"Swan Brothers"
I took several photographs of my two nephews as the male Swan Dancers from the all male version of Swan Lake. They like this version of the Ballet very much-the dances, the costumes and the magic of it all. Then, they put their own twist on it by wanting me to paint their faces and their arms-well, everywhere. They wanted to look like my paintings with Tribal body and face painting. The 4 year old(teeny tiny Swan) had to be dragged away or he would have never stopped with my face paints. This may be my favourite photograph from the shoot. This is a pose that the "big Swan Dancers" do in the Ballet. My boys did such a good job!
What they were making me try to live up to!
Their version became very "Wild Child Lost in a Forest" too as they can't take a photograph without a stick looking like they are going to use it as a weapon of course. They also wanted to look "like an ancient tribe of Swan Boys" so there is a little of this and a little of that.
Magic Acorn from Delila of Robin and Sage!
Hee! They crack me up because they are so good! We watched the Ballet a few times and they still want to watch it more. People have asked me 1)Where is this amazing place I took the photos and 2)How do I work with kids and "get them" to do these things in photographs. Well, this is just their back yard with the sun setting and, I didn't make them do anything. They thought of all the poses themselves. I just had to keep reigning them in or they would have flown away. They had way better ideas for photographs then I could have thought of so I let them do their own thing!
And, it was the oldest's Swan's Birthday last week and when I asked him what he wanted he said, "Duh! I want a Swan Photo!". So, I gave him the one of him "flying". Everyone in our family got Swan photographs-that's all I have to give!
5 comments:
You are so magical and such an inspiration to me. Never, never change!
Merle these photographs are so wonderful! you are so very talented photographer!!!
Delila
p.s. i am so glad to see my acorn necklace in one of those photos :)
susan,
thanks so much! you are such an inspiration to me- how you can challenge yourself and morph into other characters in your photography-MAGIC! my friend in Turkey wants some of the photos i took wearing her jewelry-both the older ones and the ones that you recreated because she was so honoured and amazed! no matter what, i think we should stay together and form a group of 2 for diptychs and challenges-maybe other folks will follow? we need to give ourselves a cool name-any thoughts? xo!
thanks delila(oops, i mispelled your name! yikers-will fix it!). my boys love that acorn! they both had eyes as big as saucers when they first saw it and wanted to wear it(they knew it was magic and that either mama mo made it or that one of her magical friends did). i am so proud of the older one as he was the "bigger man" and let his little brother wear it because he knew that since he was younger it was harder for him to to say "no, you wear it zach"-such good boys! so proud!
when i took these photos for zach's birthday party gifts(i framed the flying boy one for zach and one with sky on zach's back for all the parents and grandparents) and brought the rest for everyone to look at, everyone in the family and our friends went crazy for them and i found myself taking orders for more! everyone wanted the close up of zach and the close of sky holding the acorn especially. so, these will go in your package as well! i hope all is well with you. you are so generous and one of kind my dear.
xo!
I'm sure these boys already know it but one day they are really going to look back and see what an extraordinary aunt they have! I mean who on earth has photos of themselves as children like this?? I wish I did! I am astonished at the beauty of the photographs~and those boys are adorable~gorgeous eyes and their natural exuberance comes through in your photos!
I agree you are a very talented photographer~I think you would do incredibly well as a child photographer, or an alternative to what everyone else is doing out there. These would make for a stunning show in a gallery..really really amazing Merle!
If you lived nearby I'd have you photograph my son. You seem to have a special connection to children that is wonderfully expressed in your images. Did you make the costumes too?
Thank you so much Christine!
I think that I do take photos of how I wished and wish I had been and would be photographed today. So many snap shots make me cringe. I have been taking photographs of other folks in costumes since I was a little kid and I finally decided to try and take photos of myself as part of a story-that is pretty amazing as I hate to look at myself in a mirror! I don't know how to explain it-very freeing.
When my twin gave birth to her boys(our boys) she said, "OK, you have the camera-I expect tons of photos of them in costumes doing amazing things!". So, I have too! I have taken photos of other children too. I think it easy for me because I never forgot what it was like to be a kid and I let each little kid or grown person pick what makes them feel the most amazing as-for the boys right now it is the swans. They really got into this story. That, and I had to bit my tongue a lot when they did really hilarious stuff but were being so serious(and I had to break up a lot of fights with 'if you don't stop there will be no photos at all!' I am so mean! and, I know when the kids are done so I just try to do them really fast.
I could never take photos of anyone in normal clothes-there are photographers who can do that very well but not me. I would love to have a show of these photos but I don't know about selling them-I have figure that out.
And, I would love to take photos of your Andre! Just tell me what his favourite thing is!
I was lucky in that my mom made the feather pants! I had so much going on and was trying to make them myself but handed them to her and said, "you won't regret making these! I gotta go!". So wish I could come and see your, your dolls and studio and take lots of photos of everyone! xo!
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