Persistence can pay off

Sometimes when I contact photographers or agencies I feel like my emails and phone calls are swallowed by a black hole out there in cyberspace. I hit the send button and my email is never made mention of, never to be heard of again almost as though it never existed. Then there are times when I am lucky enough to score a meeting usually consisting of them leafing through my portfolio in under 30 seconds and thanking me for my time as they show me the door. I usually send a follow-up thank you email or phone call never to hear from them again; must be that pesky black hole again. However, every now and then, someone comes along who I absolutely have to work with and I won't let it end with a "don't call us we'll call you" meeting. Such was the case with Brian Stevenson, underwater photographer extraordinaire. I felt his work was too special and uniquely beautiful for me to let my meeting with him last winter go to waste. Thus, I mercilessly emailed the poor man until at last, this summer, success! In this case though, I don't think he was putting me off. We just don't have enough swimming pools and nice weather in Oregon to be able to do work like this year round therefore we couldn't really put anything together until the stars were aligned--we both needed time in our schedules and needed to have the sunshine on our side.

Our first shoot was with Kirsten from Q6. This was my first time doing makeup for underwater purposes so I was a little more conservative in colors since I wasn't sure what to expect. Kirsten's skin is flawless so I didn't do much in the way of foundation other than a little concealer and brightener under her eyes. I used a supposedly waterproof liner on her eyes and that turned out to be the biggest mistake of the day since it was anything but waterproof. I ended up doing more touchups than were probably necessary but better safe than sorry. In hindsight I wish I had used a little more color on her lips and cheeks since the water tends to wash everything out (no pun intended). Ah, the learning curve. Here are a few of my favorites from this shoot.







Onto day two...
Brian asked if I knew any models who might be good for this sort of shoot so I recommended Lindsay, signed with Ryan Artists here in Portland and Heffner in Seattle. She is super pretty and very athletic so I thought she might be a good fit for this type of shoot since stamina is very important in this case. She did amazingly well and I am so in love with these pictures. I feel like I did a stronger job as well since I figured out a few underwater tricks (ditch the "waterproof" eyeliner!) Her skin wasn't quite as clear as Kirsten's so doing a heavier foundation was a little more of a concern for me. However, my Cinema Secrets foundation with a primer held up amazingly well; I couldn't be happier with how her skin looks. I'm wading through these pictures trying to pick out my favorites and so far I can't so here a lot for your viewing pleasure.










Amy Gillespie, makeup artist, fashion, beauty, style, editorial, Portland, Oregon, west coast

Be a Fan