Monthly Reflection: February

Here we are: the end of another month! This time it has truly flown by! 

Creating has been to a minimum, but inspiration has been through the roof!

I have only done two photoshoots at the time of writing this, both being self portraits. 

The first being a dedication to one of my favourite designers, Alexander McQueen. I knew I wanted to create a ghostly inspired dedication to his work and creativity. So I drew inspiration from a piece of his, where he had dressed a model as a ‘deer princess!’ 

heres a before/after of that photo, shot in my garden with a pair of antique deer alters I bought and a piece of fabric. 

My next shoot was right around the corner, every year I try to do a photoshoot inspired by valentines day, and where I am in life when it comes to love. Last year, I created a triptych of photos surrounding love, two being conceptual portraits inspired by cupid and the other being with my partner of 2+ years. 

This year, I realised that two of my biggest scars on my skin, took the shape of a heart. I recently got a burn on my hand that turned into a bright red heart. This inspired me to conceptualise this co-insidence and create a character who had been hurt by love, scarred as a reminder of their past pain…

‘But Love’ in the original composition, along with some closeup/detail shots.

This was also the first time I had ever shot a self portrait, or a portrait in general with a 70-300mm macro lens, it was a challenge to say the least; trying to get the focus perfect as well as the pose and lighting. It was definitely worth it to capture all those details way more sharpened, more than my usual 50mm lens would.

Aswell as shooting these concepts that really meant the world to me, I spent a lot of my time this month planning. I will share a couple of my concepts I have in mind to create soon:

- ‘The Conductor’: Inspired by music conductors and how they direct and perform at the same time.

- ‘Etiquette’: Why don’t we cut perfect roses down with giant scissors? Why don’t we shout into a giant megaphone in the quietest of places? 

I have more planned, that I hope to take my time creating, enjoying every minute of building up the concepts.