It was late when I got the message from my good friend and editor Jasmine over at Grumpy Magazine that she wanted to try and squeeze in one last talent shoot before the Winter edition released. Before I could even answer (which would have been a yes either way), she told me it was Lindsey Stirling and I seriously couldn’t reply back fast enough. My brain instantly started planning out our shoot.
I had about a week to get everything prepared for this shoot and the biggest challenge per usual was finding an amazing location to shoot at. The concept I wanted for Lindsey was a vintage circus wonderland inspired shoot hahahaha no problem right?!
The actual moodboard Jasmine created and sent to the team based off my visions for the shoot
I got to work right away looking for locations and upon my search meet Winie the ringleader of the LA Circus; one of the biggest prop houses for circus themed films in the country. She greeted me with baby pink curlers in hair as she filled dishes of candy and tea for our meeting. We sat and chatted about her space and the history of her prop house before she showed me around the 4 acres of circus history
I had chills walking through this glorious place while I envisioned all the places I would pose Lindsey. At the end of our nearly 3 hour long meeting, Winie gave me the unbelievable offer to use her space for the shoot and I could not wait to report back to the team about this amazing location I had secured.
Unfortunately, it was a tad too far for the team to travel and so we were back to square one, with only 72 hours to spare. We secured a small studio in downtown Los Angeles just as a backup and it was looking like that was going to be the final shooting location.
I messaged Jasmine 24 hrs prior to the shoot, panicked and told her how uninspired I was by the location. I went from securing us the whole circus just to end up at the “lightbulb wall” room and I just really couldn’t hide my disappointment and I was struggling to find the magic in this new location.
A few hours later, Jasmine messages me to let me know she was able to secure The Ragdoll Pink Palace for our shoot. The relief was instant and the creativity starting trickling back.
When I arrived at 9:30 the next morning, Lindsey’s glam team David Gardner (@davidgardnerla) and Michelle Miller (@missmeeeshie) were already transforming Lindsey from sweet to circus fabulous.
While Lindsey was in makeup, wardrobe stylist Brittny Moore (@brittnymoore) and I pow wowed which outfits we liked the most and I went room to room to see where I wanted to photograph them.
We were behind schedule when we finally got to shooting but luckily the owner of the location gave us an extra hour and a half to work and so all in all we were able to get 5 looks done in the time that we had together.
This is by far my favorite editorial to have worked on all year. Lindsey was an absolute pro to work with and was so fun and sweet to boot. Make sure to grab the 2018 Winter edition of Grumpy Magazine with our cover girl Lindsey Stirling when its released later this month!
