Comic-Con Cosplay Battle at Urban Mo's

So I finally made it out to my first San Diego drag/variety show. I can't believe it took nearly six months. Of course this comes the weekend of Comic-con. Cosplay and advertisements have taken over the city! Events fill the weekend, including this cover charge- free show with a costume contest to win $500. The contestants went hard not only on their costumes but also their dance moves. Death drops, flips, wigs...gone... after all $500 was up for grabs! And the show was phenomenal. I will throw 10 of my favorite shots here, as always the full album is on FB: Starla Dawn Photo.

Thank you to all the performers and contestants for letting me flash your eyes and put my caera in your face.

Baltimore Drag Awards- Fuji Natura 1600

Shooting my first roll of Fujicolor Natura 1600, I decided to save it for a special occasion. At the conclusion of the Baltimore Drag Awards, performers, friends and families pour out of the Creative Alliance theater to wait for their cars to take them to their respective homes/after parties. I attempted to grab as many portraits as I could in those few minutes. I shot the film at box speed on Nikon F100, most at 1.8 not recalling the shutter speed but I try not to go below 125. Developing and scans:The Darkroom

When I bought the roll it was about $20/roll. I bought one for me and one for a friend. Now I am wishing I had purchased more because I love the colors, and the price per roll has since increased (at least on amazon). I decided to share ALL portraits taken, the underexposed, the overexposed and the il-cropped. The good,the bad, and the ugly. FEAST YOUR MFing EYES.

As always thank you to the drag community of Baltimore for always stopping to let me snag a photo. You all are the best!

Becoming Baby- Baltimore, MD

You all know how much I love behind-the-scenes work. While I didn't do the official behind the scenes photos at Baltimore Drag Awards this year, I did get to hang out with friend and Drag Queen of the Year nominee Baby (IG: babysnotalright) and watch the make-up process of Bryan becoming Baby. We also had a quiet observation of watching his boyfriend Dieringer go gold with glitter beard gorgeousness.

Thank you to Bryan and Dieringer for letting me be a part of your evening. Congratulations Baby on the nomination!

Second Annual Baltimore Drag Awards

I had the honor of photographing the Baltimore Drag Awards again this year. Last year I relied fully on flash; this year I used a combo of on-camera flash and available light. This years theme was "Metallic Mistress."

As always you can see the full album on Facebook, search: Starla Dawn Photo. I will share a highlight on my favorite images.

Crissy Kay at Belmont Park

So I know I said I would take the year "off" and concentrate on my family and household, but its really hard and actually sucky for depression. I really enjoy working, and while I am not "actively working," I still very truly have the need to be photographing. While many of my images this year will no doubt be my family, I will sporadically be working with models, festivals and musicians. #sorrynotsorry

Crissy Kay is the first San Diego model I have had the opportunity to shoot with. I took three cameras, which I know is excessive but I had like half a roll in two cameras that I needed to shoot off before being able to use the film that I planned to use. Everything was really low-key. I rented few dresses from Rent the Runway, had Crissy bring some sneakers, and she found a long board online because nothing I love more than a good juxtaposition.

The roll I needed to "finish off" before I could free the Nikon up again was a mystery roll I received in a grab bag from from iam100.co none of my film friends were 100% clear we all had many guesses that it was a test film. Image were shot on Nikon F100 at Iso 200 and 100 (we were unsure of the film speed and it didn't automatically pick up. If anyone is interested, I may do a separate post with all the results)

It was also my first time shooting the Canon Elan IIe. I used a basic 50mm lens with TMAX 400 and had it pushed one stop. I had mostly shot family on this roll but had some frames to spare.

Lastly shooting Lomography 100 on the Nikon F100. Developed and standard scans by Nelson Photo in San Diego. A little excited to have one hour photo since I have yet to set up my scanner.

*shrug emoji* Lomo 100 is one of my favorite films. Its something I haven't heard anyone say but I'll say it.

#tbt Womens March on Washington

I actually can't believe I never made a WMW blog post. I guess I just made the facebook album and just never go around to posting on the blog.

I wont make it wordy.

Had a friend come stay from Colorado and she brought another Denver marcher with her, and of course my local friend Rachel who actually had to leave a couple hours into the march to make it to work, which made me nervous because the sea of people was intense. But she made it!!

I think we left my house around 5:30am and we booked parking on Parking Panda so we were only about three blocks from the March center.

We got there pretty early to get as close to the main stage as we could. We go to be about a block away, not so bad considering the crowd went on for miles.

The long road home

A visual journal of our move from Maryland to California.

This post contains only 35mm images shot on Canon AE-1 Program

First roll- Lomography 100

Second Roll- Lomography 400, metered as 100 (overexposed) and pulled one stop.

Chloe hates looking at the camera.

Elijah dealing with the heart break of saying goodbye to his friends as we wait across the street from his school.

If you are wondering about the light leak and this "first of the roll" image, I opened the back of the camera because I couldn't remember what I was shooting.

This is my childhood basketball court in White Plains, KY.

Arizona?? Wanted to capture the strange brown cloud, was surprised even with the overexposure, you can still see it.

Hubby taking a photo of me at Salvation Mountain because I have waited like 8 years to go.

Goodbyes are disposable

see-you-later's are semi-permanent

disposable camera photos from the going-away parties with the 202 Film Collective, Baltimore party at the Crown, Anniversary & Holiday parties at Barley and Hops.

Glitterball- NYE in Baltimore

Sadly the Glitterball would be the last drag show I photographed before leaving the east coast. Got to see my friend and amazing queen Baby co-host a show with Venus. It was a fantastic show in a small Italian venue. The five queens gathered in a tight bathroom for a dressing room, proving something we have always known and that is, the glamorous side of show biz is often created in the least glamorous places. Or that glamour is a state of being, not so much a lifestyle to be obtained.

From small bathrooms to large stages, and if there are no stages we will make our own. The thing I learned about Baltimore is a show can happen anywhere, I also should have learned this in my fashion show days. A restaurant, a bar, a night club are all fine stages so long as the crowd came to have a good time and be entertained.

And entertained they were.

These bitches swang from chandeliers, dropped splits on the concrete floor, and gave strip teases to resurrect, give you life and then slay. you. again.

The real reason I fell in love with Baltimore Drag and Burlesque and really all things Baltimore Variety is really at the heart of what I consider Baltimore. Its gritty, and dirty, fabulous and flirty, raw sexuality and political commentary. There is always something new to be seen, new song to be heard, a new way to perform a routine, another envelope to be pushed.

Thumbing through 2017s photos of performances, I know one thing: I will be back.

And as if Baltimore needs any help being gritty, I will bring along a disposable camera to provide pop flash and 90s nostalgia.

You can probably hear my heart-break and mourning in my words. San Diego is truly beautiful, but I haven't been here long enough to meet "my people" yet and there is something about Baltimore that made me feel like "these are my people" with almost everyone I got the chance to meet. The blood through that town is dark and riddled with history that hurts and the life is creative and bent on creating a new history that heals.

So blessed to have rang in the new year, watching these creative do their thing.

Elysium Marketing Group

Recently I was really excited to book my first double exposure commission. The job took me up to the suburbs of Philadelphia where I got the chance to work with an all female marketing team. Elyse, the president and founder, reached out to me after previewing my website. She had the amazing idea for the team page of her site.

She had the idea for basic head shots, with edits in black and white and in color, and when you click on an image of a team member the image of the double exposure would show up along with the member bio underneath.

I loved the idea!

Armed with my Canon 6D and my Nikon F100 and two rolls of Portra 400, I sat out to do my best to make this happen.

As I do all my double exposures "whole roll" style, we shot our digital images first, toward the end of the digital session, I switched cameras and got the portrait layer on the film. After our portrait layers were shoot on the Portra, I struggled a bit with my film leader and then each team member curated a grouping of things they identified with and we shot the second layers.

The items ranged from sports memorabilia to art supplies.

Here are some of my favorites:

I strongly suggest going over to the Elysium Marketing Group website to check out their head shots, favorite images and learn more about their awesome team of women!