Project Wrap-up & Interviews

The Water Fairy

The Fae in Us All project is coming to an end. In the past three years, I've completed 31 different shoots in the project with 27 different models. Ultimately, best images from the series will be going into a self-published book featuring 28 models. There is but one shoot left to complete, and it will be the most elaborate and most challenging of the shoots in the entire series.

The original series was intended to be limited to the five essential elemental spirits (water, earth, fire, air and spirit) and the four seasons (spring, summer, fall and winter), but the models and I were having so much fun with the project, that it seemed to just organically expand into other Fae creatures. In the series, the models and I have expanded the project to include such wonderful creatures as the Danse Fairy, the Bubble Fairy, the Sand Fairy, a Woodland Pixie, and Waterfall Nymph, the House Fairy (the one that does the dishes and laundry when you're not looking - a truly mythical creature who never seems to visit my house), and many others.

Don't Mess with the Combat Fairy

Theoretically, the project could go on forever, and I may resurrect it from time to time just for fun or if a model requests it for their portfolio, but I do need to move my attention on to other interests and projects. The last shoot in the project (for now) will be the Winter Queen, the most regal and inspiring of the Faery. I've actually been trying to shoot this particular concept for the last couple of winters but, for multiple reasons, the shoot simply hasn't happened. This year, though, I'm doing extensive planning to make sure the shoot can and will happen.

Waterfall Nymph

I've recently completed interviews with 5 different models and one of those lovely ladies will be my Winter Queen. To some degree it will be the luck of the draw that determines who will be the lucky lady who gets to stand mostly naked in the freezing snow while I (warmly bundled against the chill) wield my camera and lenses to capture her portrayal of the queen of the season. By that, I mean, I have prioritized the models and when the snow arrives, I will work the list from the top to the bottom to schedule the model that is available for the shoot. Utilizing this plan, I hope to successfully complete the shoot this winter without the issues I ran into in previous attempts. I've explained this to each of the prospective models and they each seem to be quite amenable to the plan. Each would bring their own unique interpretation of the concept to the shoot and any one of them could exemplify the queen, but I will need, of course, to prioritize the model that best matches my vision of the shoot. With any luck, and with the planning I've done, the project will be complete within the next few weeks and I'll begin working on the layout of the book.