Alien Bees and Zombie Pinups

About a week and a half ago I finally achieved a major photographic goal of mine and purchased an Alien Bee B800 along with a softbox, umbrella, and heavy duty light stand. It's great stuff - the softbox is SO easy to assemble and light works wonderfully. Such a great purchase. I did some test portraits for the first couple days, using my sister and friend Erich as models. This is one of my best shots of Erich. There are more test shots to be seen on my (fairly new) facebook page -
http://www.facebook.com/elenadeephoto




Over the past month, my buddy Kevin and I have been practicing our zombie makeup, which finally was used for a zombie pinup session featuring my sister/model Christiana yesterday. Kevin and I made wounds using liquid latex, while my fellow photographer Cassandra Grzybowski helped apply bruise makeup. She did a beautiful job on the face and shoulders, I must say. And Kevin's knee wound and the one I did on her thigh look especially decayed in the classic legs crossed pinup pose, as you can see below. I've never tried pinup before, but have wanted to for awhile. Personally, I think they turned out quite well for a first attempt. Christy is a great model, and if anyone is interested in shooting her, she can be reached on Model Mayhem - http://www.modelmayhem.com/christianacdd

NILMDTS

Today I got accepted as a volunteer for the Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep Foundation. NILMDTS is a group of volunteer photographers who can be called in to photograph, free of charge, stillborn or dying babies. The infants can be photographed while still alive, after death, or, if the mother knows her child has little to no chance of survival, while still in utero. Or all of the above. Whatever the family wants. It's to provide people with lasting, professional images of their child.

It's a beautiful idea and when I was took History of Photography in school, we talked about post-mortem photography in the Victorian age (often done of deceased children) and how no one really does that anymore. It seemed like a cool idea then and still does now. I'm very pleased to have my application to NILMDTS accepted and, even though I'm sure I'll cry, because it is terribly distressing and sad, I am glad that whenever I get called in to do this, I will be able to help someone's grieving process.

To read more about NILMDTS, you can go to their website: http://www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org/