Creating a magical fantasy incorporating my client Skylar’s favorite cos character was an exciting first for me. At our meeting to discuss her upcoming shoot, Skylar wanted to have beautiful outdoor nature portraits that would include her husband, Steve, but she also was interested in a cosplay maternity session by creating a fantasy ‘Sailor Moon look’ into her portraits.  We spoke at length and decided that in this case, in order to fully capture the look she was going for, we should split her shoot into two separate dates.  First, would be the Cosplay maternity, Sailor Moon theme. Second, we will include her husband and we focus on beautiful, outdoor romantic maternity pictures.

Finally, the day of our Sailor Moon Session came. Weeks earlier I suggested to arrange hair and make-up specialists for Skylar. Planning ahead, Skylar purchased a long, beautiful white wig to match the theme.  The hair stylist cut and styled the wig specifically for her.

We began shooting in my studio with the help of two of my assistants.  We used a variety of lighting techniques to capture several different looks. In addition to the studio lighting, I added color layers by working with gels to create the more fantastical theme.  The images really came out very dynamically!  My assistants were super helpful when I needed them to hold large fans to get Skylar’s long wig to blow! In order to achieve a client’s ideal look, I find that sometimes having several assistants on a shoot is extremely beneficial. They really partner with my clients and assist in creating stunning art, whether it is through stylizing, fixing hair and make-up, fluffing and tossing fabric or trains on gowns to encouraging the client with different poses.

When we finished our work in my studio, Skylar, my team and I traveled to a small lake that I know of.  I thought that the water, surrounding trees and large boulders would add stunning backgrounds to the look we were going for.  Another really fun addition we added to our Sailor Moon shoot at the lake was the inclusion of smoke we created.  Wow!  To create diversity in the images, I used several colors of smoke, red, blue and white.  The results were amazing and the portraits are truly works of art.

Doing a maternity shoot in Atlanta in June is not for the faint of heart!  As hot as the temperature can get, Skylar was a joy to work with.  She made the entire event fun and was such a positive person.  I am really excited to have had the opportunity to work with a client that has such a creative flair.