Ten Dollars and Some Silly String

Did you know that for $10, plus some silly string, you can have a grand old time in a graveyard? That is, if you’re willing to wear a dress, hang from a fence, and have the silly string shot at you.

That’s Doanh, you see, one of my friends and wonderful model volunteers! Former dancer, now studying to be a dentist, and quite the performer! We began our session at the Baltimore National Cemetary on a very foggy and wet day; not exactly what I had hoped for our session, but Doanh was up for getting grimy. She even knew the shortcut to get there on foot!

We started with shots that used the graves as graphic elements in the background. I gave Doanh a scarf to wave around that my mother had received as a gift from a friend from India. It went quite well with the dress (found at a thrift store for $10!).

These, according to Doanh, were her favorite shots. “I thought that the light-hearted poses and playful props done with the somber setting of the cemetary all pointed to the joy of the resurrection. Thus, I am given liberty to prance in the graveyard.” (Doanh is Eastern Orthodox.) “My favorite part was waving the scarf around while running bare-footed in the dew.”

The fence around the graveyard turned out to be full of opportunity, too, as well as a small pathway leading off into the woods. We checked for poison ivy first, and then I had our assistant, Garth, hold a light off of camera right to light Doanh a little more in the middle of all the greenery and fencing; it was dark in the woods!

On our way back from the graveyard, we found these nifty garages with peeling paint. I asked Doanh to jump, and she added some fancy stuff that really made these shots sing. “I loved these,” Doanh said, “because it looked like I was suspended in the air or levatating.”

I can’t thank Garth (below) enough for toting all of our stuff with us; he held a bag with the silly string, manned the flash, and also shot video of our silly string destruction for your enjoyment.

Garth actually makes an appearance in this shoot mostly because Doanh had a good question, “How does he know exactly when to make the flash go off?” she asked me. “Well, I said, “it’s a radio transmitter, actually, and I’ll show you what it does!” I asked Garth to light himself so Doanh could see a before-and-after comparison of what the flash did while Garth was holding it.

Thanks, Garth! And thank you, Doanh, for your willingness to get grimy!