Behind the Scenes With "By the Willow Trees"

"Beloved, thou has brought me many flowers....."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

INSPIRATION

Rembrandt, Brooke Shaden, the Pre-Raphaelite Era, and early 1400th century Renaissance paintings.

MOOD

The five defining personality traits of this character are

Sensual, Melancholy, Romantic, Humble, & Regal

PLOT

The daughter of a well-known Italian aristocrat indulges in a romantic walk along the creeks of her villa where she weaves her way through a forest of willow trees.

CASTING TALENT

My mother discovered Emily at work and since day one of meeting her she insisted that I photograph Emily in one of my projects. After four months we finally did.

I’d like to give a shout out to Emily and say thank you for creating such an enjoyable work experience and for bringing this project to life with me.

POSING INSPIRATION

The posing inspiration for this project came from the body language found in the paintings of the Renaissance. It’s important to note that the people who commissioned portraits in the Renaissance were the wealthy nobility, not peasants, and due to the design of the era’s wardrobe, a sitter’s body language was very rigid.

For this project, it was important to me to captured some of that rigidity; however, my story takes place during a private moment where this young poet is escaping the confines of her life in high society. Although she is a member of nobility, she is also a free spirit who enjoys getting her hands dirty and expressing her ideas on paper.

WARDROBE

My mother found this dress at a theater sale where the company was selling old costumes. There was a bit of basic maintenance to do, but overall the dress was well preserved. I especially loved the warm tones of the dress with its gold and brown hues that matched perfectly with the model's hazel eyes and warm skin tone.

ACCESSORIES

The jewelry for this project had to complement the status and grandeur of the dress as well as the time period. I opted for simple, antiquated designs with translucent earth tone stones and pearls. I wanted my model to be adorned with a bit of sparkle that would be appropriate for her age.

Jess working her magic.

MAKE-UP AND HAIR

Two Goals:

1.)   Emphasis on my model’s natural beauty, allowing it to speak for itself.

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2.)   Stay close to the aesthetic of the time with very little to no make up

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Simplicity and elegance

My color palette for this project was based on earth tones, and therefore, the make-up had to follow suit. I insisted on using brown and gold tone make up to give the model a less dramatic appearance and a more natural, youthful glow. It was equally important to me that we keep her freckles rather than masking them out with layers of foundation and powder.

COLOR PALETTE

In my mind this project is based not in northern California but in the romantic, warm Italian countryside. I decided on creating a world of rich yellows, saturated greens, deep browns, and small hints of rosy pinks.

LOCATION

As is common for me, the location for this shoot proved to be a bit of a challenge. Because so many of my projects are based on characters from different time periods, finding locations without all the electricity and contemporary buildings can be hard to find. As much as I would have loved to shoot in a beautiful antiquated Italian villa, I choose to shoot this project by a park close to my parents’ house. The location provided me with a very simple backdrop that allowed me to move around and play with the framing and composition of my subject.

LIGHTING

The project was shot with natural light and a reflector. Due to busy schedules, I had no choice but to start my shoot in the middle of the day. I used a circular polarizing filter to help control the extreme exposures and to compensate for the harsh mid-summer light. I also made use of the willow trees and used their natural shade as a diffuser to shoot my model in softer light. I was also very excited to use the willow trees leaves as a gobo that helped to create interesting shadows on and around my model.

LIGHTING AESTHETIC

After my research into the work of painters like Rembrandt, I have re-discovered the beauty of contrast. In art school, I was encouraged to work with soft, diffused 2:1 contrast ratios, but for this project I felt that a 2:1 ratio would ruin the aesthetic. In my research, I found that contrast was a very important characteristic found in paintings that helped add dimension to a sitter’s face. I found myself thinking of contrast as a curtain that can both hide and reveal little bits of information about a character.

So, for the first time in a long time, I didn’t shy away from creating deep shadows and strong highlights. In fact, I gave myself permission to play with contrast, and I think that the 3:1 contrast ratio in the images has given my character more personality and a touch of mystery.

My inspiration for the intro page of the project came from an image that I found on Tumblr. I loved the idea of framing my subject in the classic oval shape, as well as the use of small boxy fonts.

FRAMING & CROPPING

When working in studios I’ve always felt limited by the size of the seamless paper, but here on this location I was finally free to roll around in the dirt in order to find new and interesting angles where I could frame my model, tell her story, and capture the beauty of the location.

POST PRODUCTION

I enjoyed working with these images in post. With the exception of two images that had cars in the background, there was very little composting needed. The retouching came down to skin clean up and creating the warm tone color palette that I discussed earlier.

After finishing my skin retouching I decided to push the antiquated aesthetic even further. In order to age my images, I did three things: I added a canvas texture, I decided not to sharpen the photographs, and left out the blue.

FUN FACT

A fun fact about this project is that the poem I used to introduce the story was found in a bar of yummy Salted Carmel Chocolate. Not only was the chocolate a decadent triumph, but the poem inside was a wonderful surprise. The poem captures an era and style of writing that I had been seeking for this project. It embodies all the introspection and emotion that I was unable to put into words and expresses a level of intimacy that I hoped to capture in the final images.

There's always time for an impromptu scarf dance.

PC: Jess Clark

DREAM TEAM

Producer, Photographer, Retoucher: Alicia M. Blair

Styling & Casting: Susana & Alicia Blair

Make-Up & Hair: Jessica Clark

Model: Emily Oceguera Chávez

Thank you for reading!

-AMB