I love putting together custom ideas for clients.
Mom wanted a fairytale session, but she wanted something different. So I asked her what her daughter wanted to be. This sweet girl answered “A deer fairy.”

My wonderful pals over at Enchanted Fairyware listened to my crazy hare-brained ideas about this deer fairy, added a few ideas of their own, then made this stunning thing from head down. The antlers, the wings, the wrist cuffs, the whole tutu (which is longer in the back than the front to mimic a deer’s long body). Wow.

The shot in front of the water? Watch for the story of that one next week. ]]> http://www.fairyography.com/athens-child-photographer-deer-fairy/feed/ 0 http://www.fairyography.com/artists-collaboration-cinderella/ http://www.fairyography.com/artists-collaboration-cinderella/#comments Tue, 14 May 2013 08:25:49 +0000 Heather Lickliter Larkin http://www.fairyography.com/?p=6683 NOTE: the images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

What do you think of when you think ‘Cinderella’?

That’s the question I asked of a group of photographers I know. I asked each of them “How do you see Cinderella? Maybe what comes to mind is the castle, or the dress? Maybe the glass slipper or the fairy godmother? Pick something and go with it, make it yours. Creativity is great. It doesn’t need to be an entire story beginning to end of the fairytale. Maybe you want to shoot an entire session around that slipper, or you have something dark and grey planned. Perhaps you like her best before she meets the prince? Small kids, big kids, adults.. steampunk, futuristic, traditional or Disney-like?” I told them “Shoot your style, your model(s), your props, your processing… your idea of Cinderella. You email me your favorite 8-10 watermarked images. I will then make a PDF and upload it to Issuu with links back to each of your pages.”

Below are my own images, followed with a link to the entire collection and other participant’s pages.

When I thought up this collaboration, I pictured myself doing something very close to the Disney type Cinderella. Blue dress, dainty model, sweet, bright location. I tried several location scouting trips, but I just wasn’t getting what I wanted. Finally, I had the idea.. What if Cinderella didn’t have a fairy godmother? Even further, what if she’s a girl with attitude and mechanical smarts, and she doesn’t even need a fairy godmother, she can put her brains into it and get her own self to that ball! I immediately shifted gears (hah hah, pun) towards a steampunk Cinderella, which was very interesting to build and shoot since it’s so far away from what I normally photograph. Since I can’t sew, I had to take a dress I already owned and modify it. So, it came out less steam and punk and more princessey, but I still feel like this shows how she got herself to that ball!

Here is the list of all the participants, go visit the others and see what else they did!
Marie Asbury – Sioux Falls, SD – finishedvision.com
Aseel Aziz-Gomez – Lexington, KY – zoombugphotos.com
Monique Duke – Albuquerque, NM – moniqueduke.com
Lori Fowlkes – Fredericksburg, VA – lorielizabethphotography.com
Lauren Harms – Boise, ID – shadylanestudios.com
Jessica Holden – Sunnyvale, CA – jessicaholdenphotography.com
Heather Lickliter Larkin – Athens, GA – fairyography.com

This photo makes me laugh every time I see it.

Every. Time.

Why? It has a story. This photo doesn’t really tell much of a story in itself, true. It’s beautiful and graceful. Her hair falls just so, the dress moves with her to create an eye catching sweep to the ground. I can see the light through the trees, the sun just kisses the crown and the top of her head. It’s lovely, but that’s not why I love it.

No, the reason I love this image is because there are no bathrooms at the Botanical Gardens. Oh, there are, but I usually shoot for best light, which means that the bathrooms are in locked buildings by the time I begin the sessions. So this was near the end of the sessions, bathrooms long since locked and this sweet, perfect princess with her perfect pink dress and her perfect blonde natural curls.. she says “Mommy? I have to potty.”

Mom of course looks right at me and I have to tell her there are no bathrooms open. To which she turns to her precious daughter and says “No potties here, sweetie, can you hold it?” and baby girl says in a willowy voice “I’ll try.” So, we’re on the way back to the car so they can leave and go get her to the potty, and she just can’t hold it anymore. No potties, not close to the car.. and we’re just going to have to pee in the woods.

I assure mom that it’s not the first time (it wasn’t), and it’s super easy (it is). All we have to do is watch for people walking by, slip her undies off, and hold the dress up over her head and let her squat in the woods. As we’re doing this, mom and I looking at each other, laughing our butts off. This is like the bridesmaids holding the wedding dress out of the toilet so the bride can use the bathroom. Poor daughter is just going and going and going and we look down and there’s a tiny little river coming from under all this fluff in our hands.  She finally finishes, looks up and says “OH, I feel better!” We put the dress down, undies back on and off she goes.

And yes, that’s why I love this image. Just one minute before this was taken, she was peeing in the woods.

Here are all the orchard mini sessions, holy cow do I love them.

This pair of girls, how I love them. Not only have I been shooting them since the littlest sister here was just 10 days old, but I also love them as little people themselves. They keep me laughing each session. This one, mom and I are standing there and they both get a little bored with my direction right at the same time and unprompted they both start making funny faces. I got one and I start laughing and mom turns to me utterly straight faced and says “We apparently watch MTV on a time warp in our house.” YES, it looked like they were band members! I just rolled on the ground laughing.

These girls have also been to see me before! See them in the fall and again last summer.

And one last one, an ‘out-take’ (in quotes because I actually know it will wind up on mom’s wall) too funny not to share… it’s the rock star faces.