Not Alone - A Conceptual Piece

I have had the itch to get back to conceptual work for some time.

Recently, Brooke Shaden (photographer) posted a challenge on her blog called White Wall Challenge - "It is about taking that blank and boring wall and making it work for us." The challenge pulled at me because I have always wanted to do a conceptual piece inspired by the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper.

I had always been afraid to do it, because I consider myself a natural light photographer - and I haven't done any conceptual pieces without natural light - and the image I had in mind for this had to be shot without natural light. But when I read Brooke's challenge post, I thought, why not? What have I got to lose?

When my youngest sister came for a visit this weekend, I told her she had to model for me. At least if it turns out terrible, I can have a good laugh with my sister about it. 

So I gave her lots of her favorite drink (Dr. Pepper) and convinced her to let me let me do her hair (although the complained via SnapChat the entire time - teenagers! :P), and I dressed her in my old prom dress.

And then I put her against a wall in my bedroom.

And while it wasn't a white wall (the walls in my house are all this beige color), it still was a plain old wall. I moved a giant lamp I have in my bedroom off to the side of her and shot for maybe 8 minutes.

Out of the shots I got I fell in love with two images: I liked her body in one, and her right arm and the shadow in the other. Original two images:

I loved the shadow of her hand in this one - like she was holding hands with something in the wall. 

But I preferred her face/body in this image. 

So, I mixed the two images, made the frame larger, blended/cloned and added texture (amongst a few other edits).

And below is the end product, which I have entitled, Not Alone. It's a rather simple image. But it speaks volumes to me. I think the thing I love most about it is how the shadow of her hand makes it seem as though she is holding hands with something in the wall, and she looks at peace - not scared.

The challenge wasn't so bad...I think the idea of shooting indoors scared me more than it should have. Thanks Brook Shaden for always challenging and inspiring us - and thanks Liv for modeling for me.
 : ]

P.S. I am doing some more new pieces this summer, and I have a few friends who are helping me out with that in August/September - which I am pretty stoked about [more on that coming soon].