An Enchantment with the Edwardian Era

Posted on February 12, 2015 by Crashing Nightingale

You may have heard the term, “Old Soul.” Typically it’s used to describe a person that is wise beyond their years, has one foot in the past or celebrates history in some kind of way. Buzzfeed has a great checklist for signs you’re an old soul which you can read here (I said yes to some of these; can’t say I didn’t partake in a party phase in my twenties 😉 ).

If you’ve perused my blog you may have gathered that I’m kind of an old soul. I love history and feverishly can’t get enough of anything between the late 1800s up until the 1940s. It’s who I am and I’ve had a love for all things historical for a long time.

I bought an Edwardian blouse from Wildfell Hall Vintage a few months ago. She is delicate and I knew she deserved another spot in the limelight. So what better way to give her this than a photo shoot?! So I talked to my friends of And How! Imaging and we made some Edwardian magic.

Check out the photos from our recent photo shoot where we channeled my inner-Gibson girl. 🙂

A precious, mouldering pleasure ‘t is
To meet an antique book,
In just the dress his century wore;
A privilege, I think

Because I could not stop for Death–
He kindly stopped for me–
The Carriage held but just Ourselves–
And Immortality

Nightly, from their azure towers,
To keep watch above the flowers,
In the midst of which all day
The red sun-light lazily lay

By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –

That perches in the soul –

And sings the tune without the words –

And never stops – at all –

Replicating a Replicant

Posted on January 21, 2015 by Crashing Nightingale

I’ve always been a fan of Science Fiction (sci-fi). I was an avid X-Files watcher in the 1990s and the Alien movies starring Sigourney Weaver are some of my all-time favorite movies. I liked the prequal to Alien, Prometheus, even though I read it didn’t live up to it’s hype but I still enjoyed it.

So when my friends of Uvudu? Imaging brought up the idea to me to do a Rachael/Blade Runner-inspired photo shoot, I couldn’t get “hell yes,” out of my mouth quick enough. Blade Runner is the king of the sci-fi world and Rachael is a queen of sci-fi icons. This movie is classic, timeless and brilliant. I wrote about my love of this film and Rachael in an earlier blog here.

Rachael has such a specific look; the hair, makeup and suits she wears. We went with the infamous black suit since it is the one she is most known for. I will confess, I was a little afraid her hair would be a challenge. Which it was but I was up for seeing what I could do. I have a vintage 1940s black suit which wasn’t hers to a “T” but her look in the movie is modeled after the 1940s. I found a great youtube tutorial on how to do her makeup and voila! I transformed myself into Rachael.

We shot the photos at the photographer’s home. Below are the photos of the final product:

(Deckard) “You’re reading a magazine. You come across a full page of nude photos of a girl.”
(Rachael) “Is this testing whether I’m a Replicant or a lesbian, Mr Deckard?”
(Deckard) “Just answer the questions please.”

(Rachael) “You think I’m a Replicant, don’t you? (silence) Look. It’s me with my mother.” (Rachael holds out a photo but Deckard ignores it)

(Rachael) May I ask you a personal question?
(Deckard) Sure.
(Rachael) Have you ever retired a human by mistake?
(Deckard) No.
(Rachael) But in your position, that is a risk.

Photo Series: Heart Shaped Box

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Crashing Nightingale

“Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.”
~ Ansel Adams

Photography has always been a creative outlet for me. In the journalism world, I discovered quickly how this and photography are like peanut butter and jelly. Photos and articles go hand-in-hand. I always had to be two-in-one when I freelanced because it wasn’t always feasible for me to a) pay a photographer when I was doing a freelance job or b) find one that was available when I needed photos. So I just picked up my camera and became my own.

I decided to dive more deep into the world of photography. I just have way too many ideas and I’d like to be more of the “Captain of the ship” and bring these ideas to life myself. I’ll be doing photo series and sharing them on my blog. The photo series are inspired by everything: emotions, colors, seasons, places, things…the list goes on. Basically, anything that stirs my heart. 🙂

I had fun with my first series! It was a one-woman show, as in, I set up the camera, set the camera settings, tried to work with what lighting I had that day (I currently don’t have lighting equipment so natural light is my friend right now), styled myself including hair and makeup, pulled in a few props for some extra fun and did the photo post-production work.*I do want to give my hubby credit for helping find something to prop up the tripod a little more.

So without further ado, here are photos from my first series called “Heart Shaped Box.”