How about an engagement session the way you have never seen before? My loooong-time dream of creating a real-life comic story out of my photos came to reality!
How far in the past do I go with this dream? I wasn’t one of photographers who were fascinated by their fathers’ cameras since age four or something and felt the calling ever since. 😛 I tried my hand at photography when I was over 30 already. But, as many of my clients know, I grew as an artist in the traditional way—by drawing and painting. At age 12 I started having fun with cartoons and comics, and that is when the obscure name “Zorz” surfaced. I experimented with a variety of genres throughout the school years, producing little “gems” such as comic books Rambo and Stephen King’s Battleground. There was also a heavy presence of nasty monsters but that would be a topic for another story. Here are some of the miraculously preserved scans brought with me to the U.S. in my 20s:
Now you know what led me to the comic engagement session concept. Fast forward to the times of studio’s branching out photography in late 2000s. I’ve had the photo / graphics fusion idea since early 2009 when we photographed one of the first winners of EngagEd, Zorz Studios’ annual free engagement session contest. Back then, we developed a storyline which begged me to be put in a comic format. It never came to fruition, unfortunately, but the idea got stuck in my head, waiting for another creative burst and more importantly, a playable storyline. Now that I look at today’s outcome, I regret that I didn’t think of this concept for the last year’s Captains of America engagement session… That would have been natural!
I did come close to the fusion concept with the Draw and Crawl the World child photography session when I hand-drew the sights from around the world for some creative portraits. And now this, finally.
Coincidentally, this couple has also won the latest round of the EngagEd contest. Their engagement session concept could be summed up in Yana’s words: “I want to feel like I am in a fairytale where your true love finally comes to your rescue…” After several discussions we came up with a simple but potentially powerful idea of being saved from drowning. It wasn’t until I started to go over the session’s images when a vision of a comic book dawned on me. The rest is technology and graphic design. The couple, just like you, were clueless until today of what outcome awaits them. This is a surprise for everyone! I stylized and converted the photos to black-and-white, then laid them out, and as the final touches, added the narrative and sound effects. The comic’s extra steps took me about a week; it would have taken even longer if I could find time to incorporate even more hand-drawing and add some more comic design bells and whistles. It’s too busy a season for such a resourceful project but I’ll see what happens with my future adventurous and offbeat couples.
And… on the “edge” wordplay. Meet the Edges: our story’s hero is DJ Alex Edge in real life…!
These technique and product, rather unique until more photographers follow, are available for ordering as an upgrade to Zorz Studios’ distinctive engagement sessions. And if you need an inspiration, take a look at what is pretty epic already, imagine even crazier possibilities for a comic engagement session, and swoosh your way to us for the ultimate kaboom factor in our brand #DareToBePhotographed photo sessions!
(Click images for full size)
