Hydrangea Beauty Portraits — The Beginning of a BOOK?

Inspired by the tropical breezes coming in through my window, I want to share some exotic portraits that I took of my dear friend Shivana. Shivana is 15 but she has the presence of a woman with many more years of wisdom beneath her super glam-fashion belt. I love how Shivana always has her nails painted with a bright color or a fun intricate pattern. She inspires me to be more disciplined with my nail-health. (I can be so lazy with manicures — don't you just hate it when all of your nails are different lengths and the paint is chipping? Ah!!)

Last summer, our two families had a dinner party together which magically morphed into a nighttime photo shoot that incorporated my mom's gorgeous blue/purple hydrangeas. It got too dark to shoot with natural light so we brought out the big yellow construction light and shone it through my round transparent reflector to soften the light (so it wasn't so harsh on Shivana's face). These are the images we created last summer:

So naturally, this summer when Shivana came to my studio with her mom & grandma (for a 3 generations photo shoot) I ran outside with my scissors to grab a bushel of blue hydrangeas! Hanna (my make up artist) and I went crazy. We were so excited to decorate Shivana with these flowers and although I do say so myself, I think we created a masterpiece of floral clothing. Pretty much worthy of winning "Project Runway", don't cha think? ;) 

This time we had tons of natural daylight to work with and I didn't hold back with my obsession with backlighting portraits. I don't think anything makes a photograph so romantic, glowy and gorgeous as using backlight! I just love it! Shivana and I have started talking about getting together every August to do a hydrangea shoot. We could make it a whole series and maybe one day publish it into a pretty coffee table book! Plus, it's so awesome to see how my photography skills and style have changed over the past year. Have a yearly project could be a great way to monitor my growth as an artist. 

So... without further ado... I present to you this year's hydrangea portraits:

What do you think?

Have you ever done a yearly project?

BIG THANK YOU to my darling Hanna Mazur for creating beautiful hair & make up for this year's shoot!