Creative director and makeup artist, I suppose.

          My sheer pushiness of wanting to do styled shoots has led me to a role of creative director for 2  group shoots. Who knows if it was all those years ago, under the covers with my Vogue magazine or watching Field of Dreams, but you know, I have been "building it" and they have been coming.

         The most recent shoot involved 3 photographers (HB Photography- Heather Beaver, Shelley Kilgore Photography, and Jessica Miller Photography), 2 hair stylists (Beth Seitz of Cut Color Style Salon and also host of the shoot, and Jennifer King of Salon Lofts), a fashion blogger/model (Katya of Thechemodan blog, who is a fabulous Ohio via Russia girl that will shop her closet, accessible mall stores, and thrift stores, then alter the clothing into something completely new), 2 makeup artists (me and Kerry Smith from Full Face Artistry), last but not least was the local jewelry designer Kate Stevens from Red Giraffe Designs. She lent us a bevvy of beautiful and handcrafted jewelry for us to showcase with all 6 of the outfits. We wanted to keep the headcount controlled this time and chose to only shoot 3 models: Katya the blogger, Rose Waters-Burch-Blanket-Michael-Jackson (hahaha) who is my awesome intern (she also helped us style the shoot!), and Tia P (who is a friend of Shelley Kilgore, photographer). Katya, Rose and I put together 6 outfits to represent "Fall 2013": Vivid color mixed with midi length leather skirt and Casino inspired 60's look for Tia, hard/soft look of lace with oversized blazer and boyfriend jean/street style look on Rose, mismatched colorful prints in a leisure suit (you can only see this in a couple pics because it was HOT for a leisure suit!) and textured bright jacket paired with black/white for Katya. Once the pics were shot, some of the outfits became a t-shirt and a face, but ultimately- how many magazines shoot the celebs in a gown and you only see their shoulders?!

The most interesting thing was getting to see how each look was represented differently by each photographer. We had each photog shoot each look. It helps show their point of view and in simplest terms Heather (HB Photography) is editorial, Shelley is a lifestyle photographer (she did my new headshots that I love!), and Jessica is a photojournalistic style. But within those POV's I think each of them brought something worthwhile and unique.

Katya's best shots (in my opinion):
credit HB Photography for first photo- ready for her closeup :) Loving this shot and how strong it showcases the brows and jewelry.

 Credit to Jessica Miller Photography for the next 2 pictures. The top pic really shows off the Leisure Suit and outfit Katya made, the 2nd one shows off Kerry's beautiful eye makeup, those earrings, and Katya's stunning eyes.

Credit to Shelley Kilgore Photography for the next 2 photos. I'm loving her complexion in the top pic (again and those brows and eyes!!) and the ridiculously awesome outfit showcased in the 2nd pic.

The next 3 are Tia's best shots. The first 2 are credited to Jessica Miller Photography. I love how she looks all forlorn/serious in the first one. It reminds me of Lana Del Rey. The 2nd one caught her in a smile and shows off the cute earrings.

 Shelley Kilgore gets credit for the next pic of Tia. This shot is my favorite as it shows her makeup, the jewelry, and outfit all really well.

Rose has the MOST perfect skin I've ever seen, so while I'd love to take credit for it...or give it to the photographers- she is simply baby's butt smooth and even. The first 2 pics are from Jessica Miller Photography and have a little girl lost vibe. And that ivy backdrop in the first one is so stunning against the red in her jacket and makeup. Kerry Smith gets credit for the awesome white makeup in the 2nd look!!

This pic is my favorite pic of the makeup I did on Rose, courtesy of Shelley Kilgore Photography. FLAWLESS! And Jennifer King did something totally different with Rose's hair than I had envisioned on the 2nd look and it's so perfect for that innocent girly look we went for. Kerry, Jennifer and Shelley's pic together on the 2nd look is one of my favorites from the shoot.

 And the last look was from Heather. Rose was totally uncomfortable in the studio setting and while she looks beautiful, there is an obvious discomfort that comes through. Cool to see the difference each photographer captured from these models though, isn't it??!!

THANK YOU so much to the awesomely talented collaborators/artists!! Katya and Rose in particular put a lot of effort into this shoot with me and I cannot thank Beth enough for the use of her salon and beautiful job on hair, of course. Big thanks to all 3 photographers: Shelley, Jessica and Heather, Kerry for being a great co-makeup artist, Jennifer King for knocking it outta the park, Kate for all of her lovely pieces of jewelry and curating the looks on set (who does that?!), Tia for jumping into the outfits and making like a model, and all of you for taking the time to read this.
Until next time....