The model Gigi and I met for the first time for the shoot. We had only two hours before I had to pickup my 2-year-old daughter from preschool. I brought four bags of props and clothing hoping I could capture images that would portray our oneness with nature – with the earth, water and even animals (birds in particular). I recently moved to Long Beach and have been wanting to shoot by these rocks leading into the ocean not far from my home. I had a vision of Gigi laying on the rocks in a way where she would become one with them, where your eye might even initially miss her because of their ethereal embrace. I told Gigi to think of herself like a mermaid that had washed ashore after being caught in a black fishermen’s net. I created another mermaid look by using a white curtain wrapped around her to portray a fishtail shape. I used black feathers to portray a bird while keeping the tone.

I edited to create tones that furthered that oneness, for the first set of images in particular. I’m most pleased with the first 5 images, which were captured in the first hour. The last few were spontaneous as Gigi wanted to hop into the water at the end of the shoot. After picking out the photos that work best with each other I feel the whole set communicates the elements of earth, wind, fire and water. I used a Canon EOS R and natural light and mostly a 50mm. If there’s only 4-6 as an option I suppose either 1-5/6 are best or maybe either 1 or 2 and then 3, 4, 5, 9, 10? I’m not sure if I’m supposed to select and what else goes into a submission statement as it’s my first time doing something like this! Thanks for the opportunity!