I knew I had a great idea to have Emilee pose as the villain Harley Quinn for a portrait session, when her mom mentioned she had her outfit. Emilee has blonde hair and looks exactly like the actress in the movie, Suicide Squad. Emilee and her mom quickly agreed to the session and we planned out all the accessories she might need. We grabbed accessories such as aviator sunglasses, a bat, mirrors, bubble gum, Twizzlers and lollipop. We ended up not using some of the accessories in the final images, but it didn't hurt to have a big list of options. Emilee had to work hard at times, raising one eyebrow while smirking, which is not easy to do! I used different colored gels on my background to get the red or blue look in the photos. I'm posting a few before/after photos so that you can see the amount of work I put into editing the image to make it more "comic" like. I painted the sunglasses reflection, fingernails, hairbands as well as correcting the skin and background. We completed the first part of the session in my studio here in Mount Olive, NC.

Later that night, I took Emilee to downtown Mount Olive, where we worked in a blue brick alleyway. I took a few pictures of her posing with a bat and then I asked her to walk while dragging the bat, for a spooky look! While I was photographing this sequence, a man was taking out the trash in this same alleyway. I had to reassure him that we were only fictional villains! We then finished up the photo session about a hundred yards away near an ornate iron gate.

I like coming up with ideas and then working with clients to get the look that they want. Sometimes the clients don't even know what they want and you have to make suggestions for them. The fun part is planning with clients and then using lighting techniques to get the best images possible.

I posted several images straight out of the camera so that you can see what kind of editing I do to each portrait.