Liz
Everyone we meet in our lives, we meet for one reason or another. But there are a select few people that truly change our lives for the better. Liz is one of those people. Liz came into my life by what felt like pure coincidence. One day she put out a post on a Facebook photo group looking for a second photographer for a wedding. I clicked on her Facebook profile to learn more about how my e-mail to her could stand out and I saw that we had a mutual friend that I went to highschool with. We met-up for coffee and then proceeded to shoot weddings together for about three years. To both of our surprise, we had so much more in common than we realized at that moment.
We adventured around Virginia photographing weddings to photographing the most incredible Chicago wedding (where we also found this cool church and did a fairy-tale shoot of each other). Liz now lives in California and I live in Colorado. It’s funny how much can change in a few years, yet stay the same.
Another funny thing about this image is that it took me 4 years to make it and a year to ship her a print. In 2012 I had the opportunity to do a glamour portrait shoot for Liz. I later watched a CreativeLIVE course on “Experimental Portraits” by Sue Bryce and Lara Jade. I knew that I wanted to give Liz a meaningful gift so I used what I learned in that class to create this creative portrait.
Whenever I think of glamour portraiture, I think of flowers, nature, flowy and an almost ethereal feeling. I wanted to convey that in this image as well as a sense of her being “of” nature and all of the beauty that nature represents.
I used images that I had taken while visiting the International Rose Test Garden in Portland Oregon, England, my mom’s flowers and here in Colorado. “Intrepid” (my favorite little chipmunk that lived under my parents’ deck in Virginia) even made into this image.
In addition, I chose to add some of my own personal drawings to her skin.
It was such an incredible feeling to finally mail her a printed copy of this image (5 years later…). Liz is one of those people that no matter how much time goes by without speaking to her, meeting her again feels like we never stopped talking to each other. She has an adventurous heart and is incredibly caring. Liz is an entrepreneur and will never settle for just anything. I love that about her. Liz, thank you for being such a large part of my life and becoming one of my dearest friends. I love you SS and can’t wait for our next adventure together.
Thank you for reading. Who has changed your life?
Follow Liz’s incredible adventures on Instagram here
Music: Music: “Naive” by Sergey Cheremisinov
Rachel - What beautiful creative portraits! I started out photography concentrating solely on those and it is a blast. Great work!
Anna - Awesome Rachel! Do you still do any? Thanks for stopping by!
Julie - Love the creativity and story of friendship, gorgeous!
Anna - Thank you so much Julie! I appreciate you stopping by 🙂
Elizabeth - What a beautiful session! I love the detailing in her makeup! Stunning
Anna - Thank you Elizabeth! Yeah, I absolutely LOVED my makeup artists when I lived in VA. They were beyond amazing!
Virginia M Stiles - This is really special and a super cool take on unique, artistic portraits!
Anna - Awww thank you so much Virginia! I really appreciate it!
corey - The video with the sequencing is really cool. I really liked seeing how you were able to create this. So cool!
Anna - Awww thank you. I never really thought to record a screen capture while I was editing but the sequencing works too 🙂 Thanks for stopping by Corey!
Ashleigh - Wow, that’s a long personal project! The little chipmunk is my favorite part!
Anna - I know! I can’t believe it took me that long. Holy wow. Haha I love the chipmunk too 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
Haley Allen - Whoa your conceptual work is so pretty! Editing skills on point! 🙂
Anna - Thank you so much Haley 🙂 I truly appreciate it <3
Jennifer Faris - Gorgeous photos Anna! It makes them even better to know the friendship behind them.
Anna - Thank you so much Jennifer! I really appreciate it 🙂 <3
Sonja - Um… this was rad! Such a beautiful story of friendship, and so cool to see your process! Also that you got to go to a Creativelive class!!
Anna - Thank you Sonja!!! I really appreciate you stopping by and commenting 🙂
Justyna E Butler - Magicall!!! And shooting though is just incredible!!!! So dreamy!
Anna - Thank you so much Justyna! I really appreciate it! 🙂