After weeks of quarantine during the COVID19 outbreak, I have been becoming more and more creatively restless. I miss having my camera in hand. I miss working with a creative team. I even miss editing. However, I’ve been looking for the silver lining in all of this…grasping hold of more family time at home and dinners together without rushing off to an activity, more down time to check off the “To Do List” items that have been on the back burner for way too long, spending more time exercising outdoors and the rare opportunity to pursue a few personal projects. There are always ideas spinning around in my head that I don’t get to shoot because I’m busy with client work and deadlines, but because of this ugly virus I’ve been given the beautiful gift of time. So, I decided to start creating whatever I could with whatever I had available to me.
One of the disappointments of school being canceled was my daughter not being able to go to prom or have her cotillion presentation, both of which we had purchased new dresses for. So, we decided to make lemonade out of lemons and do a shoot with the Amsale white cotillion dress which we purchased from Bella Bridesmaids. It was Easter week and I was inspired by my daughter being a young woman now and the spring dogwoods in full bloom all around my neighborhood, so I spent an hour one afternoon foraging branches to use in our shoot. On Good Friday, I styled my daughter’s hair and make up, grabbed some Cocoon Silk Ribbon from my styling kit and the dogwood branches out of the bucket, set up a white seamless backdrop in my garage, opened the garage door to let all the beautiful natural light spill in and begin shooting. It was an extraordinarily Good Friday spending time with my daughter and bringing her into my world of celebrating all things feminine and beautiful. Highlights from these sessions are published in Rangefinder Magazine.
“Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.” — Twyla Tharp
