{Guest Post} Inspiration&Collaboration with Kristi

I'm so flattered that Carissa asked me to guest post while she's hanging out in lovely Boston! I'm pretty jealous of her trip, to be completely honest.

Well here goes!...

I started developing an interest in photography at an early age watching my grandfather constantly snapping images of my family. He's the handsome man in this picture with his family. He most likely set this up on the tripod outside their house. He was ALWAYS the one with the camera. I always loved to tag along with him and watch what he was doing.


Around my junior year of high school I started playing with cameras myself, and it all sort of clicked. I never felt unsure of myself with a camera in my hand. At a picnic the summer before junior year I took this picture, and I remember it as the first decent picture I ever took. I still like to look back at it when I get discouraged.

So in college, many photographs later, I started doing the little miniatures that you can see in my Etsy shop. I thought I'd sort of illustrate how one of them, Hungry Policemen, came about.
Some of my images are a lot more collaborative than others. Hungry Policemen is certainly one of those! The idea sort of spawned from a conversation with my friend, and then roommate, Alanna. She mentioned something involving miniature policemen and doughnuts, and I immediately started picturing it in my head. I can't remember how much time passed before I actually did it, but my first attempt was scrapped.

After a conversation with my professor, it was decided that disguising the men as sprinkles would be far more clever than my original concept! I can't even describe how grateful I am for the conversations I was able to have with my professors. Each and every one of them has influenced me in so many ways. I'm also grateful that I bought several strawberry doughnuts at once, so I didn't have to go back to the terribly tempting Dunkin Donuts for the second shoot.

At this point I had no idea how to use studio lights, so I set this up under the fluorescent light in my kitchen. My legs were pretty sore after kneeling over this little doughnut for so long on the kitchen counter, but it was well worth it. I shot and shot and shot until I finally got the image I felt good about…
So there you have it: a short little narrative about my process. I'm sure a lot of you can relate about the miracle of collaboration (in the sense of developing ideas). Some of my greatest accomplishments have come out of conversations with other creative and intelligent people.

Carissa and I would love to hear about some of your best collaborations!