The Love Challenge

The Love Challenge

The last time we got together to do a challenge was for Christmas, and we both created an image that could be used on a Christmas card. Your votes were tallied and the winning photographer was.....

SARAH! 

With her stunning rendition of Madonna and Child

This means the losing photographer (Melissa) has to buy one of you lucky voters an Amazon gift card. This time around, the recipient of that card was Myriah Shay!

And now... the burning question everyone wants to know.... 

Well, if this this blog's title didn't give it away, this time the challenge is all about...

Or, more specifically, "What Is Love". 

Don't pretend like you weren't thinking it.

  

via GIPHY


Now, there are some great loves throughout history:

• Romeo and Juliet
• Mark Antony and Cleopatra
• Lancelot and Guinevere
• Napoleon and Josephine

and of course, my (Melissa's) personal favorite...

                    
via GIPHY

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, it seemed fitting to showcase two couples in love. Two couples who could give us all a little insight as to what it really means to love one another. 

In today's world, we are seeing so much hate and animosity toward each other. Perhaps if we focused a bit more on what truly matters, we would all be living in a much happier place.

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SARAH'S SHOOT

"I love you."
"I know."
It wouldn't be me if I didn't throw a movie quote in.
(And come ON....don't tell me y'all don't know which movie that came from)

We all love love.
And I love the story of this couple.
Josh and Melissa met while they were teenagers, and they'll be celebrating their 23rd wedding anniversary this year.
They are about the same ages as my husband and I, so yeah, I guess you could say they're pretty young.

I remember these two from high school. Josh was an upperclassman when I was a freshman, and so of course seemed to be 30-something, like all the other juniors and seniors. Melissa graduated a year after me, and I remember seeing her at school and thinking she was so incredibly stunning.
She had the best ninety's hair.
Not. Fair.
I've photographed her a few times since then, and as I've gotten to her know, I am as much in awe of her inner beauty as I am the fact that she still looks just as beautiful now as she did back then. And her hair is still gorgeous.
Still. Not. Fair.

But what really drew me to them, was their love for each other.
Facebook (and social media in general) can get a little crazy/political/depressing/aggravating/etc, but every once in awhile, something will pop up that makes you take notice:
"Hey! That's some true love right there!"
I remember seeing a video that Josh had put together for Melissa, of all her favorite things.
Or all the things that makes him think of her.
Or something like that.

via GIPHY

But it was one of those moments, and I won't ruin it by remembering it exactly.
Not only is their love for each other strong, but there is a special love between them and Josh's parents, which Melissa has touched on before. Melissa (the other Melissa---Photographer Melissa) and I decided that these two couples were perfect for this project.
Thankfully everyone agreed and we had a great time with them!

Here are Josh and Melissa Robinette:

 For the final image, I've been wanting to do a Vanity Fair-inspired couple's shoot for awhile, and this was the perfect opportunity.
I love the posing, the lighting, the post-processing.
Confidence and class.

We shot at Melissa's (Photographer Melissa's) studio. That's her awesome vintage chest. I used one light with my photek soft lighter. Took us a little while to figure out how to make a pretzel with Melissa's legs. Josh mainly just had to sit there. I try to pose girls for curves, guys for lines.
Editing, I played with highlights and shadows, tones and levels, I used a little Portraiture, a little Alien Skin.

Sarah's Final Image:

By the way.....today (Feb 13) is Josh's birthday!
Happy birthday!

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MELISSA'S SHOOT

Love.

Love is what makes the world go round! Sounds cliche, but without it, where would we be? I personally feel that there is not enough deep, real, and true love. And I don't mean love that is felt wildly and passionately like a romance novel, full of roses and floating hearts. A love that is represented by flowers, gifts and sweeping gestures. I mean love that takes sacrifice, understanding and compromise. A love that does the dishes and chops the wood. ;)

Admittedly, I copied this from a site online, but man.... it sure says it perfectly.

"Real love demands sacrifice that can’t be found in self-centeredness. You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving. Sacrificial love requires that we give what we value most: our hearts, minds, souls, and strength. Real love does not always follow our natural inclinations; it is not an impulse from feelings."

I cringe a little inside when I see people post "relationship goals" on facebook. Those goals are generally so superficial, and it really makes me wonder if there is any hope left, or have we actually forgotten how to navigate the tricky waters of relationships, love, and marriage?

One thing that is missing today is LONGEVITY. 

When I'm shooting a wedding, I well up with tears every.single.time. during the anniversary dance. To see a couple holding each other, dancing to the music with so many years together is just so valuable and precious. Not to mention, inspiring. 

Which is why I chose to celebrate the love between a couple who has weathered a few storms together. A couple who have been each other's constant, year after year after year. A couple who knows when to put the petty stuff aside, and focus on what is actually important.

A couple who "gets it".

Enter Roxie & Dick. 

Married for 54 years, and they have such a sweet story. A story that deserves to be told! 

I wasn't exactly sure what image I wanted to create from this session. I had a general idea, but it wasn't until after I was done interviewing Dick and Roxie that I knew what I wanted to capture.

I decided to highlight Dick's devotion and tenderness toward Roxie, and I wanted to highlight Roxie's absolute adoration of him. I also wanted to highlight time. The years matter, and to hide them would do a disservice to this remarkable couple. 

Technical Details (a.k.a. the boring stuff unless you're a photographer ha ha!) 

I used a strobe and an 86" plm positioned camera right. I chose to light Dick and Roxie from behind Dick's back as I didn't want full frontal light. I really wanted the light to skim over his hands, highlighting the years those hands worked so hard for his family and for the life he and Roxie share.

I first processed the image in Camera Raw doing minimal adjustments like profile correction. Then I used Exposure X to do a black and white conversion, added grain, and hand painted on some shadows and highlights.  My goal was to have a final image that was dramatic and gritty that put all the focus on the emotion between the 2 subjects. 

Melissa's Final Image

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SO HOW DO I VOTE?

Well.... you don't this time.

We decided we weren't going to challenge each other, but rather challenge YOU to comment on either Sarah's image on her facebook page or Melissa's image on her facebook page. All you have to do is tag someone you love, and tell them why you love them.

This time around, we just want you to spread the love and make this world we live in a little happier... even for just a day.

Of course, we also want to show our love and adoration for you, so we will be choose TWO of you to each receive that Amazon gift card!

The Christmas Card Challenge

Hollywood starlet photos was the theme of our last challenge.

Remember that? 

It was mah-velous! Muah!

And the winning photographer was:

MELISSA
with her gorgeous recreation of the lovely Liz Taylor!

(Melissa's got a little winning streak going....so much fabulous in that girl)

This means Sarah, as the losing photographer, provided a $10 gift card (Amazon.com) to one of you lucky voters!

The winning voter was:

Selena Ford!

Thanks for voting Selena
(and seriously, get with me about doing that shoot! -Sarah)

This also means that Melissa is the official chooser of the next challenge!

via GIPHY

Hi! Melissa here! Thanks for all the votes on the last challenge!
I thought we should keep things in the spirit of the season and do a Christmas themed challenge. Sarah and I chatted and the topic of Christmas cards kept coming up so we decided to create a Christmas themed image, inspired by an existing image, that could be used as a Christmas card!

FUN FACT! Did you know the first Christmas cards were created in 1846? Google said so. 

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MELISSA'S SHOOT

I had great intentions for this challenge. I had a little vintage bed and a cute little model. I was going to use my mother in law's amazing vintage styled Christmas tree. I was going to create the most stunningly adorable fat baby vintage image.

But then the flu struck my house.
 For over a week.
All 5 of us.
It. Was. Awful.

So, all my planning went out the window! I ended up dressing up my daughter in one of her super cute vintage-esque dresses (I have a problem... there are too many of these in her closet. I'm addicted.) and pretty much looked around the house and thought "ok, now what can I create using things I already have." Turns out, I already had a Christmas tree (weird right? lol), an adorable model, and a vintage teddy bear. And thanks to my inability to put anything away after a session.... I still had a mini quilt laying around that hadn't been returned to the studio.

MY INSPIRATION IMAGE

Something about this image just struck me. I love the look of glowy Christmas tree lights and I loved that it was a family sharing a genuine moment in their home. I knew I wasn't going to recreate it exactly as it was, but I thought I could use it to loosely base my image. My goal was to create a "moment" in my home and an image that I could keep in my family's album.

MELISSA'S FINAL IMAGE
This was shot using just the light from the tree and a little bit of light filtering over from the kid's playroom. My son was in there playing Roblox on the computer and was too scared to have the lights off. He truly is my son. Not that I still sleep with the hallway light on or anything....

Another fun fact: the teddy bear was my husbands when he was a kid. The vest and bow tie the bear is wearing was made by my mother in law, and my husband wore it. My son also wore the same vest for Christmas when he was 2.

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SARAH'S SHOOT

This is my favorite holiday. I love the gifts, the sights, the smells, the lights, the snow 

(snow for Christmas-time only...I'm one of those people...). 

Christmas takes on a special spiritual meaning. I love my Lord Jesus Christ, and I love thinking about his birth. It's the beautiful epitome of faith, hope, love, and peace. 

There are several Christmas carols that I even can't sing b/c I get choked up. 

Not that I can sing anyway, really (i.e., O Holy Night), to be honest. 

And Handel's Messiah? Niagara Falls over here.

MY INSPIRATION IMAGE

Madonna and Child by
Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato

If you've followed me at all, you may know that I love old paintings. The way the artists saw and painted light and colors and people and emotions. 

I enjoy recreating that look. 

I posted to my personal Facebook page looking for a young mom with a young child.

A friend suggested Kayla and her little guy, and she willingly volunteered.

(Thanks, Kayla!)

Bible-time Bethelehem-styled clothing is a little hard to come by, and I waited until nearly the last minute to do my thrift store searching.

Lo and behold, I found a tan full-size JC Penny flat sheet and....a blue Snuggie! 

(Seriously, what are the chances of finding something so perfect?!)

SARAH'S FINAL IMAGE

We did the shoot in my kitchen, and my models were all that I had hoped for, and more.

I used one of my favorite backdrops, natural light coming from the window, and my model wore a sheet, a napkin and the Snuggie.

Fun fact: After the shoot, Kayla and I discovered that I had actually been in church youth group with her mom many years ago. I distinctly remember her mom playing the part of Mary in our Christmas pageant. 

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HOW TO ENTER

TO WIN 

A $10 AMAZON GIFT CARD

It's different this time!

READ CAREFULLY!

Decide which image you want to vote for, 

and visit that photographer's Facebook page.

(links to them are just below)

LINK TO SARAH : click here

LINK TO MELISSA: click here

THEN

COMMENT on it with your own fond holiday memory!

Yeah...we're going to make you think.

Can't pick a favorite image?
Visit both of our pages and comment on each!

Each time you comment, it counts as an entry to win the gift card.

 Enter as many times as you like. 

Hey! It's Christmas!

One of you will be randomly selected to win a $10 Amazon gift card.
The photographer with the most memories (from you guys) wins the challenge!
The photographer with the smaller number of memories supplies the gift card.

'Tis the Season!

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year! 

But, one last serious question....


Do any of you actually feed your family brussel sprouts for Christmas dinner? And do people really use those little paper things on a turkey? Asking for a friend.

The Iconic-Hollywood-Starlet-Photo-Recreation Challenge

The theme from LAST TIME was The Dollar Store Challenge, and the winning photographer was...

MELISSA!

With her gorgeous golden glamour portrait of beautiful Amanda

Random.org helped us choose a voter to receive a little gift from Sarah,
who had to accept defeat. Through her wailing and tears.

The winning voter was:

NAZALI WOOD

The little gift? 

A pumpkin-spice scented candle, and a mug full of chocolate treats.
Because it's pumpkin-spice and chocolate time of year. 

Thanks for voting, Nazali!

On to the new challenge!

This time, we worked extra hard to give you some good voting options.

Ones that don't make us wonder if we, as a country, have lost our ever-loving minds.

Melissa won the last challenge, which means she got to choose the new challenge.

The theme?

ICONIC HOLLYWOOD STARLETS

 The challenge is to each recreate an iconic photograph of their choice of Hollywood's beloved actresses.

One lucky voter will receive a $10 gift card to Amazon--land of 2-day shipping--provided by the losing photographer. 

Doesn't matter who you vote for, just be sure to share on one of our pages that you voted!

And you all are smarty pants and have started to figure out who is who during our blind challenges.

So we're going to be straight with you, and bare our souls and our photographs.
Be sure to vote, darn it!

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Melissa
"Liz Taylor"
Inspiration photo:

I was a more than a little excited when we decided to do a Hollywood Starlet challenge! I love anything and everything GLAM. I'm so intrigued by makeup and hair and fashion and who did all those things better than Elizabeth Taylor? She is epitome of beauty.

For my model, I knew I needed someone with dark hair, and the perfect nose. So, I perused my facebook friends to see if I had anyone matching that description. Enter my friend Allison. Perfect!

Allison has long hair, but Liz had short hair in the photo so I started by adding some dry shampoo to Allison's hair to add some grip. Then I curled her whole head into ringlets so I could easily coil them around my finger and pin them, giving the illusion of shorter hair. For her makeup I kept it pretty simple. Liz was wearing classic makeup, nothing too dark or smokey so I just added some eyeliner, some blush, and some lipstick.

Liz Taylor is known for her "violet eyes" and her lush lashes. I added some false lashes to Allison and also changed her eye color in Photoshop. Here's a fun fact: did you know that Liz actually had a genetic mutation that gave her an extra row of lashes? Some girls have all the luck!

For the dress, I literally took a piece of satin-esque fabric that I already had and clamped and pinned Allison into it. Hey, it didn't need to be a functional dress... it just had to look like one for a few minutes! The backdrop is all Photoshop!

FINAL IMAGE

"I feel very adventurous. There are so many doors to be opened, and I'm not afraid to look behind them." -Elizabeth Taylor


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Sarah
"Audrey Hepburn"

Inspiration photo:

I chose Audrey Hepburn's famous photograph. Audrey had oodles  of poise, class, and sophistication. I have always been mesmerized by this photo shoot from her Breakfast at Tiffany's movie; I'm in love with the lighting, the styling, the posing. The Audrey.
For my model, I reached out to Jessica Brubaker, who had offered to model during a model call for a previous challenge. I thought she'd make a great Audrey Hepburn, and she sounded like someone that would be fun to work with. I was excited when she agreed to come pose for me!

I'm no Melissa Prout when it comes to hair and makeup. Let me say that right now.
I put Jessica's hair in a French twist (kind of clumsily, but swearing I know Photoshop), and Jessica did her own makeup.
She also fixed the ends of her hair to recreate the look of bangs. Preferable to having me cut bangs for her, I suppose.
The dress was a $5 score from Goodwill in Mt Pleasant.
The tiara was part Dollar Tree birthday tiara, part sparkly rose bracelet that I already had.
Necklace was created with a rhinestone butterfly pin (Dollar Tree again) and a few pearl necklaces from my jewelry box.
Long gloves and cigarette holder I had to order. Amazon Prime, baby!

 Jessica followed posing instructions amazingly well. I used small clamps to bring up the neckline of the dress and to cinch the bottom half to give her the streamline shape of Audrey's look.

The original photo has screen panels on each side of Audrey. I had none, so I shot Jessica on plain backdrop paper, and added the panels later during post-processing. It's actually a lace photoshop stamp that I enlarged and shaded for more of a 3D look.

I think I need to hang this in my office. When I get an office.

FINAL IMAGE

"For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone." 

-Audrey Hepburn

The Dollar Store Challenge

The theme for last month's challenge was "Photoshop" and the winner was....

Sarah!

Her adorable shot of my (Melissa) babies and her niece as the fairy won by a landslide!

I mean... I can't even be mad... those are some great genes there!

But what voter gets the prize? 

Creepy picture of the Queen because why not. 

As always, a randomly selected voter wins a prize as a little "hey thanks!" for voting. After all, without voters to determine a winner... it wouldn't be much of a challenge! This month's winning voter is:

Teysha 

(the Teysha of Teysha's Creations email addy)

Melissa will be contacting you soon!

The New Challenge

The theme for this month is the Dollar Store challenge. Considering we both love dollar stores (who doesn't!?), and really wanted to push ourselves creatively, we only allowed a max of $20 to spend.  Any look, any model, anything we could dream up could be created.... as long as it cost $20 or less! 

This is a Blind Challenge 

Meaning, just as before, we aren't telling you which photographer shot which image! 

We want you to vote for the ART, not the photographer.
And as always, the WINNER of the challenge choose the theme of the next challenge.
The LOSER of the challenge will send a little gift to one of you lovely voters.
So, read each little blurb, look at the images, and choose your favorite!
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PHOTOGRAPHER A

I walked into the swankiest dollar store in town, armed with my $20 and was prepared for.....nothing! I really had no idea what look I wanted to achieve or what theme I wanted to play with. I wandered around hoping something would catch my eye and the first thing I spotted were these really pretty ivory and lace table runners. Ooh la la, possibilities! 

BUT wait... 

These cost what? $4.50!!?!?!   Each?

I thought this was the dollar store. You know, where things cost ONE DOLLAR.

I was wrong. So wrong. 

So, after considering my other options and looking around a bit more, I decided to bite the bullet and spend the $9 on my table runners. Silver lining though, the lace is beautiful and I can use it to DIY some newborn rompers when I'm done. Score one for me!

Next, I found some temporary tattoos in a shiny gold. They had kind of an Arabian/Princess Jasmine vibe to them and suddenly I had visions of gold and sparkle and shine! Also stumbled upon a really pretty gold necklace and some Jennifer Lopez earrings (which have found a home in my jewelry box) as well as some gold glitter eyeliner, big eyelashes, and safety pins. Can you believe my $20 was gone already? Time to start creating! 

I didn't end up using that round doily. Darn! I could have bought something else!

PHOTOGRAPHER A'S FINAL IMAGE

 Big thanks to Amanda for enduring my sweet makeup skills! 

I had Amanda curl her own hair, but I applied her makeup. I wanted her to look luminous and glowy and drenched in gold. I used both table runners to fashion a "shirt" using safety pins to hold it together. Bobby pinned the necklace to her hair, applied the tattoos, and used the gold side of a reflector as a background! 

And seriously, can I get an AMEN on this eye makeup?

via GIPHY

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PHOTOGRAPHER B

I waited until the very last minute to do my shopping. I'd like to say it's because I work extremely well under pressure, but the real reason is, basically, that I'm me.

So, anyhoo, I was already shopping in Midland the day before the shoot, so I opted for Dollar Tree. Where everything really is just a dollar.

I always wear my red lipstick when I dollar shop.

I was under the gun for time (again, because I am me), and after filling up the cart once and then deciding to put everything back and start over, knowing I was already running late, and my husband was waiting in the parking lot for me---it was just like a reality show---I finally settled on this cartful: 

Even had $1.00 left over--Someone's going on another dollar store shopping spree next week! Woot!

I took the cardboard from the valance package and made a crown for my model.

I put this with the burlapy flowers, braided the dollar store hair, had my model, the lovely Maria, lay down on the floor in the studio, and wrapped the paper gift bags around her as a top. The valance was partially cut into butterfly shapes, and the rest was made into a wrap.
I photographed her while balancing above her on a little wooden stepladder.
Dangerous, you say?

Maria may have been a little nervous, though.
But maybe not. She acted like a pro.

PHOTOGRAPHER B'S FINAL IMAGE

As you can see, I went with a shabby chic victorian rustic glamour nature princess vibe.

Maria, being a shabby chic victorian glamour nature princess. Maria is awesome. 

Time to VOTE

Leave your email if you want to be entered into a drawing

Remember, the losing photographer has to send out a little gift to someone! She will have to, may as well be you, right? 

You should also know that we won't do anything with your email other than contact you if you're the winner. We don't like spam, either.

Which one should win?

Email (opt):

Photographer A

Photographer B

online quiz maker

The Photoshop Challenge

So... 

It appears we skipped the month of June. But, in our defense, June is a busy month! There's graduations, and open houses, and weddings, and too much to do! To be honest, the month just flew by and when it was over we kind of looked at each other like "June? It's over? It's seriously July already?" One AWESOME thing we learned from skipping a month was just how many of you truly do read this blog, and really do anticipate seeing the new challenges! That blew us away, and made us both so excited to continue doing these challenges! Thank you for reaching out and asking "so where the heck is the new challenge?!" We promise to get our act together!

SO WHO WON THE LAST CHALLENGE?

That said, the last challenge was the Nature Challenge. And the winning photographer chosen by your votes was... drumroll please....

Melissa!

The stunning model, Hannah, acting like a total wind/stormy/bohemian nature goddess. 

WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER! 

As always, we draw the name of a voter at random and that voter wins a prize! 

This month's lucky winner is JENNIFER ZIELINSKI!

 Congratulations Jennifer and thanks for voting!
And no, you didn't win a chicken dinner.
This is what will be coming to Jennifer...wonderful handmade goatsmilk soaps from Kid Acres Soap Shoppe:

Smells so good, and makes your skin as soft as a baby's lil' tush!

The New Challenge

The theme this time around is The Photoshop Challenge. 
There really weren't any rules to this challenge. Basically we were to plan a themed image, photograph it, and then drastically enhance it in Photoshop to bring it to life!

This is a Blind Challenge Ya'll

Meaning, just as before, we aren't telling you which photographer shot which image!
We want you to vote for the ART, not the photographer.
So, read each little blurb, look at the images, and choose your favorite!

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PHOTOGRAPHER A

Summertime brings the only insect that I truly think is pretty cool---fireflies. 
They're so magical...it's kind of a fun Michigan kid summer thing to go out and capture them in a jar for a little while. And by the way, since Amazon has EVERYTHING, you can now buy your own firefly-in-a-jar, and let the real bugs keep their freedom.
 https://www.amazon.com/Firefly-in-a-Jar-Realistic/dp/B005AJPK1K 
It's like childhood in a jar! We didn't have Amazon when I was a kid. Had to go out and catch them ourselves. Anyhoo, fireflies are what sparked (pun!) my idea for my image. I needed children...which, between the two of us, we have plenty to choose from. And instead of them capturing a firefly, how cool would it be to capture a fairy?! 

When I was little, we had these old, old story books--a fairy tale treasury--on our bookshelves that had wonderful stories and beautiful illustrations. 

I'd spend hours reading those.

This image is as inspired by those books as it is by this carefree (albeit very warm) summer.

Sarah's very lovely niece played the part of the fairy.

Gorgeous girl!

These two little cuties are Melissa's kiddos.

The images of the models were combined with a separate image of the jar.

True experts at being photography subjects.

 All were shot against a blue chromakey background, which ended up being such a very pretty color that I decided to keep it.
Photoshop has "brushes" that you can collect and stamp onto an image, and I was able to find a moon, some branches, fairy wings, and little glowy itty bitty fireflies (lightning bugs?).

PHOTOGRAPHER A'S FINAL IMAGE

Detail view of the fairy...she's too beautiful to not see up close:

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PHOTOGRAPHER B

 My first thought was to do something creepy, but every concept I came up with was too "halloween-ish". Somehow my mind drifted to Edgar Allan Poe and at first I was going to do something based on the Telltale Heart. That morphed into the Telltale Heart, Raven wings.... basically just a bunch of "Poe" stuff. I thought it would be cool to incorporate a hand drawn anatomically correct heart, and well lookie here.... my model is an artist and already had drawn one! It was meant to be! 

Seriously, how awesome is this? Can you believe she drew this?!?

I was still undecided about some parts of my final image during the shoot and was kind of winging it (psshh I NEVER do that ha ha) until my model mentioned a poem called Annabel Lee. I looked it up, and it was EXACTLY the inspiration I needed! I based the final look of my image off that poem. I styled my model, did her hair and makeup, and photographed her holding a little wooden box. I then superimposed her heart drawing into the box, added ravens exploding out of her hair, cracked her face (as she was my little broken porcelain doll), and added gears into her head because why not? I also did some other things like enlarging her eyes to help with the porcelain doll look, and specific image toning.

PHOTOGRAPHER B'S FINAL IMAGE

I turned this.... 

....into this!

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling -- my darling -- my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

If you want to read the whole poem, go here.

Voting has ended!

Thank you for your votes--you all are great!
Stay tuned to hear the results
(and also to find out who is the lucky voter)