"Puppet Breaking Loose" and a morning in the forest

Oh boy, this image was too much trial and error! I shot the components twice and I lost count on the edits I tried to do. A few days ago I started from scratch and voilà it finally came together the way i imagined it! My first shoot took place in the big hallway of my house and I used the head, body and dress from this shoot (sounds weird, I know). Because I was shooting by myself, I had no way of attaching the rope to my arms in a believable way. So, I recruited my best assistant (and all around favorite person ) - my mom. :)

I had to take a few headshots as well for upcoming projects so it was kind of a "two flies with one stone" thing. We packed everything up and drove to a place where we had peace and quiet and good backgrounds. We took my portrait shots and then ventured into the forest. Originally, I wanted to put the "puppet" in a forest setting but in post I saw that it just wouldn't work out. The background was simply far too busy and the ropes didn't stand out anymore.

Eventually, I used a stock photo as my background and I'm quite happy with the result. It's not my best work but I learned a lot from it! Plus - the hours in the forest with my mom were extremely awesome! Below you see three behind the scenes shots - the forest as my dressing room, the two of us, and my style mix match before i decided to just run around barefoot. And, no, walking barefoot in a forest doesn't hurt. It really doesn't! It's soft and nice. It did take a while, however, to get the tree sap off my feet...... :)

Thinking about the image and its theme throughout the process of shooting and editing made me aware of how many of these ropes I have been able to cut throughout this year and of how much freedom this gave me. When we really think about it, we have too many ropes in our lives. Most of them were tied by nobody else but ourselves. What are the ropes you want to cut? What are the things in your life that you want to break free from?

One of my favorite places and power spots - the forest!

Dance Without the Devil on your Back

I shot this image two weeks ago and finished editing the night before my birthday last week. It is a very simple image but holds a lot of meaning for me. Letting go and living freely from all ones demons has been something I thought a lot in the past months and I have actively worked towards that freedom. The night before my personal new year started I made the decision that it's time to shake things of and "dance freely". I wanted to remember this feeling with this image and published it that night.

"Of Hope and Despair"

On a freezing cold November afternoon in 2014, my good friend and I took a very uninviting dirt road halfway up a mountain to an old, old house. The house belonged to the ancestors of one her family members and we were allowed to shoot there. Back then I was brand new to the area of fine art portraiture and for her it was the second shoot with me, but definitely the first one where she was required to put on dresses, float through a room and be barefoot and freezing the whole time (I still feel bad for her...).

We set out to tell a story - that of a girl, living alone in a far-off place, of how she is fighting her fears, her despair, and finding her strength. After the shoot, I started editing that same night, massively big mug of hot tea next to me. The edit didn't work and after several attempts, I had to accept that it just wouldn't click. Either I didn't fully connect with the material or my techniques were still too lousy - probably a combination of both. After having gone back to editing repeatedly for a few months, I accepted that these images were just not going to see the light of day.

Then, rather recently, something changed. Our friendship got deeper, we shared many of our sorrows and joys that are all so much part of everyone's life and we got a better understanding of one another's personalities, hopes, dreams, worries and happiness. I think understanding my friend better, seeing her struggles and her joys and strengths drove me back to these images. Within two days the edit was complete!

Behind the scenes - oh the fun!

Of Hope and Despair - One

Of Hope and Despair - Two

Of Hope and Despair - Three

Of Losing Oneself - Speed Edit Video!

For this image I have a quick speed edit for you! I had a lot of fun shooting the photo and putting it all together.

behind-the-scenes....

Patience with Tied Hands

This image was not planned out per se or edited to be coherent with a certain theme. I often plan my shoots and photograph and edit to address a meaning or a subject matter. With “Patience with Tied Hands” it was one of those instances where I shot what I liked and the meaning became clear during the editing process ;)

Sometimes life forces you to be patient, sometimes patience is a wise choice. Either way, patience doesn't always come easy, especially when you don't have another choice but be patient! But it is a handy tool for our journey through life. Often being patient, taking a step back instead of the next one forward, is the smartest thing to do – when it comes to your business, your job, people in your life, life changes that you feel a big urgency about, or changes in yourself. Some things cannot be rushed.

It becomes difficult, though, when being patient is not your own choice but is forced on you. This is essentially what I see being represented in this image. She calmly accepts the fact that she is forced to wait, she looks off into the distance, maybe looking towards the future and to what presents the end of her inability to take action.

I intend to practice my own ability to be more patient and find myself looking into hobbies or interests that require me to be more patient. The first thing that comes to my mind is my vegetable garden. Over two years ago I moved and jumped at the opportunity to create a vegetable garden. We all know that there is almost no greater lesson in patience than growing a garden. You start from seed or very small plants, take care of them for months. It seems to take forever until you can reap the benefits of a lot of work. And a lot of patience. But in the fall, when you enjoy a meal with your family and prepared it with your own vegetables and herbs, the satisfaction is simply immense!

Because to me patience and nature are strongly tied together, I picked the quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson to accompany the image: “Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.”

If you want to share your thoughts about patience, feel free to use the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you!

Full size image here ! :)

Love,

Sabine