I wanted to capture the lovely Carmen Caliente in a more personal way, so we headed to her favorite studio to shoot her zen time, which is her dance time.
Tea Party in the Ruins
Sometimes, I get a picture in my head. This tea party at the abandoned farm was one of them. I was fortunate to have these ladies make the trip to create these images with me. IG credits from left to right: @meanwhileinthecostumeshop, @lilyvontrapp, @sisterite (who MADE that gorgeous headpiece), @miss_angel_inez, and @jayniejezebel. I just gave the instructions for decadent outfits, and they pulled through beautifully!
We are the weirdos, Mister….
Sleeping Beauties
I’ve been trying to squeeze in as much outdoor shooting as I can, before Seattle winter takes over and everything is one giant puddle. Here we have Miss Angel Inez, and a newbie for me, Trixie Lamarr. I wanted a dreamy and fairytale look for nap time in the forest!
Enchantress
So, I saw Carmen Caliente here perform in this gown, and this image popped into my head. We’ve been trying to figure out ways to get her out of her pin up box, and she was a trooper, braving nature and cold creeks. We did get a lot of questioning looks about why there was a candelabra in the water…
Aerial Poetry
The lovely and talented Holly Bordeaux! We did this for her instructional book on lyra (the hoop) dance. Of course, I had to try it…and it’s fun! We’ll just ignore my dismount…
Daphne and Apollo
I’ve had a thing for mythology since I was a kid, and Daphne and Apollo is one of my favorites. I had it in my head to do a Daphne and Apollo themed shoot for…oh, since I started shooting, basically, but I needed the right people. Lily VonTrapp shared my enthusiasm for the idea when I brought it up, and I met Landon Chance at a fashion show and knew he was my Apollo. He didn’t even flinch when I presented him with semi-obscene gold shorts. We shot this in Carkeek Park, Seattle (while attracting side glances from passersby as I turned the rest of Landon gold).
Daphne, a naiad (water) nymph was determined to remain unmarried and untouched. Apollo, the sun god fell in love with Daphne after Eros, the god of love shot Apollo with an arrow in retaliation for mockery. He completed his vengeance by shooting Daphne with a different arrow designed to make her downright loathe Apollo. What did we learn? Don’t mock the god of love…
Apollo aggressively pursued Daphne…entitled much?
Trying to dodge one of the more powerful gods clearly presented a problem. Resourceful nymph that she was, Daphne appealed to her father Peneus, the river god for help escaping Apollo’s clutches. (Special guest appearance here by David Frank as Peneus).
In order to escape from Apollo, Daphne had to sacrifice her body form so Peneus could use his powers of transformation…and seriously, what father would want their daughter with a guy like that?
Daphne elected to turn into a Laurel tree instead of succumbing to the sun gods desires.
Apollo grieved this loss and vowed to love her forever, crowning himself from leaves from the newly formed laurel tree…you know, when he wasn’t busy trying to bed the wives of other gods.
No means no, even if you are a legit god. Get with it, Apollo.
HUGE thank you to the magical humans that made this happen!
Holly in Motion
Leap
Abandoned
More work with Miss Angel Inez and her lovely ink. She took me to this extraordinary location…abandoned stables about 1.5 hours north of Seattle. It was spooky, sad, beautiful, and strange all at once. I love the little leaves and plants that popped up amid the ruins. Can’t stop Mama Nature, ruins or not…
3rd Blogiversary!
This year has been really interesting…I paused worrying about selling prints, and just let myself shoot freely. That break really gave me a lot of freedom, so I think I’m going to listen to myself and do that when I think it’ll help me. I met some amazing new people to create with…BIG shout out to Celeste at Poppy Seed Roll Costuming for the incredible styling, laughs, and introductions…and continued working with people I love to work with. I even got a reunion with Heather, my east coast muse! Winter was difficult, but all my fantastic subjects, especially Lily VonTrapp and Lyz, kept me busy and got me through it. Now, I just finished shooting the lovelies of After Midnight Cabaret and am working on a little video project for them. I continued with my naked, honest body love project, and will continue to do so. Seattle became a lot more fun this past year!
Thank you all for reading and viewing! As always, love yourselves.
LizZusev 