To the moon, Alice!

It is breathtaking when one stops to consider the solar system: planets, stars, moon and sun. How very far away and how startlingly close it can feel all in the same moment. The absolute immensity of space is both wondrous and terrifying; the fact that one star burning billions of miles away can hold such importance for the survival of earth, for the survival of me, and I never fail to thrill to the sight of a full moon set to the backdrop of a dark and starry sky.

Although I released this photograph several weeks ago, the recent death of Neil Armstrong, the first man to ever "moon walk" inspired me to post this blog in his honor.

Here's to you, Neil! May you forever continue to push boundaries and break amazing barriers. 

SPLASH! Barbie Mermaid

In honor of summer and my recently revived life-long obsession with mermaids, I decided to kick off Summer 2012 in style with a Barbie Mermaid (Merbie) photo shoot. As I have come to expect with my Barbie shoots the session was challenging... and incredibly fun. So for all those ladies out there who used to (and most likely still do) pretend to be a mermaid in their bathtubs and swimming pools, enjoy!

To view the full collection visit my FB Page: www.facebook.com/ChristinColsonWendtPhotography.

Nice to Meet Myself

One of the many reasons I love photography is that I can use it to explore so many of my interests. Since I began creating clone photography it has been one of the most compelling ways I have found to do this. My first ideas were simplistic; replicating more than one of myself into a scene or background. But I soon realized I wanted to use this type of photography to explore some more meaningful life challenges and once the ideas started flowing it was hard to stop them.

This first photo was created based on one of my favorite ideas. I was really intrigued by the concept of a girl meeting herself, seeing herself from the outside, but also as herself. I think this is one of the most complicated and difficult things we (or more specifically I) struggle with as human beings- being able to step outside our own minds, lives and problems to see ourselves clearly. It made me wonder; if I could do this how would it make me feel? Would I like myself? Would I feel proud of myself? Ashamed? Embarrassed? How might gaining a new perspective change how I percieved myself in the world? Would I be sympathetic towards myself knowing both sides of the perspective? Or would it be impossible to withhold judgment? My guess is that no matter what the final conclusion, it would be both frightening and difficult to find the courage to really know oneself from an outside perspective.  

Beauty Self Portraits

As most girls (and some boys) might agree there is nothing more fun than playing with makeup. While I am certainly no expert in the makeup department, I can easily sit in front of the mirror for hours painting my face with different colors, changing my look. I love that every day I can have a new adventure with makeup, playing with different colors, trends and ideas.

That being said, the idea for these self portraits started simple. The basic plan was to paint my face in all the colors of the rainbow. Why? Because the colors of the rainbow are pretty and well...just because! Pink being my favorite color, I decided to start there (please just disregard the fact that pink neither shows up in the rainbow nor does it apparently qualify as a color...which I refuse to accept.)

The pictures were a lot of fun to take and already some new and fun ideas on where I'd like to take these photos have been sparked, so stay tuned for more and in the meantime, enjoy and then share!!  

Barbie Girl

As far back as I can remember I played with Barbies. My absolute favorite thing to do whenever I got a new Barbie was to remove her from the box and promptly restyle her hair and give her a new outfit. As a result of this I had a bad habit of loosing or misplacing many of my Barbie's outfits and the majority of my Barbies were doomed to end up in a jumbled box with a number of other naked Barbies whose clothing had gone missing.

One year Santa Clause brought me a Barbie Dream House for Christmas. It was just my height, decked out in every shade of pink imaginable and fabulous. Coupling my brothers Transformer action figures with Barbies was also one of my favorite games. I would transition the Transformers into their animal version (my favorite was a bright yellow sabre tooth tiger) and offer them up as some bizarre pet for my Barbie to walk on a leash. Whenever I would take trips to Michigan to visit family my cousin and I could spend hours in the back of a car on long trips to the family cabin playing Barbie or up in her room we would line our Barbies up on the bed making decisions on fashion choices and love affairs.

Then somewhere in my years of growing up I stopped playing Barbie, my interests giving way to other things. Until recently when I stumbled upon my niece's Barbie Dream House and for no real reason at all I sat in the hallway most of that night playing Barbie, happily discovering that Barbie is quite as much fun at age 28 as it was at age 5.

It has been a real pleasure rediscovering my childhood through these pictures as well as putting my own little twist on them. I hope others will find them as fun as I do!

Sparkling Blue Days & Purple Sunsets

The sparkling blue Caribbean Sea off the north shore of Jamaica, Runaway Bay.

Jamaica has some of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever witnessed, and nothing can beat watching a sunset like this while floating in the warm tropical water.

 

More photos can be found at: www.facebook.com/christincolsonwendtphotography



Multnomah Falls

I found some time to edit some new photos this morning (I know, it shocked me too!) A few weeks back my husband and I took a drive out to Multnomah Falls, which to my delight is less than an hours drive from where we live. Here are a few of the photos I took during our visit. The rest will be posted to my facebook page:

 (https://www.facebook.com/ChristinColsonWendtPhotography).

Some stats I pulled up on Mutnomah Falls (to give some perspective): the top portion of the waterfall is 542 feet and the bottom portion is 69 feet. It is the tallest waterfall in the state of Oregon. Enjoy, and as always, thanks for taking the time to stop by. <3