Totem Poles, Smoke, and a pretty gal in a cute hat

I’ll make a large totem pole, I thought to myself, I’ll carve it and paint it, and each member of my family will be represented. I’ll put it on the patio in the backyard.

This conversation with myself really happened. Scary, right?  A totem pole?! What was I thinking? These are the types of dangers that happen when I don’t keep myself busy creatively. I get these wild ideas that have no place to go but south. Luckily, I had this photo shoot planned and held off on running down to the local forest to cut down a tree to carve into an ugly piece of family artwork.

Ali is no stranger to my camera. I’m sure you’ve seen her around the blog and website. Besides photographing her high school senior pictures a few years ago, Ali is a great family friend, and she is one of my “go to gals” when I need a model for a creative shoot.

I was inspired by a ghostly picture I saw recently that used smoke. It might be an upcoming trend (if you know me, you know that I’m definitely not in to trendy things!), but still, I liked the haunting vibe that the picture gave off and was interested in giving it a try. I think I suffocated Ali, and she even burned herself (don’t play with matches or lighters, kids!). We also quickly found that smoke and wind, when mixed together, are unpredictable! We had to roll with what came, and I’m pretty pleased with the results! Bonus: a quick little photo shoot without smoke made for some pretty pictures of one of my favorite ladies. You’ll see a few of these mixed in as well.