"There's No Place Like Home " - Kate's Wizard of Oz Themed Senior Photoshoot

Kate loves the Wizard of Oz.

When I photograph someone with a "theme", I try to do it in a subtle way...a version of the story, movie, character, etc. 

I knew that I wanted to photograph her in a hot air balloon. Since there are no hot air balloon rides in Hampton Roads, I decided to create my own. I knew that I needed the perspective to be above camera level. Her grandfather owns a farm and lots of land across the street from her house. I had her mom go on a little scavenger hunt to find something we can put Kate in, that would resemble a basket of a hot air balloon. She found the PERFECT wooden box. We loaded it in the bed of Kate's truck and drove it up a small hill. Bam! Perfect perspective!

I don't always know exactly what I'm going to create with my clients portraits, beforehand. I wait until I start editing the images and if inspiration "hits" with a cool idea, then I try to make that vision come to life. That's what happened when I was editing Kate's images. I thought...it would be so cool to have her house and her grandfather's farm in the background. The problem with this idea? I didn't take a photo of her house or the farm. SMH. That's where the magic of Google Earth comes in!! After searching for the house address and trying to get the right angle, I finally got a usable image. Check!

The problem with the photo of the grandfathers's farm was that it is directly across the street from her house. Hmmm....how to get them in the same image?? Well, I moved the farm next door to her house. :) I figured he would be ok with that since it's for "arts sake". 

It was important to Kate to have a few things in her senior photos. She wanted her truck, her dog Daisy and her hunting gun, in some of the pictures. So, when it came time to create the big image...I found a way to have all of the elements that she loves, except the gun. I photographed that separately. It didn't quite go with the theme! ;)

So, the final image has her in the hot air balloon, flying over her truck and Daisy...AND her chickens. Did you spot the chickens?? I added her house and her grandfather's farm in the background, as well as field of poppies and corn field. To stay true to the movie, I added a tornado and a rainbow. I also added the storm clouds from her older sister's photoshoot that I did 2 years ago. I hope her grandfather isn't mad that I have a tornado ripping his barn apart...all for Art's Sake!!