Behind the scenes: The Last Unicorn

Last weekend I had a shoot with Stine and Tenna. A few days earlier, Tenna had approached Stine and I with the idea of doing a unicorn/lolita shoot. I have been itching to get back into photography and do a shoot in the forest again, so I got on board quickly.

You may remember Stine from some of my previous shoots, eg. Death & the Maiden or Red Riding Hood, she's always been portraying a masculine role, but not this time. Girly makeup, long wig and a beautiful dress transformed her into a most beautiful unicorn :D
It was so amazing to see the transformation.

Tenna had fashioned a horn from barely nothing and it was perfect, so there you go. Creative genius strikes again.

Anyway, as always, the day started off at my place:

Tenna is doing Stine's makeup.

The wig comes on and takes the transformation to a whole new level.

The final additions to the overall look are added.

The first place we shot in was really, really mushy, especially the further away from the original path we got. In fact, we suddenly found ourselves more than ankle-deep in mud. Not the best scenario, but the trees were lovely and all the passers-by seem to think it was all a hoot. 

On safe ground again, my shoes, however, were not in the best state.

Neither were Tenna's. In fact, she threw hers out in the bin right away and walked on (almost) bare feet the rest of the day.

Tenna is being a wonderful assistant, fixing every detail on Stine's outfit, making my job so much easier. Hehe.

Just finished shooting and we're heading back to our stuff.

Stine high on frolic!

It was just such a good day! The second place we shot was absolutely amazing and the weather was so lovely. The sun really came out at the end of the shoot and it was just low enough in the sky to create the light I wanted. It was just one of those days you want to recreate right away :D

Shoot: Stine - The Last Unicorn

Model: Stine Holm Jensen

MUA/Assistant: Tenna Vinther Olesen

Photographer: Sabrina Nielsen

Stay tuned for a "Behind the scenes"-post.

Shoot: Hunter Loli (for Starlight Magazine)

My plan was to not participate in the latest issue of Starlight Magazine. I wanted to take some time off and do some other things. But somehow I ended up doing both the Harry Potter photos and this shoot along with a couple of articles anyway. So much for not participating, huh.

Well, this shoot wasn't really on the schedule until the last minute, when Tenna and I decided to throw something together. As mentioned in my last entry, the theme was "Nerdy Lolita" and so when I had already shown the nerdy Harry Potter stuff, we decided to show off some of Tenna's Supernatural nerdery.
Tenna put together her own outfit and rather than basing it off one of the characters which, and let me just be honest here, we both thought about for a while, she decided to translate the whole "Hunter" concept to Lolita. I love this Sweet punky look she came up with :D

We invited Stine along for some Sammifer goodness, hehe *grins* and Cecil lead the way to this cool location and also helped with the carrying and reflector holding which was much appreciated :D

Onwards to the photos:

So besides it being freezing outside and my forgetting some of my equiptment (seriously, how stupid can you get?), we got some shots and afterwards we went to a coffeshop to enjoy some tasty hot chocolate and cake and also to reheat our limbs :/

Check out the latest issue of Starlight here.

Shoot: Death and the Maiden (for Starlight Magazine)

My second shoot for the latest issue of Starlight Magazine. This shoot starts off along the lines of The Little Match Girl by H. C. Andersen and then tells the story of what can almost be considered the girl's marriage to death. Somehow both shoots ended up taking their inspiration from H. C. Andersen and both dance along the line of tragedy. I guess, I just didn't want to go too obvious on the Christmas theme :)

This time we, Tenna and I, brought in a fresh face along side one we haven't seen in a while.

Models:

Stine Holm Jensen

Ariellah Engel Salimanov

Assistant: Tenna Vinther Olesen

Photos & retouch: Me

Death and the Maiden

Bonus pics that weren't featured in the magazine.

Outfit
Dress: Handmade
Shoes: Bianco
Jewelry: Accessorize, offbrand.

Outfit
Cape: Handmade
Jacket: Vila (modified)
Everything else: offbrand, H&M 

Both Ariellah and Stine did so well despite the fact that it was absolutely freezing outside that day. The weather has been all over the place lately. In fact, we had to postpone the shoot because of it. 

We were supposed to do it a week before, but then there was this storm that spoiled everything. Luckily we all had time the following weekend. And then when the forecast started indicating that it would be stormy that weekend too, I nearly freaked, haha. Thankfully, the weather was okay the day we did the shoot, though it was a bit windy. Too windy to put up my light gear, so I had to make do with natural light and a reflector.

It was so nice, for once, to have an assistant, not just for the actual shoot, but also to help with hair and makeup. Thanks Tenna :D

As always a huge amount of preparation went into this shoot. I sewed Ariellah's dress and Stine cape and modified the wings.

I hadn't actually planned to sew a dress for this shoot, but I saw these two fabrics in the store and thought they would work so well for a maiden-like outfit. The fabric is this ivory tapestry thing and then there's a detachable lace overskirt, though it's not super visible in the pictures. ;)

The cape was an absolutely nightmare to sew. While it was actually a simple pattern, I messed up everything - I've only worked with patterns once before, so give me a break ;) So I spent forever recutting and redoing things. I ran out of fabric for the lining. Twice. It's ridiculous. And then the shop didn't have more of the same fabric, so the lining is made from three different fabrics. Oh, the books I could write about this cape. ;)

But in the end, I kind of love it. Even though it kept swallowing Stine's head, the hood is beautiful and also the reason why I chose this pattern. I kind of want one in red too.

The wings consists of two pairs of wings from ebay - one of the them, the upper pair, modified with a bunch of extra feathers to even out the proportions. They became really heavy and I was afraid they weren't going to last through the shoot in the wind, but somehow they got through it relatively unharmed. 

Stine put together her own outfit and she actually handstitched that black thread (and the buttons) on the front of the jacket. Pretty awesome, eh? 

Though, Ariellah brought the skull aka. Skeletor. :D

Also, we have this snazzy video from the shoot:

How did we get up there in the first place? It wasn't easy, let's just say that much. ;)

The location is an old church in downtown Copenhagen, which is now a Gallery of some sort. It was right next to a playground and when Stine was on the brick wall with the wings and Ariellah on the ground, the kids were all "Did he capture her? O_O". Lol, it was so cute. :D

Also there was this old-drunk-man-type-person that stopped and kept talking about drawing a horse. It was a little peculiar really :/

Don't forget to read the new issue of Starlight Magazine here!

Oscar Wilde & Bosie

Stine asked me if I wanted to take some photos of her and Cecil portraying Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas. Well prepared as always, she already had a location in mind: The Winter Garden at Glytoteket. We brought Tenna with us and made a day of it.

Stine and Cecil specifically wanted to recreate these two portraits:

And here are the results: 

Afterwards we walked about the gorgeous Glyptotek and looked at countless noseless statues. We also snapped a few extra shots: