Mark Owens is rad

About a month and a half ago a photographer named Mark Owens contacted me via the internet. He is publishing a book of influential people, mostly musicians, and was traveling to Portland to photograph Bibi McGill who is currently on tour with Beyonce. Bibi is one of the hottest guitarists on the music circuit so I jumped at the chance to be able to work with her, not to mention Mark who is pretty talented and has worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry.

The weather was pretty spotty that day and we spent a lot of time setting up the shot, covering all the equipment from the rain, waiting in the car for the rain to pass, and starting all over again. We eventually gave up on the open air shots and headed for location number two -- underneath I-405 in north Portland. Mark had a vision of lighting one of his old guitars on fire and having Bibi channel her inner Jimi Hendrix.









I originally was only going to work one day with Mark but things went so well that he invited me back the next day to work with Jennifer, a local model. Mark wanted her hair in rollers (a first for me) with vintage inspired makeup and bubbles. A lot of the shots had a little too much bubble action but the end result is still pretty fun.





All in all, the two days of shooting were a ton of fun. It was a great honor to work with someone of Mark's caliber -- something I hope to do again in the future!

Amy Gillespie | makeup artistry, Portland makeup artist, beauty, fashion

It pays to wear high heels

This shoot starts with a story from last summer. I had gone to the mall to get some prints for my portfolio and headed over to Barnes and Noble while waiting for them to be processed. I was standing in the magazines looking at Vogue when a man approached me asking if I was a model. I was a little leery at first and said no but remarked that I was a makeup artist. He told me he was a photographer and that I looked like I could be a model and he would test with me. I'm now thinking that this guy is off his rocker and has no clue what a real model looks like. I just laughed and said thank you (of course I was flattered; it also doesn't hurt that I'm close to 5'10" when I wear high heels!) We exchanged cards and I recognized his name and he recognized mine and we talked about doing a test shoot together at some point in time. Ever since then I have been pestering poor Doug with so many emails begging for a test shoot, sometimes getting a response, others not hearing anything in return. I thought for sure I was annoying him. I found a model I really liked named Lia and decided to give it one more shot with Doug and emailed him again. This time he responded positively and we organized the following shoot.

The first photos are an editorial set we did. We were trying to go for a darker, more mysterious feel with the beautiful Lia looking like she is up to no good. I tried a few new techniques and products as I wanted to make her skin look absolutely flawless like a mannequin and to dramatically lighten her eyebrows. The following shot was for her portfolio and her agency to use. All makeup and hair by me, photos by Doug Hoeschler, styling by Sarah Moskovitz, model - Lia Richardson.









Amy Gillespie makeup artistry, Portland OR