Author Archives: Deea

About Deea

Summer lover.

fairytales 1 // river of wailing

Here goes part 1 of my Fairytales photo project that I have just announced in my last blog post. I’m super excited with this experiment and already have tons of ideas that I can’t wait to turn them into something real. I’m so glad I decided to start this series and also make it public, focusing on something specific actually keeps me thinking all the time to themes or elements to be incorporated into these photoshoots more than before.

First part of the series is called River of Wailing and portrays the greek goddess Persephone. It all began with another image taken back in October 2013, that I chose to illustrate the legend of the kidnapping of Persephone by Hades for a project at University. When I told the professor my idea and showed him the photo, he told me that my image was more of a ‘before kidnapping’ illustration and that I needed another one, of the ‘after’, the transformation. Oh, well. So I had to chanel my thoughts into this direction and had plenty of other ideas, but all of them different of the final outcome.

In the meanwhile I had planned a photoshoot at an amazing location, a deserted mine with red land and waters, all looking like martian terrain. I didn’t have any specific idea or clothing or details. The only thing I knew was that I wanted to have a photoshoot there. Then I went to a fabric store and, luckily, they had great discounts and so I bought some amazing fabrics for just 0,99€ (not to mention that I returned the next day and bought some more, just to have them for future experiments). The model, Maria, is also a clothes designer and she had this beautiful black body wear designed by herself, which she brought at the photoshoot. And from then on we started to build the idea of the photoshoot, but everything felt into place just when we arrived at the location and started shooting. When I’ve seen the amazing landscape, I knew it was fit for the Persephone idea.

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Then there was this red river, from which I inspired myself for the title of the series. The River of Wailing is one of the 5 rivers encircling the world of greek god Hades, the Underworld. Long story short, Persephone is the daughter of Zeus and harvest goddess Demeter – from which we got inspiration for the accessories, a bracelet and a hair tiara with vegetation details, thanks to MUA Gloria for them, and the black body that also has some similar details -. Hades sees her, fells in love with her, kidnaps her and takes her to the Underworld. Then, she’ll be obliged to spend a part of the year with Hades in the Underworld and the other part with her mother.

The photos illustrate Persephone at the conjunction of the two worlds, the one from the surface and the one below, represented by the sky and the trees in the distance respectively the arid land with the red river.

I hope you like the images as much as I do 🙂 Enjoy!

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Model: Maria Avila

MUA: Gloria del Hoyo

Assistant: Andra Oana J.

♥

fairytales photo project

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“Since the beginning of recorded time, and perhaps earlier, fairy tales have been a means to confront and conquer the anxieties and hardships of humankind through metaphor.” – Professor Jack Zipes.

Yes!

Here’s one of the personal photo projects – more of an experiment – I’ve been thinking and rethinking about starting, simply entitled Fairytales. Since I began photoshooting people, I’ve always inconsciently felt inclined to have a feeling of dreams and melancholia in my images, of things taken out from all these beautiful stories I love reading since I was a child. Sometimes this turned out as wanted, otherwise not, but I always had in mind a sense of fairytale when shooting. Looking back at all my photoshoots, I realise that what really makes me happy is photographing beautiful girls with long flowing dresses, be it an improvised outfit from a bedsheet or a simple material, in outdoor settings inspired by different stories or legends I’ve read or heard about.

Now, I’ve decided to start this project after having my latest photoshoot with beautiful Maria Avila this Wednesday, at a breathtaking location in Spain, an abandoned mine with a red river and the deserted land looking exactly like Mars. I inspired myself for this series from the greek legend of Persephone and entitled it ‘River of Wailing‘, which is one of the 5 rivers that surround the underworld. And the funny thing is that I had to do this for a class at university, where I had to choose a well-known story and illustrate it in whatever manner I wanted, be it theatre, film, drawings, photography. Obviously I chose photography, found the story of Persephone and knew I wanted to illustrate it, but the pieces felt together just on the day of the photoshoot, when I realised the location is absolutely perfect for my story (I didn’t see it before that day), the clothing, the model and the accessories as well. Best thing is that I’ve got 2 different stories after all from that day, using the same clothing, model and location! You’ll see them soon, but the first image from the ‘River of Wailing‘ series is already on my facebook page.

So, long story short, here I am, starting my first photo project! I know this has been done before and there are some great photographers out there that amazingly illustrate beautiful stories in their images and who, with their work, inspired me to start my own project, bring my personal views on the matter and push my creativity a bit more, as I lately didn’t feel very inspired to do something new.

I’ll blog every series of this project and each of them is going to be inspired by a certain story, character or just an element (mostly greek legends, as I love them, but who knows what else I’ll run into!). I’m open to any ideas, suggestions and collaborations 🙂

♥

winter queen photoshoot in review

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Well, this one is another already old photoshoot, taken in February in Timișoara, outdoors, at a damn freezing low temperature. It´s a collection preview for romanian designer Andreea Borcea, featuring a beautiful delicate black & gold body dress.

All the praises should go to the beautiful and courageous model, Alina, who successfully resisted a whole hour almost naked at less than 0°C, in snow. We did recovered ourselves afterwards with large mugs of hot delicious tea. 😉

Why did I insist to hold the photoshoot in this awful conditions? Well, I basically looked after the contrast between the delicate thin dress and the harsh surroundings, somehow like the contrast between the first snowdrop and the snow itself. It was hard to concentrate, though, as I hate it when my models don’t feel at their best and Alina was obviously feeling really cold, even started shivering by the end of the session. I did my best to take the photos I wanted as fast as possible (hopefully I succeeded) and I hope she still wants to be my model in the upcoming future ^_^

Also, this was my second experiment with the mirror prism and I think it went better than the first time, because being in an outdoor location I had more possibilities to reflect interesting stuff and there were no unwanted objects to enter my framing. Damn it, now I miss that mirror prism…

Long story short, enjoy the images and don’t forget to take a look below at the credits and show those people some love! ♥

winter queen, andreea iancu photography

And these ones below were taken afterwards (notice the cosy sweater), just because she’s such a natural beauty and the make-up complemented her so well ^_^

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Model: Alina Florescu

MUA: Adina Trohin

Body dress: Andreea Borcea

Many thanks to my friend Daniela for being a patient and willing assistant! And as always, don’t forget to follow my facebook page for fresh updates!

january photoshoot in review

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I’ve been looking forward to write about this photoshoot since January, when I took it, but life has become so chaotic for me since arriving in Sevilla, that I still can’t properly organize myself and get carried away by a lot of random things, some fun and memorable while others useless and time-wasting. Oh well, hopefully I will eventually learn how to successfully manage my time – that would be the most valuable lesson I could learn while I’m here.

I do have a long list of blog posts that are waiting to be written – some are of photoshoots, some of random stuff, some of my life in my new home away from home. It’s just that when I’m not close to my laptop I have the best writing ideas and when I finally get home and have some time to sit down and conceive a readable article, all my ideas and writing mood have gone away. Damn, I do need to learn to motivate myself! Anyone has some tips worth trying?

Anyway, let’s move on to today’s story. So this is a photoshoot I took for romanian designer Sofia Afrenie, as a preview for her SS 2014 Allure collection (which you can fully admire now on her facebook page). I have to confess I love her latest creations and I’m dieing to go home and shoot some more of them (hehehe).

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All of the images were shot at her studio workspace, only with natural light (that room does have some amazing lighting!) and I was very happy of how they turned out (good job, dear old Canon 450D! I will certainly shed a tear when I’ll change you for one of your better brothers).

As in terms of post-processing, I had quite a lot to work with the background, as I felt that the colour of the walls didn’t match the whole scene (they were yellowish). I’m thinking of showing you a before and after one of these days (which would mean probably in a month or even more).

Enough talking, I’ll let you enjoy the images and.. hope you like them as much as I do! Don’t forget to check out below all the credits for this photoshoot and go show those creative people some love! ^_^

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Model: Cristina Bud

MUA: Adina Trohin

Clothing: Sofia Afrenie

Handbag: Issabel Lombardi

Earrings: TRIA ALFA

And as always, don’t forget to follow my facebook page for the most fresh updates! ^_^

once upon a dream

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These images are an excerpt from one of my latest photo sessions, for which I was approached by designer Sofia Afrenie to shoot a preview of her upcoming SS 2014 collection. I have to confess I loved shooting this, although at first I was a bit nervous because of the colourful look – I wasn’t sure how to approach it. However, a bit of research, a few awesome props, some new ideas on the set and the photos just kept flowing.

Anyway, I’ll show you the images with the whole look a bit later. Right now, I only want to talk a little about an experiment I did on this occasion.

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Model: Cristina Bud

MUA: Adina Trohin

Clothing & accessories: Sofia Afrenie

I’ve seen this technique a while ago in one of Lindsay Adler’s behind the scenes videos and it got stuck in my mind. It was so simple with so amazing effects. I loved it and wanted to try it too. It requires a triangular prism made out of mirrors, which I created myself from 3 pieces of rectangle shaped mirrors (around 12x20cm) joined together with tape (you can use silicone glue as well, but I wanted it to be easy to disassemble. Take a look at the link I have shared above and you’ll see exactly how it looks like.

Long story short, I am delighted with the dreamlike effect it gave to my images – I feel they look a bit surreal, like stepping into a parallel world of dreams. Obviously, it’s the model’s merit as well for good posing!

Of course, this was my first attempt and I am sure I can achieve better results with more practicing. I think the hardest part with this technique is to control the reflections – I had Sofia holding me a flower bouquet on one side, trying to give her directions on where exactly to hold them, and was trying to mirror on another side of the image the first reflections of the flowers.. it was a bit complicated! The effect also depends on the size of the prism and the lens you use – I have used just the Canon 50mm f1.8.

That should be all for today, but stay tuned for the rest of the photoshoot!