Year be springing or year be falling,
The bark will drip and the birds be calling.
There’s much that’s fine to see and hear
In the spring of a year, in the fall of a year.
‘Tis not love’s going hurt my days.
But that it went in little ways.
(From “The Spring and the Fall” by Edna St.Vincent Millay)
Happy Spring!
Today I’m deviating a bit from my typical fashion-themed blog. Spring inspires me so I decided to created a photo that represents what Spring is to me. I wanted to create a photo that pushed me out of my comfort zone while being somewhat of a contrast from the typical Spring photos I often see.
Spring is about transition and rebirth. It’s about moving from the dormancy of winter to the awakening of life. Spring can also be like it’s sister Fall: inclement, moody and unpredictable. Where I come from, Spring marks the beginning of a dance between the arriving birds and the often relentless wind. Spring’s a contradiction of warm, cold, beauty and crudeness, vibrant colors of new life versus the drabness last year’s dead foliage. It’s also about organization and chaos.
Speaking of Chaos…
I’d like to talk about the process of making this photo. Recently, I learned from a Photoshop tutorial on masking and blend modes. I’ve been using these tools for a long time and couldn’t exist without them. But I wanted the challenge of using these layer tools in different ways. We were encouraged to use the images provided by FileSilo via the magazine Photoshop Creative. So this image actually contains a compilation of ten images, including my portrait.
I know it seems like overkill. But each component has a distinct purpose in this image. Weather it be to add texture, color or specific parts of an image. Although strategic, adding this many components is generally not my style. I prefer a more crisp and clean finished result. (And I won’t even tell you how many hours it took to create this image! Oy-vey!) But I’ll admit that I learned some new skills by pushing outside my comfort zone.
Details
Headpiece by Chop Zuey:
Miss SL Quan Am White Headband
Hair: D!va– Hair “Leah” (Moon stone)
Mesh Head: [AK] Mesh Head Lara Vers. 2.5 Bento
Mesh Body: Maitreya -Lara
Shape: Strawberry Singh – Lara
Hands: VISTA –Bento Prohand
Lighting HUD: LUMIPro 2017
Model/Photographer: Avalon Chrome
