The Process
Inspired by the enchanting spirit of Yule, I wanted to weave a tale that would not only capture the essence of this festive season but also infuse it with a touch of magic. Instead of a conventional story centered around a family's Yule celebration, I envisioned something a bit more unique where an other-wordly being arrives for the holiday season to help them celebrate and decorate a woodland cottage. One of my favorite periods in the creative process is the research phase, it's where the story and the images start to come to life in my mind. I started off with reading up on different aspects of Yule celebrated in various countries. I always love to include podcasts and video's centered around whatever topic I'm focused on as well. Once I had my main character-the Yule Fairy I started imagining wardrobe. Among my collection, I knew I had the perfect gown—a vibrant scarlet dress with a prominent bow and a billowing hoop skirt, reminiscent of something a ballerina could wear for the Nutcracker ballet. This garment served as the perfect base for my Yule Fairy photoshoot. I knew I wanted my fairy to have a headpiece and a basket that was adorned in reds and greens. I foraged red toyon berries and rosemary, and sourced fresh mistletoe and red pin cushion flowers from local growers for the crown and basket.
Shoot Day
After beginning writing my story I reached out to Lauren Klammer, a central coast artist and arts teacher to play my pixie. Lauren and I met up a few weeks after about an hour and a half before sunset in a beautiful ivy covered and oak filled nature space in Santa Barbara, CA. The first thing we had to do when she arrived was get her into our fairy dress and flower crown. Which let me just say putting on a hoop skirt and corset off trail where there is poison oak is no easy feat! We took our time at each spot in our location playing with the scenery around us as well as incorporating a few props like the basket and some small gold harvesting scissors. For posing we played with a lot of light and airy sort of positions to emulate the idea that Lauren had just floated on in. Just as the sun was setting Lauren spotted an area we hadn't gone down to yet, it was under a storybook-esque bridge with a small stream flowing along and as the last bit of sunlight was hitting the bottom of the bridge we ended our fairytale shoot.
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