being the wedding off-season, i felt it was a perfect time to organize a shoot purely for creative purposes. i started by searching around for a model and eventually stumbled across molly. good find number one. i wanted to do this right, so i was going to need hair and makeup. i threw out a facebook message asking if anyone wanted to be involved or knew someone else who’d be good for it and got a connection from a previous wedding client’s sister to kelly o’keefe of blush. good find number two. the hair spot was filled by ashley tucker, a friend of mine who is a hair stylist and also runs inbloom, a business that designs custom hair clips. not only would she style the hair, but she could throw in her hair clips for a little more interest. good find number three. the last link was the location. trunk show chic is a rhode island jewelry company that i’ve done a couple shoots for in the past and who just happened to grab a storefront in downtown providence. they actually signed the lease the night before the shoot. the space had high ceilings, huge windows, concrete floors, rough walls, and it was still kind of dirty. it was perfect. they were cool enough to let us use the space for the day and style the shoot with their jewelry.

at seven o’clock on saturday morning i loaded up the van with all the photo equipment and every potential prop i could scrounge up and headed over to the shoot location. a couple hours later molly, kelly, and ashley showed up and everyone went to work. we setup the first shot in the corner with a giant trunk i had, some old books, some twigs and branches, and the secret weapon – the fog machine. kelly and ashley turned molly into a dark, almost menacing looking model. we did a quick outfit change and took some more shots. i love this one below of her climbing out of the trunk.

kelly and ashley transformed molly into a totally different look and i tried some shots purposefully blowing out the background to get some real bright shots. we ended up with what you see on the right. the last look of the day was real natural looking makeup and some teased out hair. my terms for hair and makeup are probably incorrect, that’s why i take pictures instead of working in a salon. this was my favorite look of the day. molly’s outfit is actually a sheet that ashley skillfully held together with some hair clips (there may have been some duct tape involved too). here’s a couple from that look…

the day was awesome. molly was great to work with and was game for anything, including climbing out of a dirty old trunk, wearing a sheet, and getting sprayed by a fog machine over and over and over and over again. ashley did a great job with the hair and her clips added a lot to the shots. she also interpreted for me when i used boy terms for anything related to makeup, hair, and clothing. kelly nailed the makeup on every look and was a pleasure to work with. i would highly recommend her to any bride in the market for a makeup artist for their wedding. she’s way more than competent and has a great personality. stay tuned to the blog in the future because there will definitely be more from me and kelly on new collaborative projects. we’re in the process of planning some big stuff, but i can’t let the cat totally out of the bag quite yet. i’d like to give a huge thanks to everyone involved, especially trunk show chic for hooking us up with the space to use for the day. check out their website for some unique jewelry. be sure to also check out kelly’s site and learn a little more about her business. ashley’s inbloom site will be up soon and i’ll link up to it once it’s ready to go. more photos from this shoot can be found on the facebook page or on the blueflash website.

---

---