My name is Amanda and I decided 2023 was going to be a new year. A new year with new growth and amazing new opportunities. Christmas of 2022 I decided, after borrowing my mom’s Canon camera, that I would like to look for my own. I had never really been interested in pursuing photography, but always thought about how having a camera of my own would be nice for family pictures. Fast forward to today, after winning multiple eBay auctions, I am now the proud owner of a Canon Rebel T3, a 75-300mm lens, an 18-55mm lens and my favorite, the 55mm f1.8 lens. And I have leapt head-first into trying everything possible with my camera to learn as much as I can as fast as I can.
This weekend, my wonderful and supportive husband helped me with a styled shoot and I was blown away with the results of these photos. I made a goddess themed crown with a headband I had already, some zip ties from Amazon, and florals and butterflies from Joann Fabrics. I spray painted the zip ties once I had them on the headband the way I wanted and then hot glued the flowers. Then I did my makeup. Dark blacks with a hint of gold, white mascara, and black eye liner on my fingers to give the effect of charcoal.
I recently ordered a dark green velvet shower curtain to match our remodeled bathroom. When I first started envisioning this shoot, I knew I wanted to use that as a backdrop. So I put on my cream colored Shein dress I scored from the local thrift store, sat down in front of our tub on the floor in the bathroom and posed as my husband shot these amazing shots.
Of course I had to go full Midsomer and do some creepy shots. I slightly edited out my irises but most of my eyes were already whited out. Can you believe we got this on the first try? I had black eyeliner all over my face after this.
These were taken with no extra lighting with my Canon 50mm f1.8 lens and then edited in Lightroom. I cannot wait to do more fun shoots like this and already have so many ideas for my 30th birthday coming up in April. I really enjoy sports and animal photography, but I think portraits that are funky and unique will quickly be my favorite types of photos to take. So come along with me on this journey of self exploration, of self-paced learning and here’s to finding ourselves in 2023.
HAVN Photography 