Nefertiti

This is my friend Kelley.  I had asked her if she might be interested in doing some photographs with me and she said let's do it!  She'd had a cabaret type costume from Halloween so we headed out to Alton, Illinois and visited this park not too far from the Mississippi River and went to shooting.  It was a crisp day, just a tiny bit chilly, so that sitting in the shade wasn't much of an option if we were going to get any good work done, so I dragged her over to these yellow benches to have a seat and do some shots there.

Kelley was a fantastic model.  This shoot is the only time we've worked together and every time I see this photo I think to myself "I really should shoot photographs of her again."  I like to imagine my models as characters from fiction or history, people that I've never met but would like to take photographs of.  I know it may sound a little strange but that's how my mind works.  I turn people into someone larger than life, with their help of course.

This was one of the last photographs of the day and I just love how all of the lines sweep through the image from right to left.  Her eyes take us in that direction, the bench slats, her arms, even the clouds all seem to flow to the left of the screen, making us wonder what she is looking at with such stoicism.  I assure you, she was not stoic that day, she had me cracking up.  But in the end, with this crazy image, I couldn't help but think of Nefertiti, with the crazy hat on top and that regal air about her.