Yep, We Went There...

Hello Lovelies!

I hope this week finds you all doing well out there. Things here are busy and very good! I have a ton of projects in various stages of completion, so let's hop right in, shall we?

To start, I finished up my Mermaids of the Maine Coast project and submitted it to the Water, Water Everywhere competition this week. This was one of the funnest projects I've done in quite some time. (We always have fun, but this was too much.) All humor aside, I feel these shots from an execution/editing standpoint are fairly strong, so fingers crossed! And a huge thank you to the boys who wore the tail... thank you, guys! The mermaid photos are also available as fine art prints in both the Stapelia shop and over at Society6, so if you're interested in decorating your walls with crazy, place that order!

And speaking of Society6, that is a site for fine art prints of all sorts; paintings, photography, illustration and so on. A ton of very talented people are represented in that community of artists. Out of all of the prints made available on the site, Society6 also sub-curates a group of prints to feature/sell in their company store. Yesterday, I found out that 3 of my Zom-B-Vex prints were selected to go in this store, which is very exciting! So, now you can find Baseball Boy, Scout Master & Businessman up in there. Yay!

What else? Oh! I was in the studio all this past Sunday photographing sets of twins for another contest I am entering very soon. What a great group of people. I had a lot of fun. We were throwing confetti and balloons and party things all over the studio. I believe my favorite quote of the day was, Me: "And why are you laughing?!" Model: "Because confetti is funny..." So true. Look out for those shots next week!

This was not the actual confetti used, but I've flung it around my studio so many times, I had this shot available for illustration purposes...

The weather is getting so nice up here and I've been working almost constantly, so Saturday, I decided to take a break and a friend and I headed to a place called Savers down in New Hampshire. Now, I am not a native New Englander, but I find them to be a frugal people. Consequently, there is no shortage of discount stores, thrift stores, salvage stores and the like up here. Which (as someone who loves to repurpose and resell vintage items), is fine by me. Savers was a new one to me and I was not disappointed. 50% of the fun was the customers. While searching through the records, a woman who was leaning all in my personal space, remarked to her boyfriend: "Give me some room, I don't want to fall on this lady and this ain't my good leg." Wowza. But I found some things for STAG as well as a couple of great records, including this Harry Belafonte record with my favorite song of his on it: Suzanne. Not my favorite version, but still good. And that cover? The colors and font are just great.

And these records I did not buy, but maybe someone can tell me about this Ding Dong School, or why that rabbit is all creepy up in the park with all those kids... no one? That's what I thought. Yikes.

And we wrapped a great day at an adorable place called The Friendly Toast, which is full of great vintage advertising things. I want to take up residence in this place, truly. Oh, and the food was also good... Haha.

Until next time: Unpleasant dreams...

Why Did the Merman Cross the Road?

Hi Lovelies~

I hope you're all doing well out there. This ship is sailing at maximum speed these days with lots of exciting things on board! To start, I posted my Last Ones Standing work this morning and I am very happy with how it came out. I think between these shots and the ones taken in the original Last One Standing series, I have a strong set of images to submit to the FOAM contest this week for sure. A huge thank you to my models, makeup people, crew and videographer for helping nail this project and document the process! A couple of the images are below, and the rest may be seen over at my Behance site.

 


I don't know how many of you know this, but I also style all of my shoots: I do all of the costuming, makeup direction and location-hunting. I feel directing the entire process helps me execute my creative vision more effectively. In addition, I work with some amazingly talented people who've now done enough projects with me to understand my "Jess Speak" or rather, the idea boards I use to concretize my vision. This, along with my actual shoot list, help me ensure that things run smoothly, mistakes aren't made, everyone knows what I expect of them and no one's valuable time is wasted! I thought I would show you my costume and makeup idea boards for Last Ones Standing so you could see where we start (some people find this interesting, I guess, hahaha)...

What else? Oh! Goodness. While most people were hunting for eggs and eating ham yesterday, my crew and I were shoving grown men into mermaid tails out on the beach to shoot another contest submission that I'm doing. That's right: mermaid tails. Onlookers in their Sunday best couldn't process what they were seeing and I think the two best quotes of the day were: "Mommy, why is that man wearing a... is that a man?!" and the old man (completely oblivious to the entire scene), who, upon seeing the Narragansett beer we were using as a prop, exclaimed: "They still make Narragansett? Unbelievable!" That's not all that's unbelievable, Buddy. Wow. Oblivious. I will post those shots next week, but until then, there's this:

Hey Sailor, wanna make out? Bahaha.

And I've found some amazing things I wanted to share with you all. To start, are there any audiophiles out there? Yes? Well, you're in luck, because I found an amazing start-up that may interest you: Grain Audio. They create some amazing audio equipment; headphones, speakers, iPod docks that are gorgeous. As the name implies, their equipment has wood graining (which I love) and for those design types out there, their web presence and ID Package is also impeccable. They pay attention to every details. Plus, they have an area on their site called Setlist, which features great playlists weekly! Check it out, you guys...

And I wanted to wrap up with something else that may interest you. Sign painting fascinates me and so do documentaries (dork here). Sign Painters talks to some of the pros about their trade and techniques. (Plus, I find their wild west, cavalier, Hell's Angels-esque approach to a rather benign field both humorous and charming.) Check out the trailer!


Until next time: unpleasant dreams...