Wednesday, July 18, 2007

100 Year Old Cemetary





When a new model arrives for her very first shoot with me she has no idea what type of shoot we'll be doing, where we'll be going, or what exactly is in store. The reason is simple, I don't know either. Shoots with new girls are never preplanned. She walks in and we lay all the clothes she brought across the room and I stare. Sometimes for a few seconds, sometimes for several minutes. Inside my brain I try to match the clothes I want to use with their perfect location.



After staring at her clothes for a longer than average amount of time it came to me, the cemetery. I've never shot there before but that's the fun of it. Towards the end of the shoot a van pulled up with the official markings of the cemetery, the assistant announced that the shoot was probably over. I walked to the van and met the driver halfway. I put my charm in overdrive (yes, us males have charm) and two minutes later we were back to shooting, now with official permission.


I opened the images in Photoshop where the finished product took another turn, though I wasn't planning it the images turned goulish, surreal, even macabre. This is what happens when you let creativity happen on it's own. It takes you places you couldn't have otherwise predicted.