My hearts work

“Its my mission to use my camera to empower women and make them feel beautiful. ”

This past December I set out to make a video that would show my hearts work. Its a simple message of love and laughter .... of kindness and acceptance..... its my world where women never have to feel less then.

My french inspired photo shoot started in the mountains of Virginia with my beautiful nieces Ashley, Erin, Samantha and Jillian.  We transformed our ski chalet into a french inspired salon. We covered the walls with white sheets, posted inspirational photos, and hung sparkly lights. Each girl got their own photo shoot, which included outfit styling, hair and  makeup, and some good old fashion giggles and dancing. 

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I want to thank the girls for letting me take "before" photos of them to help illustrate that these girls are not professional models they are just beautiful extraordinarily "normal" girls.

Have you ever looked in the mirror and not felt good enough? Do you look at magazines and think I wish I could look that beautiful? I am here to break down those myths and show you that you are beautiful and your are perfect in this moment.

Give me a day to change your mind and change your heart to believe in how special you are to the world. Come get pampered for a day and lets make magic together.

All you need is yourself and an open heart .... plus a willingness to laugh and have fun.

Email me and lets make a play date. 

 

My Jilly-bean

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That's what I call her .... Jillian my niece also known as Jilly-bean. I love my Jillian that’s what anyone would say who knows her. She has a light inside that shines bright and you can’t help, but be affected when your in her presence. I remember her mother telling me when she was a baby that she looked forward to her days of play with Jillian. She said "she is just a happy baby always smiling". I believe happiness is a choice and some people are put on this planet to remind us to look for the brighter side of life. Jillian does that for me. I am lucky to say Jillian has been one of my muses since she was very little. She was always game to do whatever I cooked up in my creative brain. Recently, I asked Jillian to help me create something, which combinds three of my passions video, photos and music. I introduced the concept with my Camp Easy Couture video, which you can see here. So with Jillian’s help, my camera and a few hours of play together I created a video fusion show reel. Video fusion is simply the combination of still photos, video and music, but what results is pure magic to me. 

Celebrate the loves in your life with a show-real contact me and set up a play date. You will never regret capturing the loves that inspire the light in your life. 

Here are some earlier photo shoots we did together. The fairy wing photo shoot together resulted in this photo, which was selected to be featured in a German magazine. When Jill put on the wings I remember she tranformed into an other worldly creature, I just followed her and tried to keep up.


Camp Easy Couture

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Behind the scenes video and photos of my photo shoot at Camp Easy in the mountains.

Up in the mountains where the air is a little crisper and colder resides a place called Camp Easy.  

This Cabin in the woods is truly a step back in time and many steps away from the hustle and bustles of everyday life. It is my favorite place on the planet, and I always love spending time at Camp Easy. Recently I spent a long weekend up in the mountains with my camera, 4 beautiful models, some amazing props, and some gorgeous gowns I created from thrift store finds.  I am calling it my Camp Easy Couture Photo Shoot. This video shows some behind the scenes fun and some of the amazing photos that were created. I wanted to thank my beautiful models Erin, Samantha, Jillian and a special last minute appearance of the stunning Ashley. My vision was to create a setting of a "girls day out" sitting drinking tea, listen to music and creating fanciful stories to entertain themselves something my great grandmother might have done decades earlier in a similar spot with these very same objects. 

Send me an email if you want to find out how you can book your own play date with me to create some stunning portraits of your own. 

I look for creative solutions to make a shoot a little extra interesting. I wanted to use the beautiful mountain setting to create a mood, but I also used props old and new to help me. Here are some behind the scenes tips that I used on this shoot. 

Masks

I got the masks from Walmart and painted them different shades of white, off white and cream. Then I used hodge podge to apply some glitter and flowers to make them more photogenic. I was really happy with how they turned out here are some photos of before and after. 

Flowers

I have been collecting silk and fabric flowers over the years. I keep an eye out for them to go on clearance and then buy a bunch. One of my favorite stores is crate & barrel, but you could use some from Michaels or Joann Fabrics. We used white paint as a base over top of the silk flowers and then I went back in with tones of grey, yellow, purple and peach to create a hand painted vintage BEAUTIFUL flowers. 

Gowns

I went to the thrift store in the little sleepy town of Bedford, Va and spent 3 glorious hours looking around and finding treasures. I was surprised and delighted to find so many yummy things I could use. I just love spending time searching for hidden treasures at the thrift store. My goal was to find dresses or tops that I could turn into gowns. I used curtains and small pieces of fabric to make long skirts, which we pined in place. The girls kept their blue jeans and boots on under the gowns, so when I asked them to go into the tall grass they felt protected. I had some pearls and sparkly pins to strategically place them on the gowns to pull the look all together. 

Props

Camp Easy has been in my family for 5 generations and we don't like to throw anything away, so I had many props available. I got an old trunk out of the barn and did not even realize until I opened it that it had a picture of a women tacked on the inside... Bonus. The phonograph is one of my favorite props and it still works if you turn the record manually. 

I was lucky to have some helpers for the behind the scenes video and I want to take time to thank Ashley for her help and a special thanks to Kelly and Elizabeth for  jumping in for some photos themselves. Here are some amazing shots I got of the girls and their mothers.