Friday, May 11, 2007

ava's first portrait


i was squealing after i saw these images (trust me, as a guy i am not proud to say i was squealing...but that's the best word to describe my excitement.) it is one of those moments where vision meets execution perfectly. an image i am deeply proud of, on many levels.
how it was done? i was able to talk my wife into the project...fill up our kiddie pool in the backyard, submerge herself just enough so that her beautiful belly rises above the murky water. ( in the process of brainstorming this concept i asked her "the water needs to be dark so that it isolates your belly by contrast, how do i darken the water? with food coloring? ..yeah!"....she responded, "duston, if you stick me in a pool with food coloring, my entire body will be stained blue...uh uh") -giving credit when credit is due- it was her idea to put dirt in the water to make it murky. simple, but genius.
on day of shooting i filled up the pool with 2/3 of hose water, my wife (having a freak allergic reaction to cold gets hives) complained about the temperature of the water, so i ended up hauling several 5 gallon buckets of hot water to regulate the temp. this i had little patience for and was getting upset about her complaining (nice i know). water was bearable and so we were ready to shoot. i dumped dirt from our garden in the pool and as my daughter witnessed this she started crying - i was making a mess of her fun time. prissy. i stood above my wife straddling her legs and shooting straight down to her belly. the water was full of junk, in and floating on the surface. i had to keep scooting away the debris and at one point i said to my wife "there's all these bark chips floating all around!"...she quickly responded "the bark chips are from the manure dirt you got from the garden!".....ha ha ha. - at that point i told my wife how much i appreciated her. truly. and all this with my daughter crying in the background because dad had ruined her pool.
families are forever. thank you for everything you do Katie. happy mother's day.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Happy Mother's Day to your sweet wife. What an enjoyable story! She sounds like a trooper. Beautiful image.

Leisha said...

What a sport! You totally owe her for this. Anything is worth a fabulous picture and she obviously agrees since she allowed you to do this. I love what you captured.

Starr said...

Duston this picture is awesome! I was lurking around on your site because I randomly referred a coworker to you for her friends wedding (Sheryl Kunz). Anyway, this is Starr, Mike Smiths wife. She wasn't sure if you remembered me for sure... jerk! haha. It would be fun to get together some time. You should email me @ starrats@hotmail.com. Take care!