"Sibylline Dreams" - Planning a Styled Shoot with Rikki!
Updated: Sep 10, 2018
A fun aspect about delving into planning more conceptual and stylized shoots is getting to make your mark on certain centerpieces. Recently, I got the chance to style a shoot with my ever lovely friend Rikki. Surprisingly, this was her first (or second) time modeling, and she did a wonderful job! Acquainted for a few years now, I've always admired her general style and makeup artistry. This look was enchantingly crafted by her for our photo session the morning of, based on some prior collaborative palette coordination efforts. Isn't she amazing?! The overall mood reminds me of an oracle on her way to fulfill prophetic dreams.
During the planning process, it was decided that a veil was to be one of the centerpieces for this particular series. Wanting to play with the concept of motion and flow, capturing the free energy of a veil seemed so natural. With initial plans of shooting two weeks out, it was refreshing to slow down and take the time to craft the shoot according to vision. Somewhere along the way, I obtained enough gumption to create the veil I was visualizing by hand. Low and behold, a couple trips to the craft supply store later and now the idea had given birth to a concrete segue to execution. All of a sudden, I was ready to play my hand at a new sewing project! It was a neat challenge to take on and honestly took me out of my comfort zone at times. Tulle is such a miserably pathetic fabric to work with and I hadn't hand-sewn anything since taking home economics in eighth grade. [To my defense, a handy embroidered draw-string bag I also created back then is still holding up 8 years later with frequent usage!]
After a few prototypes, I was able to complete the final product used as the centerpiece for the shoot. I aimed for a chapel length veil but ended up a tad bit shorter. Although the final product did not reflect my initial (and possibly over-complicated) design plans and I technically could have just bought a veil from the beginning, it was exciting putting love and effort into hand-crafting a prop for a shoot and aesthetic I wanted to achieve; it was the most rewarding part of the whole project. Nerve-racking and exhilarating, hand-crafting the veil was some of the most fun and extensive effort put in the works during the planning stage of a shoot. Like other forms of craftsmanship, sewing is a delicate form and takes more discipline and patience than initially thought. Other than writing and singing, photography is the main medium I currently channel my artistic nature through, but I've always admired visual artists and those who create with their hands. Through this recent enlightening little crafting project, my appreciation has increased tenfold!
It can be a challenge to get subjects up and out for early morning photo shoots mid-week, but shaking things up and seizing this time of day's natural lighting can be very fruitful. Rikki faithfully ingested her ritualistic cup of joe and met up with me the morning of. After some brief final touches, away we descended upon the rolling hills of eternal sleep.
I had a great experience on our recent collaboration. I'm overwhelmed with inspiration to continue crafting more stylized and concept scenes. Stick around for more photo adventures like these. Thanks for reading! Special thanks to Alex for gracing us with use of the gorgeous corset used in this look's styling!