CHLOE {AND CREATING THE MOOD}

About a month ago I decided to try something a little bit different. Something to challenge myself and to work in a completely different way. A little test, if you will. I always find that they’re a great way to discover a new way of working, a way to see something differently and this was no exception. This shoot came together extremely quickly with the help of my good friend, and makeup artist extraordinaire Natalie Biller.

I’ve been umming and aahing about whether to post these on the blog, they are markedly different from the weddings and lovely couples that I get to shoot, but in the end, while they may look a little different, at the heart of it they showcase who I am just as much as everything else. The create a mood and tell a story. The story in this case isn’t the story of a wedding day, but rather it’s all about a particular moment in time and the feel was inspired by one of my favourite bands, Elbow and their song Mirrorball.

“You make the moon a mirrorball,
The streets an empty stage.
The city’s sirens, violins,
Everything has changed.”

For my film geek friends this was all shot on Polaroid 600SE with Fujifilm FP-100C

ELYSE {WPPI}

I’ve been sitting at the computer for the last half hour attempting to describe the experience I’ve had over the last few days at WPPI, but I honestly can’t. I sort of thought that it would be more about workshopping and visiting vendors, but honestly that was the smallest part of it. I’m sitting here at 2:30am with three friends and a fourth we’re all talking to on Skype and it feels like we’ve known each other forever. A few of them have already left WPPI, and by Friday I will be on the road as well and I’m ridiculously saddened that I probably won’t get to see them in person for months, maybe years.

The photos below are the culmination of a random thought that we wanted to do a photo shoot in the desert while we were here. There were only 12 of us and the photos below are modeled by the lovely Elyse Bouvier who is a talented photographer in her own right.

To my WPPI peeps, I’m going to miss you guys and I love you all and thank you so much for making this one heck of an amazing week.

To everyone reading, I hope you enjoy.

xoxo

… A LIFE HALF LIVED

“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” – Truman Capote

I’ve been doing a lot of teaching and mentoring lately and this idea of a fear and being afraid of making a mistake, or fear of not having a perfect brand, fear of not knowing enough, and all other sorts of fears is something that keeps coming up. One of the most important things we need to learn as creatives is to ignore that fear. If I had listened to my fears and doubts about starting I Love Wednesdays, I wouldn’t be here today doing what I love; instead I’d probably be working somewhere ‘safe’ for someone else. Fear makes you stick to what’s comfortable and makes people complacent. Complacency has never been a good thing for creative endeavours.

The risk of failure is inevitable, in whatever we do. Every successful person in the world has failed more than most people combined, and that’s what makes them so successful, being willing to reach further, challenging themselves to explore new ideas, escaping their comfort zone, and getting right back up when they fall flat on their face.

I’ve been working on my list of goals for 2011 and they are extensive, audacious and more than likely impossible… but I would rather be just south of audacious than just north of complacent.

xoxo