Wingin' emotions...

Photographer: Dan Frievalt

Before I chopped my hair, Dan Frievalt asked me to shoot-even though he literally has NO time! He wanted a chance to work one on one, while I had long hair, and he was craving a personal shoot. My theory is, if we can find an hour or two to just get the photos taken, the photographer can work on them whenever...at least he/she has them. So I told Dan to let me know if he was able to find a moment to breathe and fit in a few shots. Somehow he managed to find that little bit of time, and we went to work! He wanted something emotional. We decided to revisit the old abandoned school house-where Mark Anderson and I first shot, and Mark/Dan brought a few of us models a few months after...but we needed to be sure we used it in a completely different way. Well, that wasn't going to be a problem, because upon our arrival, the whole place was boarded up! Again, we only have a limited amount of time, not enough to try to find a new location...Our only option was to look around and use what we had. Good thing we did!

Photographer: Dan Frievalt

I had just brought some plain clothing because Dan is very good building random outfits/looks..whether it is with random cloth he has kept, things he's constructed out of odd material, or things he finds in nature. (this is one of the few things that amazes me about him!) So with a simple black dress, or simple white dress, he added a few more pieces to create 2 very unique looks. We played on the old merry-go-round a bit...Dan loaded me up with tutus. He also wrapped some vines around my arm. I weaved myself in and out of the merry-go-round. After that, I changed from an all black look, to a white dress...Dan got me tangled in gray cheese cloth and we headed across the street to a field of long grass...it was wet...but had this beautiful texture to it...we couldn't pass this up! Before you know it, I'm lying in a soggy, buggy ditch.  I can only imagine what people thought as they drove by. ;) After that, we actually went back to the merry-go-round and got totally different photos than we did earlier in the shoot...I laughed seeing the previews, because they looked like they were easy...but let me tell you, standing on your tip-toes on a merry-go-round is NOT easy! 

When photographers target me because they know I'm a fan of the emotional stuff, I take it as an opportunity to really push myself in that area. I don't want to give every photographer the same kind of emotions-I'd get bored with that! I've worked at pushing myself to develop a range. What I love about Dan's work is that he has a dark side. ;) Right up my alley! I knew we wouldn't have a problem connecting in that sense. Despite some of the issues with this shoot-lack of time and a boarded up location-I think we did a great job at adapting and came away with some really great work. 

Photographer: Dan Frievalt

Oh! And another thing I loved about working with Dan is that he shot and posted a faceless shot of me--which happens to be one of my very favorites ever. I loved doing faceless work in my self portraits, but often times when photographers are shooting models, they feel the need for the shot to be all about the model...her face needs to be clearly shown...For Dan and I, this shoot was about the emotion, not about ME. Me, the model, is simply a tool in creating a piece of art. 

I went into this shoot wanting to really work on posing, to get poses I've never gotten before, and to use posing as a way to express emotion. I think I accomplished that, and I think we accomplished Dan's goal of creating emotional images. The faceless shot was an unexpected bonus, and I actually now own a print of that-thank you Dan! I'd say that was a successful shoot all around. :)

To see more from this shoot (and that faceless shot I mentioned ;) ), check out my artist page: www.facebook.com/NFGartist 

Dan is a super talented photographer who shoots a lot of weddings, senior portraits, etc...check out more of his work here: https://www.facebook.com/frievaltphotography  He is a true artist. His work focuses a lot on emotion, and his colors and textures are beautiful. He's also a super nice and fun guy! :)