Just about a year ago I woke up to quite an awesome dream! I was doing exactly what I did today; setting up a vintage style enchanted shoot where my fairy character with large lace wings was out in the woods watching an old tube TV with antennas! There weren't many details, but I thought about this dream in wonder because it was something so new to me. A year ago when I first started this project, was when I had a million new ideas coming into my mind during my waking life, all ideas that I could have followed through with just fine, but then this totally random inspiration flew right at me in the night. What would cause me to have a dream like this? Why? All of my shoots seem to have some significant background story which unravels its hidden message to me as I go, but this one had me stumped!
I knew right away who I wanted to portray this character! My
niece, Mia! She was only 17 at the time of my dream and I wanted to wait for
her 18th birthday before shooting so I MAJORLY put it on the back
burner while I focused on other shoots. On Mia’s 15th birthday, we
dolled her up in pinup style hair and makeup and did a super rad photo shoot
out in an old Ghost Town south-east of Las Vegas called Eldorado Canyon (near Nelson NV). Mia has always had a cute,
retro, bohemian style about her so I am sure that’s why she was THE ONE in my
mind right away!
The way this has unfolded has been so interesting to me. The
other day while in the passenger’s seat of my friend Sarah’s car, I was talking
about this TV show she got me in to, but I was saying that I had to be working
while watching it because otherwise I feel guilty just sitting down watching TV
by myself. A few minutes later, I was going through notes in my phone looking
to tell her about other enchanted ideas I have, when I came across a note I
TOTALLY forgot I wrote from July 15th 2013. I talked about THIS
dream! At the end of all the details I have already mentioned above, I give my
thoughts on WHY I dreamt this. For a year I was lost as to why I had this
dream, when it was in my notes all this time. I said: “I think I had this dream
because of the guilt I feel sitting down watching TV sometimes; that if I don’t
get a ton done in the day, I don’t always feel worthy to have some downtime.” I
laughed about this but I know it’s true. Even when I have gotten really sick or
just had surgery, I've had to assure myself that I was given doctor’s orders to
lounge and not work. So silly.
I struggled to figure out why the “vintage” theme - I
realized this morning that this theme is showing a timeline. I’m sure this
guilt I feel has sat with people since the invention of the TV. This guilt is
not some new thing. People have always been on the go, hardly slowing down to
take a break. But it’s not just about the TV. It’s about taking time to let go and
relax. Learning to enjoy your time resting while you are actually awake. Finding
tranquility in the cracks of our spinning clocks. Rest, and when the time is right, get up, explore, work, and wander into the night to see what mysteries might be waiting around the corner.
Introducing...
My Enchanted Tranquility
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The Making Of Video:
Enlarge & turn up music for a better experience!
Music by my own daddy, Ric Hancock!! In his instrumental album called U4ric. Song title- Beyond The Realm
Detail Cropped Closeups:
(To show quality details)
#32 Crop
#33 Crop
#34 Crop
Behind The Scenes...
The Dress:
A little over a month ago, I had a dream that I was dressing up a mannequin in a viewing area in a place like universal studios. People were driving by looking at the dress I was creating. It wasn't anything special, just pieces of pale pink and ivory fabric being hung down from the top and then wrapped up through the waist. When I woke up, I knew I'd use this concept at some point, but didn't think at all that it would be this shoot. I don't know what made me decide to use it on this shoot, but everything fell into place with the theme and color scheme!
Like you can see in some of the pictures, I took an already constructed dress that my friend gave me, bunched strips of ivory and pink lace up and safety pinned them to the top of the dress. Once this covered the dress from front to back, I filled in exposed spots with more fabric and then tied on extra fabric to the waist like I said above. very simple!!
Like you can see in some of the pictures, I took an already constructed dress that my friend gave me, bunched strips of ivory and pink lace up and safety pinned them to the top of the dress. Once this covered the dress from front to back, I filled in exposed spots with more fabric and then tied on extra fabric to the waist like I said above. very simple!!
The Wings:
I started the wings with a thinner galvanized wire. It should have been the thickest I could find though so I had to add on an electrical tape it together. Sometimes I am so anxious that I jump the gun and don't work very smart. Live and learn I guess! I wanted to do a different wind design than before. I had already done a set of angel wings, butterfly wings, and various fairy wings, but something drew me to bat wings! I formed the wire, used lots of electrical tape, laid lace down on the front and back, hot glued the lace to each vein, then cut off the excess. Also fairly simple! My youngest, Jordan had some fun trying them on!
The Bed:
Even though in my dream, my character was laying on the ground, I thought it would be a lot more "enchanted" if she had a bed and other props in the woods as if this was her bedroom. I wanted a very elegant, shabby-chic bed to go with her vintage style. I found this beautiful brown wood bed on Craigslist for $40! I kind of felt guilty painting over it, but I knew that ivory would stand out in the woods so much more than brown so I went to town!
I really had no idea what I was doing. besides the red door from a previous shoot, I had never really done anything like this before. I started with white paint over the whole thing...I even had another little helper! After painting 2 coats of white and waiting for that to dry, I lightly sanded the surfaces and heavily sanded the edges exposing the original wood. I then used a dark soft wax by Annie Sloan! This worked wonders!!! Beautiful on the white wood.....terrible on my fingers, lol. Gloves, Kira, gloves!! Then I bought these little wood embellishments from Michaels...painting and stained those as well and then wood glued them on. Turned out simple gorgeous!!
The Makeup:
I'm so glad that Brittany (my makeup girl--- Makeup by Brittany Benko) always knows exactly how my mind works. We hardly have to say a word and things happen, although LOTS of words are said when we are together lol. I told her...soft, lace, pearls, pink, ivory....and she made it happen as always. I am so thankful for this roll she has taken on this the Kandylane Enchanted story! Love her to pieces!!!!
Mia, my model niece is one of the most naturally beautiful people I know! Gorgeous skin, beautiful bone structure and even though she loves cracking these hilarious faces, it never takes away from her striking appearance!
Sarah, one of my dear friends and previous models (as the enchanted symphony character) has been working with me on normal photography jobs and I was thrilled when she wanted to come along to do behind the scenes pictures!! This took a big weight off my shoulders knowing that things would be capture properly without me getting caught up and forgetting to! She was there from start to finish, even helping with setup and take down while shooting! so Grateful for her!!
The Setup:
Towards the end of getting ready, my sister in law, previous model (the enchanted discovery), Mia's step mom, Amy, stopped in (nice details, Kira lol)! She came to our rescue with another set of hands and eyes setting up! As she always does!
About a month ago I went exploring a few different locations and landed on this gorgeous spot. I had been near it before, but never gone in depth. Biggest problem was that we had to walk all of the props back into the area. I guess nothing beats when we rolled a piano down a ravine in the rain, but it was still tough work! Again, so thankful for all the help! Andrew my muscles.....actually Sarah and Amy are my muscles too!!
I already had these lanterns in my house and I knew they'd make an amazing addition to the scene.
I wanted a pink chandelier but I was really struggling to find one. In the nick of time, my friend Erin got in touch with another friend of our who had a lantern! This friend Jen pulled though and lent it to me for the weekend!! It was perfect!
Last year, while up at Mia's Grandpas cabin with the family, I spotted an old tube TV with antennas! I asked if I could use it and he gladly said yes! It was perfect for this scene! I sat the TV on a small little table that I had also refinished in this vintage wax.
I'm so grateful to all of the lenders in my shoots! I couldn't do this without them!
It was OK to take a little while to set up. I wasn't too worried about the sun because I knew that if I really wanted to fully capture the lanterns, I would need the sun to go down. All of the timing turned out perfect! We were shooting the last scene in perfect lighting and walked back before it got dark...and before too many strangers started creeping! We were smacked in the face by a strong and close smell of weed and then the bugs decided they wanted to stop by to say hello. It was about that time that we happily called it a night.
During The Shoot:
Battle Scars!
Andrew cut the heck out of his arm trying to hand my chandelier! My amazing husband is always putting himself at risk for me!
And Sarah and my boots took quite a beating too!! These pictures were taken at Teriyaki Madness! A nice, yummy meal after a hard days work! At least we got to see a Thunderbird Crew guy there who we caught a glimpse of the next day at the airshow.....
Dear Teriyaki Thunder,
Haaaaaaaaaave ya met Sarah? Now you know how to reach her! hahaha!
Of course as you can see...we are always having so much fun! There are hours and hours and hours of prep time and then within 30-45 minutes of shooting...its done. I am so grateful for this team that continues to build of amazing friends and support! I am so so very lucky for each person who volunteers their time to be a part of this. It actually brings me to tears.
Thanks to everyone who actually reads and continues and come back and share! I'm for sure definitely grateful for those who don't read and just look. I'm usually in your boat so I understand :-). Thank you to the unseen angels, higher power, God, spirit that continue to inspire me. I'm honored to be an instrument in your hands. I pray that this project with continue to touch more lives than my own for the good and uplift people across the world.
Until we meet again,
Kira
Camera Settings:
Canon 5D MarkIII
Lenses: Sigma 24-105mm f/4 & Canon 50mm f/1.8
Aperture: f/4, f/4, f/1.8
Shutter: 1/125, 1/60, 1/50
ISO: 1250, 1250, 2500
Focal Length: 80mm, 50mm, 50mm
