Aren't these two the cutest??? And gorgeous! My heavens. This is the second time I've had the pleasure of photographing these two -- and now they're married! We met in the wee hours of the morning, while the moon was still high, and enjoyed a lovely Madison sunrise amid drifting fog and lush wildflowers. And we had such fun! I asked my awkward, silly questions while this duo just enjoyed each other's company. Ah..... so happy for them!
I've said it before, and I'll say again: I have the best clients (my "people", as I prefer to call them because they're really like family). When someone gives the Lauren Bee website a good looking over, and then contacts me for a family portrait session, we get to know each other really well, fairly quickly -- and sometimes (okay, I admit almost every single time) within just a few sentences or e-mails bounced back and forth, we're laughing and making jokes and being generally hilarious together (because my people are just that awesome, I'm telling you).
Janet is totally one of those clients. She's my people. She's quirky and funny and smart -- and upon meeting her for the first time, I realized, also beautiful. Know what else she is? An amazing mom. I'm a big "heart on sleeve" kind of gal, so I won't beat around the bush: watching Janet with her boys deeply touched me; we're talking right to the heart and turning on the waterworks just a smidge. Her sons adore her! And it's no surprise why. She's so laid back and so .... cool.
("Cool" is still a hip word, right? Right?)
Basically, Janet is the mom every kid wants. I am not even kidding.
Our lifestyle photography session started out at the most perfect "golden hour" time, where the summer trees were all lit up with dappled fire. I snapped a few shots of Janet, one or two with her boys, a few of her boys being silly together .... but dang it gets hot in July in Alabama. So we headed on over to Plamore Lanes in Huntsville -- where I was afforded a rare glimpse of a family done right, a la bowling balls and ketchup-drenched fries that are, apparently, the best fries in the world
I couldn't be more thrilled to now count Janet and her fellas as some of Lauren Bee's own. Welcome to the family, y'all!
Meet Beautiful Kayla, a young woman from Henagar Alabama with a big heart, mile-high aspirations, and infectious laughter; a woman who refuses to let the bumps in life get the best of her and who is determined to embrace the sunshine in her soul -- and heavens, so much sunshine!
It was important to Kayla that she properly celebrate her most recent accomplishment: graduating with a degree in early childhood education, from The University of Alabama. And so, senior portraits were in order. We embraced the natural, early morning light of Madison Alabama, traipsed through the dewy grass, and captured a whole slew of crazy-beautiful. Ms. Kayla, I'm telling you, she's a fully-realized, gorgeous breath of fresh air, full of promise and hope and all good and grand things. I couldn't be more thrilled to have been her senior photographer.
And keep an eye out for more! In addition to her senior photos, she booked an extra special bonus: one of my Conceptual Fine Art prints. I have already been working on her one-of-a-kind piece, enjoying the process so thoroughly -- it's full of magic and hope and mystery and beauty. I can't wait to unveil to Kayla her finished, signed print -- and then show it to the world!
I love Sandy. She's a true old soul, nurturing and giving, with an aura of golden beauty that follows her wherever she goes. But she's also a touch sassy; clever and strong, with a penchant for Fireball whisky.
When Sandy approached me to do a HERstory fine art portrait session for her, I positively leaped with joy. And when she told me during her session -- located in a gorgeous, sun-saturated Madison county field, replete with cool pond and tall, mature trees -- that she envisioned herself as a bit of a dragon, but "didn't think anyone could pull that off," I thought to myself --
Challenge accepted!
I thoroughly enjoyed photographing Sandy in her natural habitat: all golden sunshine with deep, mysterious shadows. She's a remarkably beautiful woman, and I am blessed to know her.
I've been an artist for decades. Whether it's the endless unicorns and mermaids I drew as a child (I'm talking notebooks full!) or the two years' worth of pastels, acrylics, and graphic drawings and paintings I created in college as a Fine Arts major, I've always felt this near-manic drive to create visually. Even when I was a writer, my words attempted to invoke the visual-emotive through effusive comparisons, similes, and allegory, words flooding the page like a thousand drops of liquid rainbow, mingling with a thousand more splashes of warm honey-glitter. (See what I just did there?)
I suppose it's only natural that something inside of me shifted when I began to use a DSLR to full effect. At first it was just playing around with a Kodak point-n-shoot, but then the Nikon D3100 became "a necessity", followed by the D7000, the D7100, and now the FX D700 (two of them -- yes, two). Don't even get me started on the quest for quality glass; my current obsession is the Sigma Art line, the 35mm 1.4 being the most frequently wielded weapon of choice.
The learning curve didn't stop there. Along with self-propelled education in the use of manual mode and Kelvin white balance, I ripped through editing software with a hunger akin to Edward Cullin on a vegan diet. Lightroom was a very good investment, along with a few Creative Live classes, watching assorted and sundry YouTube tutorials, and picking the brains of several excellent photographers. It's been painful and maddeningly frustrating at times, with sudden stops and starts, moments where I just didn't understand (!!!) and even the occasional (violent) urge to just quit it all!
And all of that in just four years.
Around this time last year I signed up for Creative Cloud. And then I just quietly paid the monthly fee, terrified to dip my toe into the waters of all things Adobe. I wanted to try Photo Shop; truly I did. I just didn't know where to begin. So I didn't. I just stared at it. Weeks went by, more payments made. I tried to find the time to start playing with the buttons and whatnot... but it was just so terrifying, so daunting. So I ignored it.
Until about eight months ago, when my creative spirit just sort of said to me, "Lauren, look. If you procrastinate any longer, you're going to stagnate -- and artists don't stagnate, you hear? 'Cause when they stagnate, they die. Long, horrible deaths, moaning and wailing in pits of darkness and despair and --"
And that's when I told my creative spirit to shut-it because I got it (and she was being way too melodramatic anyway .... which yeah, is what creative spirits do...)
So I started playing with Photo Shop (PS). The first few attempts ended in tears and much bemoaning to a friend who is very well-versed in PS and who just swore up one side and down the other that it's pure magic. Bless her, she tried to explain some things to me, but I just was not getting it. I didn't even know words for things, so I couldn't so much as Google for information. I mean "how to use that swipey thingy that does The Thing in Photo Shop" didn't yield such great results. Still, I tried and tried on my own, hacking and sawing, reading up on things, watching more tutorials, taking more Creative Live classes, hacking and sawing some more amid wailing and gnashing of teeth ...
And then, one day, it just started to click.
I began layering things, adding on textures and pushing buttons and using brushes (I think that's what the swipey thing is called), creating clipping masks, adding and manipulating text, and, and, and ...
I also found that those long-distant semesters spent in Fine Arts school started to pay off. I brushed up on my fairly decent understanding of shading, lighting, shadows, and two-dimensional depth, making the painting in of finer details an intuitive process.
SOOC on the left; final Lightroom + Photo Shop edit on the right
As my confidence grew, my ideas started to gain some steady momentum, becoming more grandiose by the week. Ranging from the dark and emotive, to the light and whimsical, one day it was fairy wings and solar flare, the next day it was head swaps and 19+ layer composites with excessive Gaussian blur. It became a sort of game where I dared myself to see if "it" could be done (whatever "it" happened to be at the moment) -- and that creative spirit of mine, not one to back down from a dare, said to me, "Challenge accepted."
I have so much more to learn and so far to go -- but I can't wait to learn all the things and go all the places PS will take an eternally budding artist! I've even got my sights set on Adobe Illustrator; I hear it too does miraculous things -- and miraculous things, that's where it's at! I love more than anything the process of creation, of plumbing the depths of a human heart and pulling forth beautiful and amazing worlds and emotions and stories. They've been there all along, but the act of bringing life to it all.... this is why my creative spirit exists.
I can't wait to learn more and more and expand my body of artistic work!
SOOC on the left; final Lightroom + Photo Shop edit on the right
Want to see how I do it? Enjoy this warp speed video of an edit, below:
I now offer my clients the option of a custom, fine art edit, through HERstory. Partnering together, you and I, we create something truly one-of-a-kind: a blending of my imagination with your soul, story, and unique beauty. It's a gorgeous process, one that yields gorgeous results. If you think you'd like to join forces and create something amazing, let's chat together and see what kind of glorious magic we can dream up! Working with you will be such a blessing!
