Portrait of Belly Dancer - Destiny

I found out recently that belly dancers are super cool! Destiny reached out to me in need of images for her new website so we started to brainstorm. Destiny is not just a dancer but also instructor, mom, snake owner and loves muscles cars - hers had me drooling. However I soon realized there were too many ideas to complete in a single day. So we turned it into a two day shoot. In fact we still have a 3rd day scheduled for later this summer. Below is a just a small sample of my favorites from our two days of pure fun.

Enjoy.

Kelly and the deer skull

In early March, I was walking in the woods with Luna and we came across a half decomposed deer skull. This wasn't the first time I had seen dead animals/parts in the woods but this skull had antlers. In other words it looked cool and it triggered something in my special little brain. Using a few of Lunas poop bags I covered it and took it home in hopes I could clean/prepare it for 'display'. This turned out to be both a mistake (the smell) and a success (final product). After Googling DIY taxidermy techniques and spending the next few weeks using cold water maceration technique, I'll spare the details, it finally came out. 

Now onto Kelly. I worked with Kelly at the beginning of this year when I visited Richmond. It was a great shoot, cool and  casual. We agreed we would do a round two and it was nice to know that the deer skull intrigued her as much as it did me. I think it turned out pretty well, kinda of a creepy, beautiful and abstract thing.

 

Creative Portraits with Sam

Sam inspired Kristiaan and I a few years ago for her and Luke's engagement session. Kristiaan came up with the idea of levitating her and together (all 4 of us) we made it happen along with plenty other amazing images. See the proof here. make sure you visit that link

Fast forward 2 years and a few conversations later I was able to work with Sam again. While levitation was not something I was going for I did try and get something a little on the moody side with a hint of darkness.