Things aren't always as they seem

Hey guys! The last couple weeks have been hectic for me, so prepare for tons and tons of posts.
First off, I'd like to give a little insider on what actually happens behind the scenes and how things really are when George and I are shooting.


Firstly
Most of the time, I am not fully garbed in everything that the person in the original photo is wearing. This photo is an example. Audrey Hepburn was wearing a cute little black dress, which I had, however; George's studio is so cold! I kept my pants and socks and my slippers on the whole shoot.

Secondly
When people look at this photo, they see a beautiful Audrey Hepburn paired with pouty lips, a long cigarette holder, and her big beautiful eyes.

What a lot of people don't see is the shadow along her chin, the angle of it, the glimmer in her earrings, how intricate and tricky her hair actually could have been to create, the nude matte on her lips, the reflection of light in her brunette hair in correlation with the shadow along her chin, how her hand is holding her cigarette and at what angle, even the fact that she is holding it in her left hand, or the shape and contour around her nose.

When recreating these photos, George and I have to take into extremely close consideration of each and every little minor detail. Take a look at this photo again

George had set up so many reflectors and lights and stands just to create the right angles of shadows and reflections on my hair and face and body. Along with that, I had to turn and twist and be very very uncomfortable to get myself in the right angle!

Thirdly
There is a lot of improvisation of props. In my Coco Chanel shot, George actually ran to pier 1 and bought a round pillow that looked like the arm of a couch, only to return it the next day. In my Audrey Hepburn shot, I used a long skinny dowel as my cigarette holder. I painted it with silver nail polish (luckily I hated that one anyways) and it looked pretty perfect in comparison. In my Grace Kelly shoot, instead of wearing a beautiful, very expensive dress, I put on a nude tank top and a beaded scarf around my torso! This whole project is just one big puzzle, and I sometimes have to find some crazy ways to push through it!