Retouching Beauty

Back at RIT, after a summer of London and Six Flags Entertainment. One of my photography classes is about examining the idea of beauty in general and within our culture. The assignments allowed for us to work with whatever subject matter we chose and we explored meanings behind images, beyond the pretty aesthetics.

Brandi modeled for a beauty shot.

Home Again

London was such a wonderful experience, but it really is hard to beat your home. It is nice to be back.

I have so many files still in need of organizing and editing. They'll slowly be appearing on my website.

London Fashion Shoot

In the Notting Hills area in London we had the final photo shoot of the trip. We were once again split into small groups to work with a model and I could not have been happier with the model our group was able to work with. Our model, Lianna Fowler represented by Ford Models, had so much energy and so much positivity to run with. Styling/Clothing was changed three times during the shoot. I started with a beauty shot of her outside of the infamous London telephone booth.



Then after lunch we set up in an alley way nearby that offered a number of backgrounds and spaces to work with and capture different feelings and moods from.



I have so many amazing photos from that shoot and it really opened my eyes to something that I could be passionate about shooting.

**When I returned home from London, I was flipping the channels on the TV and came across "Britain's Next Top Model" which had been filmed before my trip to London and I watched for a moment. One of the models caught my attention and it forced me to watch the marathon all the way through, to see Lianna Fowler win.

Prague Fashion Shoot

While in Europe studying fashion we were able to go to Prague for a little less then a week. Such a beautiful city! It's stone streets and cathedrals and artwork are incredibly romantic and you can feel that there's history there, not quite like anything I've been to back home.

It is also rich with wonderful locations for shooting. Even the streets and walls have character. Part of that trip was spent location scouting, for which I was a part of a small group. We worked with a model named Dominika, who had gone through the process of hair, makeup and wardrobe when we met her. A hair stylist had her hair teased out, her makeup was done beautifully and a stylist arranged her clothing. After our shoot I saw her without all of that, and she didn't look any older then 14. Its amazing how much it transforms someone.

Our shoot started in the beautiful gardens in the city. I photographed Dominika posed in the sculpted greenery. We each used different aspects of the gardens, the plants, benches, walls, and small rooms decorated by murals. We had to work through a language barrier with Dominika but overall it was a great experience and I learned a lot.

Second Plane

It was worth the shaky plane ride, my second ever, that had me feeling sick. I was glad to land.

We arrived in Prague.

Beautiful.