When a creative wants to treat herself, a photoshoot for birthday becomes a perfect gift, especially when it’s meaningful and powerful.
Let me take a break from the ZORPHOTOUR series where I still have a few striking road trip photoshoots left to publish and switch to Jae, a hair and makeup artist. She contacted me with an idea of treating herself to a photoshoot for birthday. It is in a few days so we had her session about a week ago.
She wished to represent the different sides of herself thus far and what she has learned and been through. The concept of duality was in order. I enjoy doing conceptual portraits for private clients, when the purpose is not to just create something beautiful but also meaningful, self-exploring. My earlier Esoteria photoshoot was a powerful example and it is even more commendable when people confide such a photoshoot for birthday.
We agreed that her concept would be best depicted in a studio photography setup. When discussing the locations for a shoot, we ended up settling on a place in Long Island that she knew. When I arrived, though, it turned out that we aren’t supposed to be there or use the room without a permission. So we sneak in… an uneasy feat considering the equipment bags I brought with me (9-ft seamless paper roll, background stand, three monolights, and a number of light modifiers). It was just two of us so we managed to keep it quiet.
For the cover photo, I processed a stock image. Here they are, two different faces of a wonderful young lady. Gorgeous (and so proficient and fast!) makeup by herself. Happy birthday, Jae!
Click images for full size. Kindly refrain from re-uploading images to social media during the first week of feature. Share instead and give credit!
Some raw behind-the-scenes shots for you:
