“With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?” Oscar Wilde
The second of my yearly cemetery shoots. Of course I had to schedule a shoot with Jkat317 (IG). She always takes her cosplay to the next level which is perfect for this cemetery. Zoom in on the face paint on Bigfernie94 (IG)— that’s her work and it’s amazing!
Every year right before Daylight Saving Time begins, I schedule as many photoshoots as possible in our local historic cemetery. Miss_Ichor (IG) was the first of this year’s season. It was a great shoot— everything I like to do as a photographer came together in this photo. Cosplay! Props! Location shooting! Good light! It was like a dream come true really.
The inspiration for this photoshoot was William S. Burroughs. I love taking an idea and running with it. In this case— we started with Burroughs and ended up with Joan Vollmer. Because she should be remembered too.
So things were going great with photoshoots in 2020. And then the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in California. I prudently took a couple of months to see what the research on this *brand new* disease said. Then I took a couple of more months off to see how things went. And then I was just stuck in a rut. Thankfully, Yanleyna (IG) asked me to photograph her Star Trek cosplay in July. Masked up, and a little apprehensive, out I went and had an amazing time— thanks to social distancing, shooting outdoors, and double hand sanitizer.
@Liialeone mentioned that she’s been hired for modeling jobs in which the first thing they did was cover her freckles with foundation. I was completely baffled and a little offended on her behalf. My mom told me when she was a little girl, she thought there were white people, brown people, and leopard people because there was a girl in her class with the most amazing freckles. Leopard people— you can imagine my disappointment when I ended up with only one freckle and that on the very tip of my nose. Sigh.
My shoot with Banhxeobrujx (IG) on March 11, 2020, was when I started to realize the covid-19 pandemic was real. On one hand, the lack of crowds is nice for doing a photoshoot. On the other hand, good grief, where are all the people?
For my birthday in 2020, I spent a week in San Francisco so I could have the opportunity to work with some of the amazing models in the Bay Area. Bakedbybabe was the first model I scheduled, and it was a great start to the week. I especially love this photo because it reminds me of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “There was a Little Girl.”
There was a Little Girl (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44650/there-was-a-little-girl
There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid.
Mari.Callista (IG) was nice enough to meet me at oh fuck o’clock in the morning at Sutter’s Fort so I could see what morning light is like. It’s really nice, but did I mention oh fuck o’clock?
This is from my second shoot with jadejacobartistry (Instagram). There are no photos from the first shoot because I learned the important lesson about checking locations. Just because the parking garage was there last week, doesn’t mean it won’t be a giant hole in the ground this week. Sigh.
I know— I already did this. But I missed my first (and favorite) shoot of the year due to poor organization (I know! What has this pandemic done to me? Who even am I anymore?)
So let’s do this again! This is Jkat (follow her at Instagram)! As you can see- she’s an amazing cosplayer and beautiful. What you can’t see is that she is kind, patient, fun AND funny— if I didn’t like her so much, I’d hate her. Here’s her Starfire cosplay that I was lucky enough to photograph in February 2020.
Flowers, and the Moon 
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