$10 or Less Photo Ideas on creativeLIVE!

brookeshaden — Sat, 20 Sep 2014 16:31:01 +0000

This past week has been an incredible mash-up of inspiration and new adventures. I started out in Salt Lake City, Utah where I was honored to speak for ClickAway 2014, a conference put on by Clickin’ Moms. I did a meet-and-greet, fine art panel discussion, and a 90 minute lecture. I had the best time sharing my story and getting to know the attendees. I went from there to Lincoln, Nebraska where I taught a 6 hour class based around storytelling to the PPA chapter there, and I was surprised at how much I loved Nebraska! From there, I went on to Seattle, Washington where I joined the creativeLIVE team to teach a 90 minute segment on transforming an image on the cheap, a 90 minute photo-critique (so many inspiring images!) and a guest appearance during Lindsay Adler’s segment.

It was a heck of a 7 days, and while I’m happy to be home now, I had a really happy time. I think that’s the right word – happy. I was just happy. Every. Single. Day.

The sequence of images I photographed with two people moving the bottom of her bed sheet dress to poof the baby powder – minor color/contrast changes. It was very difficult to keep a straight face from laughter! Click to see larger.

Here is a little overview from my creativeLIVE class. I started with some basics of how to dress a model with ace bandages, creepy cloth (freaky fabric), and bed sheets. Shooting all on a dark background for drama, to make the baby powder stand out, and to more easily add a new location into the background, I photographed many different setups using these simple props.

I went out to pick beach grass (could be anything that has structure) in order to put the grass/flowers into some Styrofoam that I purchased the night before. This created a field effect that anyone can use in any form they wish – shooting children, seniors, portraits, etc…all with the convenience of being inside your home or studio. Also wonderful for those who are not around a lot of nature.

Minor contrast/color changes.

The first image in this post was shot during the “baby powder” portion of my creativeLIVE class. I decided to take the simple image of a girl wearing a blue bed sheet further to create a night sky, moon, and strong red flowing dress.

We ended with some cobweb and paint to show how painting someone’s body (any color) can add interesting texture and transform them into a character. I didn’t have enough time to finesse that image (when your producer is holding a “5 minutes!!” sign, one tends to listen). So I’ll give that another go at home and share how I would love for it to turn out. In the meantime, I hope some of these techniques prove fun and useful…and have an inspired weekend!

seattle – Promoting Passion

$10 or Less Photo Ideas on creativeLIVE!

What is your favorite $10 or less item to use creatively?