the SPA Event Next is Now. She was AMAZING and it was easy to see why she was chosen as a national winner. I did something a little different with my models just so we could add a different element to their portfolios and we really had a blast. Ashley was super easy to photograph, eager to try anything and her dad was a TROOPER hauling my light everywhere (thank you, thank you, thank you!). I saw Ashley in some other shoots and was impressed with the styles and variety of looks she was able pull off, I was most impressed, however, with the way she pulled off my look. She had the craziest/wildest make-up out of all the models I shot that day yet she wasn’t lost in it. She worked with this make-up, never disappearing behind it…awesome! This girl belongs in front of the camera! To see more amazing images of Ashley check out my friend and awesome photographer Jenni Tori’s website at J. Tori Photography!

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This dress has created quite a buzz!

Having a “themed” or “creative” session once in a while is necessary to keep us inspired and growing both creatively and technically. I adore the process that goes into these sessions and always learn so much. New ways to do hair and make-up, new and improved lighting methods and set-ups, new ways to use props and create backgrounds. Always stay in love with your work by challenging yourself and flexing your creative muscle!

Heather S. Fall 2011 Top 10 Model

We are so excited and proud to announce that Heather has been chosen by the SPA judging panel to be a SPA Top Model! We know Heather is going to have a BLAST on her an all expense paid trip to SPA 2011 Fall Event where she will be photographed by some of the top photographers in the country and receive a professional portfolio full of images! What an awesome opportunity! Congratulations Heather! We just can’t wait!

1st Place Girls at SPA!

I have no words to express my excitement and gratitude over winning the 1st place girls award. Beyond shocked, I think I nearly passed out about 10 times during the awards, LOL, it was amazing.  I thought that maybe I would give a little background on this image since I have had some questions about it, the make-up and thought process. So if you are ready for the inside scoop here ya go!

First for the inspiration. Megume is a fantastic model, creative, outgoing and a bit of a firecracker. I began this shoot knowing I wanted something that was crazy and out of the ordinary, something to get people to take a double look but also something that embraced her super fun and larger than life personality.

Megume and I sat down and started to make a list of ideas we thought would be fun.  We ended up with a long list but in the end whittled it down to about 3 ideas. Both of us agreed that we needed something super colorful and fun where she could show her adorable goofy side…and what is more colorful and fun than candy?

So then I made a list of all the ways we could use candy in the photograph.  I wanted it EVERYWHERE! I did her make-up and it was a blast, I have video somewhere of the process, I’ll have to see if I can dig it up. Applying the makeup went pretty smoothly until I added sequins to her eyebrows…in my defense, I watched a video on YouTube where they attached sequins to a guy’s face with fingernail adhesive…okay, I admit YouTube was probably not the best reference lol and I am much more careful with where I get my hair and make-up info now.  Anyhow, we didn’t find out about the eyebrow debacle until she went home that night and tried to take them off!  I am so sorry Megume!  And I am so glad your eyebrows grew back in!  For future reference, it’s eyelash glue that does the job!  I am now in love with eyelash glue and have used it in a bunch of shoots since.

Anyhow, I wanted her eye make-up to represent bubble gum, her hair cotton candy, and of course  we threw in the ginormous lolli-pop for good measure…just in case we hadn’t been obvious enough;)

The background was a simple 1/2 roll of pink seamless paper I got from Glazers Photo Supply in Seattle, my kids and I stuck these big sticky-back wall circles I found at Ross for $7 all over the background paper.  I was super excited when I found the wall stickers because I thought they would tie in with the lolli-pop, yay! We had a super simple three light-set up because the space we were shooting in was soooo small.. Backlight right behind Megume pointed on the background, a huge Paul Buff  umbrella just to camera right (main), medium Paul Buff octabox (fill) model  left,  just to toss a bit of light back behind the big lollipop.  I was shooting with my 5DII and 70-200mm as usual.

It was actually a pretty simple shoot and the planning and make-up took way more time then the shoot did, which, in my book, is the way it should be.  All you need is a direction, then the possibilities are endless!  Follow whatever direction inspiration leads, it is just so exciting to find out where you end up!

Model: Stephanie Wiebusch
Hair, Make-up, Photography: Kenani B Photography