Behind the Scenes: Great Falls Park, VA

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Part 1

Back in May, I came back home after meeting some of the most amazing people during a photography retreat in the southern countryside of France, hosted by Brooke Shaden. For the most part, everyone from the trip lived in different corners around the world, except for a few of my new friends, Tom and Marisa. We discovered that we only live three hours away from each other at the farthest distance. So, a week after returning home, reality, and to school, we collaborated a meet up and now have been doing so every month since. 

Our first meet up was at Great Falls Park, on the Virginia/Maryland border. This was my first time ever in the area and the location Marisa chose was absolutely amazing. Lush forests, grand rock formations and cliffs surrounding a gushing river down below. Autumn joined us as our model for the day on our adventure. She was simply amazing at everything she did and made us laugh more than a few times.

We scaled the rocks with our equipment and I fell in love with the entire location. Usually on shoots like these I focus on shooting one photograph, but I was so inspired by everything going on I shot three amazing photos that I’m so excited to share with you shortly! 

We’ve had two other photo shoots together since this trip and we just returned to Great Falls Park yesterday from an other adventure. 

I can tell you that I bravely walked through rushing water scaling down the side of the mountain, positioned myself on a slimy rock, and posed with an anchor I found back in February. I can’t wait to start editing! 

Part 2

After admiring the rapids and the amazing cliffs and rocks, we pack our gear, wardrobe, and props, and climbed back up to the trail in the park. But before that though, I poked my head over while I was shooting textures of the rocks and saw a beautifully secluded spot for one more photo. So excited to share that next friday! 

We hiked back up the trail and walked over to a spot we wanted to revisit on our way to the river. It was almost like nature was giving us a stage to use for Autumn. I love how the boulders dominate the landscape out there. In a way it makes me feel small. Not in any bad sort of way though, but more in a child like sense. I mean, put any dog in front of me and I turn into a five year old, but being in an environment where you lose track of your own sense of scale is fun and interesting. 

While Marisa set up for her photo, I wandered off the trail to explore, only to have a run in with a 3ft long black snake that I had no intentions of getting any nearer than I already was. I quickly regrouped with Tom and Marisa, and helped throw the cape for Marisa's shot. 

I set up afterwords and shot Autumn with this gas lantern I came across of in a thrift shop a few weeks earlier. I love her gentle expression in the image, and how the color of her hair and dress pop out from the foliage. The landscape out in Virginia is amazing.

Part 3

When we were on the cliffs by the river, I scouted the location as Tom and Marisa were shooting Autumn. As I was climbing, I stumbled upon this private alcove on the edge of the water, cast in complete shadows and secluded enough to shoot this concept of The Birth of Venus. Immediately finding this spot triggered that image in my mind and I wanted to shoot an image to interpret that. 

I stood high up on the cliffs and shot handheld (which I hardly ever do for expanding my frame). There wasn't a way for my tripod to be used in this situation, so I knew I had shot enough to have the whole scene overlapped. I really love how the color and tonality of this image. The light almost makes it look as if she's glowing. This photograph is my personal favorite from that day. 

Behind the Scenes: The Indulgence of Loss for Gain

• After coming back home from the trip and finally finishing editing, I did some research on the name of the trunk to see if there was any significance to it to base any sort of story to it; and it most definitely did. I search for “A. Dumas” pulled up the name Alexandre Dumas, a frenchman who was a famed novelist and play writer in the 19th century. His most famous novel, Camille (Also known as The Lady of the Camellias) which was made into a play, then an opera by Giuseppe Verdi. In Camille, the main character Marguerite, who dies of tuberculosis, is based off his real life love affair with a french courtesan, Mari Duplessis, who fared the same fate. A year after she had passed, Alexandre had completed his novel Camille, that was greatly inspired by his recent loss. 

This photograph was taken in one of the top floor chambers of a beautiful chateau while attending a week long creative photography retreat hosted by the all-too-wonderful Brooke Shaden. In the southern country side of Sarlenes, France (my first time traveling to Europe!), we were given exclusive accessibility to the entire hillside property, along with 3 models, Brooke’s endless vintage wardrobe collection, and two wonderful assistants. 

On our fist day at the property, we gathered in the front courtyard, unpacked the taxi’s loaded with photography gear, and marveled over the hillside landscape of the country and distant villages. We entered inside through two huge carved wooden doors and were greeted to an extraordinary chandelier and stone spiral staircase. After spending an hour exploring the chateau through and through, we again met in the front room and were given a photography exercise about composing and preconceiving images in our heads as we were blindfolded and gave directions to Brooke how to shoot what we saw in our heads as she operated the camera. 

After this, we broke up into groups and took turns with each model on different floors of the chateau. 

 I fell in love with this trunk when I discovered up in one of the bedrooms and immediately put myself inside to see if I could fit one of the models in to photograph. Just as I was laying inside, a small part of my group walked by and we exchanged some memorable looks with each other. I was shooting with a tighter lens than I should have been using, so I ended up backing into a fireplace with ash covering my backside. 

Behind the Scenes: The Call of Patient Spring

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Originally my idea was to build a dress using dozens of individual flower pedals that I shot with Steph for about an hour, only to stop mid-way through my first edit/build of the image to start over from scratch with a more simplistic idea. I liked the concept, but I just wasn't executing my idea properly in photoshop and had to take a step back. Upon revisiting the image, I cropped in a bit more, made the image softer, and built a more simplistic dress that better fit the mood I was looking for in this photograph. All in all, I'm so happy with how it turned out! 

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It was one of those days where I needed to create something new. I grabbed my friend Steph on her day off from work one morning and visited Shofuso, a neat little Japanese house and garden nestled in the heart of West Fairmount Park, near the Please Touch Museum.  If you didn't know me, or what I do, you'd easily think I'm a packrat for vintage and interesting things that I carry around with me. I'm always traveling with my car filled to the brim with old outfits, photo props, bird wings, anchors, clocks, books, teapots, etc. 

I don't usually do this much, but on this day I walked out the door completely open minded to the shoot; I just wanted to have fun and be inspired by the day. It was a sunny day near the end of April; still cold enough to wear a nice sweat shirt. We apparently arrived about 45 minutes earlier than the Japanese garden opened, so we explored the area on foot in the park.

On our way to the parking lot, we passed the cherry blossom tress in full bloom down the street. We walked over to one nearby and gears in my head started turning. The year before, I was fixated on doing some type of shoot with these trees, and there is such a small window of opportunity to use them. Probably in mid-conversation with Steph, I paused and told her about the lightbulb that just lit in my head. She was excited and I was excited. It was go time... but first the Japanese Garden!

Inside the garden it was peaceful and surreal. Trapped within Philadelphia lays a small Japanese oasis. We had to remove our foot ware to enter inside of the property, but that made the experience that much more fun. As we sat in the sun, we found a turtle on one of the rocks, sunbathing with a smile. We wished we were that turtle, for at least a day. 

Once we exited the garden, I grabbed a plastic bag from my car and Steph helped me collect around 100 pink flower pedals littering the park grounds beneath the trees. There was a dogwood tree nearby with its flowers in bloom as well. I picked off a small branch with white flowers on it for Steph to use an accessory in her hair. I looked around the area, we were directly next to a road and the museum's back parking lot. Examining my surroundings, I tried out a few spots at the location to see what would work best. It was an hour before noon, the wind was blowing, and there wasn't a cloud in sight. 

After sicking Steph up in a tree and playing with two other spots, I found the perfect angle. Background and flowers brightly lit from the sun, Steph standing in the foreground shadow of the tree overhead. The branches rustled in the wind, giving me unique lighting on Steph. I used a shot i particularly liked for the spotlighting that was casted on her face. This was a fun morning.