Art Inspired By Art

This past week I was asked to come up with a photograph inspired by another painting or photograph. My mind instantly went to one of my favorite images of all time, featuring John Lennon and Yoko Ono taken by Annie Leibovitz.  I am currently reading her book, "at work" in where she describes how this photograph came about.  Sometimes, the best shots you take are the ones where you are not in complete control.  You will have to read the book to learn why.  Unfortunately, this was one of the last photographs of John Lennon before he was shot the next day.

I love it when my friends are up to participate in my crazy requests.  I asked Jamie and Traci if they wouldn't mind recreating this photograph, but with a modern spin.  I didn't expect them to jump on board right away but they both agreed and thought it would be fun.  It was.

I came over with a large ladder, sheet and my camera.  We moved all of the furniture out of the way to place the sheet on the ground and then they put their comforter over the sheet.  I have a sliver of the couch showing and instead of jeans thrown over, their dog Ollie decided that the blanket looked like a nice place to lay down so he curled up next to them.  In this photo on the right, you can see the ladder with my foot and ollie's tail on the bottom of the sheet to give you an idea of what the scene looked like.

This photograph at the top is my favorite of the bunch.  It shows the love between these two.  A big thank you to two of my dearest friends for playing along.

Photo Shoot In The Laundromat

I am not sure why I picture certain people in certain places for a photo shoot but for some reason, I thought my friend Carrie would be perfect at the laundromat.  Luckily, she agreed.

After deciding on a location, it was time to sneek in and start an impromptu photo shoot in the early evening at the laundromat while people were inside doing their laundry, as expected.

I used natural light since we were near a window and had plenty of daylight shining in.  I gave Carrie little to no direction on what to do except to kneel down, move her arms or move just to the left or right.  She decided to jump in a basket and lay on the bench as part of the fun that day.  I also wanted to get a shot of her outside on the pay phone since it seems to be a rare sight.

Carrie's red hair and spicy personality worked well in the situation at hand.  It's hard to believe but she was a bit nervous for the shoot but it didn't take long for her to warm up and actually enjoy it.  I think her bright personality is what shined though on her photographs.