The Majestic Forest | Kansas City Fine Art Photographer

September 15, 2014

Miss Sarafina Kankam is currently a contestant running for the Miss Kansas USA 2014. On top of her beauty pageant headshots, we decided to do a styled concept shoot. The key of a concept shoot is the story line. We already arranged makeup artist and hair stylist. Normally before arranging a fashion editorial shoot, photographers will work with the fashion designer to brainstorm ideas for a concept. This one is tough because we do not have a designer to sponsor for our shoot, so I took over the styling part. I provided wardrobe for Sarafina with this gorgeous gown that I ordered from a designer in Asia. It fits perfect on her.

I knew that I wanted a male supporting character from the beginning because it would be a little boring to illustrate a story with just the female character. With that being said, I asked one of my friends Saul to help us. Saul and I work at the same company for our day jobs.  He is a usability researcher and I am an interaction designer. I remember seeing a unicorn mask in his design pod. The entire story is inspired by this unicorn mask. Saul’s character turned out to be a really important one in the story. He is the queen’s soul mate. They met in the majestic forest. The queen was cursed when she was born that anyone who fell in love with her will turn to a unicorn in the day. The only way to break the spell is when the queen actually falls in love with the unicorn and pray for him… Of course we wanted  a happy ending.

Big thank you to makeup artist Lindy Trembath from Faces Makeup Artistry and hair stylist Shelby Jewell. This session cannot be done without their hard work. They remained onsite throughout the entire session to help putting the unicorn mask and fix the queen’s hair and dress. Not to mention that we all got up around 4am to get everything ready, so we could start shooting around 7am to dodge the steaming hot weather in a forest in mid-summer.  My goal is to tell stories through my photography, either using a true story or create one with my imagination (like the father daughter story). I look forward to work on more scripted or story based projects.

Tagged with: beauty headshots • bokeh story • bokeh story photos • Fashion Editorial • July 2014 • Kansas City Beauty Pageant Photographer • Kansas City Concept Photographer • Kansas City Fashion Photographer • Kansas City Lifestyle Photographer • Kansas City Model Photographer • Kansas City Modeling Headshots • Kansas City Portrait Photographer • Kansas City Senior Photographer • Kansas City Themed Session Photographer • Liberty MO Child Photographer • Liberty MO Family Photographer • Liberty MO Lifestyle Photographer • Liberty MO Model Photographer • Liberty MO Portrait Photographer • Liberty MO Senior Photographer • Sarafina • Sarafina Kankam • Summer 2014 • The Majestic Forest