A couple weeks ago, I had one last free weekend before going back to a “day job” regular schedule. I took advantage of that time to see a couple of local wonderful exhibits that ignited the desire to really get creative. I kinda crashed and burned after them due to some unforeseen circumstances and now am rushing to complete some projects before the end of summer.
But back to the staycation. I started off with a visit to the Millet exhibition at the St. Louis Art Museum.
Part 2 of staycation was a quick trip to the Missouri Botanical Gardens with friends on Sunday (sorry no pics). However I took plenty of pictures for part 3 of the staycation at the DaVinci exhibit at the St. Louis Science Center. My favorite replicated inventions were, the Steam Cannon:
The Hall of Mirrors:
And the Ideal City:
And like the Millet exhibit, I took a little video tour:
https://youtu.be/JKzbmbQ7pCw I left inspired. The next couple weeks were a little bumpy as I returned back to work. But more on that and my house guest that had impeccable timing, in the next blog…
Yesterday was National Photography Day here in the US. I decided to take this opportunity to reflect on my photo work from the last three years.
There have been times during this season of Covid and civil unrest that I’ve felt like I’ve been dragging, I’ve been uninspired. But one look at the photo work I’ve produced for covers and promos? Holy cow wow…so I documented these into collages, grouping together models, places, and nature. The variety and color makes me all goofy happy!
Of course living in a historic mansion doesn’t hurt. The inspiration I draw from the Campbell House Museum is magical:
Flowers from the Museum garden:
Lafayette Park is another one of my favorite places on earth:
Other favorite places include Oakland House, Compton Heights Water Tower and Park, the Fox Theatre, the Arch, and the Missouri Botanical Gardens:
Then the next best part is getting models to portray my characters in these wonderful spaces, or to do high fashion steampunk shoots. This is Ashley Meyer as Kate Church and vampire Esme/Tiffany:
Pete Hutchinson as Lord Wilson:
Mary L. Poll as Lavinia Davis
Stephanie Zhong as The Kicho/Chika:
Jacqueline Brown as Lady Shale, The Brown Lady, and Anna the Vampire:
John Mayfield as William the Vampire and Captain Smithy:
Ethan and Lauren from Thousand Faces Cosplay as Olivia and a Drasco:
Amy Wilder at Big River Steampunk Festival and Lunaeria at Lemp Brewery:
Lacey at Lemp Mansion:
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little retrospective. Soon you’ll see this in different formats other than social media.
And speaking of which, a little vlog update, good things to come….
Last weekend was time to shoot yet again, as I continue to update images for covers, swag and book trailers!
This is the second time I worked with the lovely and talented Stephanie Zhong who graced the cover of “The Kicho” which is currently in re-edit.
So, last week I collected props and costumes. These fans got some paint:
Then I pulled all the costume pieces and steamed all the clothing:
Every time I think, “we’ll this will be an hour, and bam, it turns into three or four!
Finally the shoot was ready to go! Stephanie and dog model Luna (a cute Shibu Inu!) arrived with some helpers. For two hours we shot and outside of the historic and wonderful Campbell House Museum.
Here are the best shots so far:
And at the end, the hardest part-clean up!
A new completed cover for The Kicho is done:
Again, special thanks to Model Stephanie Zhong, my brother and sister in law, Ed and Leslie Schultz, for letting me borrow Luna.
I’m working on the new interior edits as well. Watch this space for updates!
Twice this summer I’ve had the delight of shooting Jacqueline Brown at the Oakland House in Affton, Mo. Jacqueline is also the caretaker of this wonderful Museum.
For the first shoot we focused on reshooting covers for “The Brown Lady” and “A Stairway”.
The shoot went incredibly well! I had lots of prime pics of Jacqueline as the character Lady Shale, from “A Stairway”. Here’s just a few of the best:
And the big cover shot reveal:
A new completed cover is in process as well as a new edition. Watch this space for updates!
We have just continued to have some of the most beautiful sunsets and incredible scenery. I can barely keep up! This bunch was taken over the last few weeks. And it’s made me realize that yes, the sun is going down earlier, summer is coming to a close. We also had more flowers!
A week ago Saturday I finally got to visit the Historic Village at Faust Park in Chesterfield, MO, USA. A few times a year these houses are open to the public. This group of lovely abodes were rescued from various parts of St. Louis county and given a permanent place on land donated by the Faust family.
There’s a few homes, some barns, a blacksmith’s station, a school house, and general store!
Here’s just a brief pictorial tour!
I hope to share more with you after interviewing some of the caretakers in an upcoming blog.
It was nice to get out for a day, even though the weather was extremely hot. This weekend was filled with more catch up editing and shoots, and I’ll be sharing more of that this week. 🙂
Ok, I promised this weeks ago, and got so slammed with quarantine, back to work, prepping for shoots, the actual shoots, etc. So, here it is, at last, the new cover for “Strax and the Widow”!
Model Ashley Meyer brought her A game to the shoot last summer, and Michele Berhorst did her usual fantastic design work on this!
Again, more good stuff to come, just trying to keep up!
The Countess 