The creative fantasy experience!

Every story starts somewhere. You absolutely do not need to come to me with an elaborate concept already planned!

A lot of sessions begin with an outfit or costume a client has found and loves. From there, we start asking questions. Who would wear this? Where do they belong? What are they doing there? Is the world beautiful? Strange? Lonely? Ominous? Ridiculous?

Other times, we do the opposite. We start with the story and work backward to figure out what you should wear, where we should photograph it, and what little details will make the idea come alive. There really isn't a wrong way to begin.

This is where your little world starts taking shape. Once we have a direction, we'll build a shared inspiration board together. We'll collect photographs, colors, textures, poses, locations, wardrobe ideas, lighting, props, artwork, movie stills, and anything else that feels like it belongs in the world we're creating.

It's not meant to copy someone else's photograph. It's our visual language. Maybe we keep coming back to foggy forests and muted greens. Maybe everything feels warm and nostalgic. Maybe it's unsettling and slightly wrong. Maybe we accidentally decide that your character desperately needs a giant fish. This is usually where scattered ideas start turning into an actual story.

You bring the character. I have some strange things to help build their world. Clients typically provide or purchase their main wardrobe pieces, especially costumes, dresses, suits, or other pieces specific to the concept. But you won't be figuring it out alone. We'll talk through wardrobe together and make sure what you're considering works with the story, location, colors, and overall feel we're building.

And then there are the little things. I have a growing collection of props and accessories that can be incorporated when they fit the concept: lanterns, masks, butterflies, headpieces, and plenty of other strange little treasures I've accumulated along the way.

Sometimes one of those objects becomes a tiny detail in the photograph. Sometimes it changes the entire story. And if the concept calls for something neither of us owns? We'll figure out what makes sense to find, make, thrift, borrow, or buy.

You do not need to know how to model. Seriously. I'll guide you through posing, movement, expression, and what to do with the hands everyone suddenly becomes painfully aware of the second a camera appears.

We'll have our plan, our mood board, our wardrobe, and our story. And then we'll play. Some photographs will be exactly what we imagined. Some will happen because the wind did something beautiful. Some will happen because we found a weird tree. And sometimes the best image from an entire session is something neither of us planned. That's part of the fun.

What happens in front of the camera is only the beginning. Some photographs need very little. Others become something that could never completely exist in front of the lens. This is where I begin building the final world through editing, color, atmosphere, compositing, light, scale, environmental changes, and whatever other pieces our story needs.

A normal field can become somewhere else. Something small can become enormous. Something that wasn't there can appear. Reality can bend a little. Editing isn't something I tack onto the photograph at the end. It's part of how I create the photograph.

And then you get to see where we ended up. Your finished images are individually edited and delivered through a private online gallery in high-resolution digital format. I don't deliver RAW or unfinished files because what we photograph together is only one part of the process. The finished artwork is the complete Black Bow Photography photograph.

Then the world we spent all that time imagining is finally yours. Print it. Frame it. Share it. Put it somewhere in your house with absolutely no explanation. I'm particularly fond of that last option.