Astral Boutique's blog

Girls On Film

This weekend, Chris' best friend Anthony Georgis came down from Portland, Oregon for a visit/business trip, and he very sweetly offered to do an Astral Boutique photo shoot with his super-awesome cameras. Yes, that's cameras, plural, because Anthony is a real, working, professional photographer! So darn professional, in fact, that he was chosen this summer to do Levi's cross-country photo campaign, "Go Forth", documenting people and places of the "real" America. He has always had the talent of capturing the perfect, most evocative moment on film, and the world has taken notice. 

We worked with a gorgeous model named Julianna. I took a few snaps with my own camera for the Etsy store, but I am really excited to see what Anthony captured with his carefully composed, "arty" shots! (Since they are on actual film, he has to get them developed and all that old-fashioned stuff.) At one point we actually tangled pine needles from the forest floor in Julianna's hair, on purpose, for that essential bohemian flair. Here is my mini-documentary of the day's shoot:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can check out Anthony's awesome work here.

Julianna models in the Sacramento/Auburn/Nevada County area-- all you artists and fashionistas can just give me a holler if you want to get in touch with her!

..........Stay tuned for more pics from this very special shoot!.........
 

Dress Up

There is nothing I love so much as a warm day and many leisurely hours to play dress-up and take pictures! It's been a rare thing this winter, as I have kvetched to you ad nauseum, so the break in the weather was a piece of Heaven. The night before this photo shoot, Chris and I watched the DVD of The September Issue, and my head was bursting with inspiration. I especially loved the runway show in Paris that was "inspired by Princes of the world"-- I tried to make all of my styling a little over the top, a little "royal" (at least, the royalty of the fairybook landscape of my imagination). I hope you enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

For the record, this is tambourine goes by the official name of "The Emergency Tambourine". It lived in the trunk of my car for many years, where it would jingle every time I went over a bump; and emergencies it has served in include not only live shows where all other tambourines were forgotten at home by the musicians present, but also as entertainment during one particularly memorable thunderstorm camp out near Crater Lake, Oregon, and as an amazingly effective distraction back in the days when when I was a nanny and found myself with a car full of crazy kids and an unexpected hour to kill. Emergency Tambourines: keep them close at hand, cause you just never know.
 
   
  

Mad As A March Hare!

For those of you who somehow didn't hear the news, Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" (really, an original third chapter which follows Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass) opens this Friday. The Alice mania is reaching a fever pitch not only in popular culture, but in my own house! I happened to get this perfectly "Alice" outfit this week, so I challenged myself yesterday to create a main image for the Etsy image that would be straight out of Wonderland. 

Musing on the many fine "Alice" themes with which everyone is familiar-- being attacked by a deck of cards, playing croquet with flamingos, talking to caterpillars on mushrooms, etc.-- the one that involved the simplest prop was the very beginning of Alice in Wonderland, wherein Alice-- unbeknownst to herself-- falls asleep out of doors, while her sister is reading a book, and dreams she sees a white rabbit, which she then follows down a very weird rabbit hole and eventually into Wonderland.

Thank god Easter is around the corner, because white rabbits were very easy to find at the local drugstore (the guy behind me in line was buying three things: a brown stuffed rabbit, a case of beer, and a huge bottle of vodka- go figure!). Mr. Buns turned out to be an amazingly patient, malleable actor. Here are some of my favorite images from the shoot:

 

I liked the drama of this series, but they are not very well-lit, so I moved into a lighter spot in the woods for the next round:

This one was, ultimately, the winner, as it says everything I want to say! I'm going to crop it and use it as my main pic for the listing today. Meanwhile, I like some of these-- they had me almost peeing my pants laughing, looking at all the ways I was attempting to express "hey, I want that rabbit!/god god, what is a rabbit doing here?"   

 

Here's an example of one that is just TOTALLY the wrong expression altogether:

 

Honestly, I look like I am sizing him up for rabbit stew. "Hmmm, I wonder if the broasting function on my stove still works? Should I garnish with parsley, or sage?"
 
Maybe this one is only funny to me, but there is something so weird about it-- like I'm saying "hey buddy, you forgot your change! Come back here!"-- I love it! Hello new Facebook profile picture!

 

I hope the Etsy world appreciates my Alice attempt! 
    
 

The Magical Poladroid

I have to thank Rachel at Mousevox Vintage for introducing me to an amazing toy-- a (free!) program called "Poladroid" that creates fake digital "Polaroids" out of your pictures! I don't have any photo editing software, besides basic i-photo, and I've been craving some new tools. This is so perfect, since, in my opinion, nothing rivals the look of a Polaroid picture. You can grab the picture at any point in its development- check out how cool the "underdeveloped" ones look. And hey, if any of you know any other free photo editing programs, please share the links with me, cause I love to play around with color and texture. 

(Both of these gorgeous dresses are in the shop, by the way!)

 

 

  

Some Kind of Fairy Tale

All the pictures I took yesterday seemed to end up like mini scenes from fairy tales... easy to do when you are running around the misty woods in flowing gowns, I admit! I thought you all would enjoy these:

Beauty and the Beast

 

Alice In Wonderland

One Thousand And One Nights

 

Snow White

 

Moominland in Midwinter

 

The "Alice" one is going to be my new avatar! It turned out especially well.... come to find out that my camera really likes the lighting on the forest floor. I would never have guessed!
 
 
 
 

Light Bright

One of my greatest challenges in running my Etsy store is capturing the clothing in just the right light. I want an interesting background, but everyone needs to be able to see the clothing clearly, and then the whole thing needs to translate into the tiny thumbnail that appears in the Search engine. I love the look of outdoors photos so much, and while I sometimes get the bug the set up a studio inside-- it would save so much time and energy!-- my artistic impulses always win out and I end up back au natural. Honestly it is all kind of an excuse to take "field trips".
I live in a particularly shady area, and my photos at home were getting darker and darker as the days shortened into December. For this last shoot, I headed down to the comparatively open river valley at Bridgeport. During the long summer days, I had at least three perfect hours of slanting, muted golden light in the evening-- so I was shocked to find that now I had only about a half hour of really good light and bright "open shade" in create to get a well-lit image. I realized that some of my pictures were going to have to work with the sun, instead of against it! Thus these experiments, some of which were just too busy or distracting to end up as the main item picture, but still I think they are enjoyable! 

 

If anyone has any hot photography tips, I am listening! Meanwhile I will continue to play around with light. 

Find all these pieces and more new this week in the shop.

 

Mighty Madrone

This 1970s cotton caftan was a dream to photograph- such an incredible pattern, and such great lines. I love the bell sleeves most of all! When the camera really loves a piece like this, I get inspired to take a few pictures that are outside of the realm of regular "Etsy photos" (where the aim is simply to show off the clothing clearly, from all angles). 

It was easy to imagine this caftan worn by some Celtic Priestess, and I felt drawn towards one of my favorite trees, the Madrone, to make a special image: 

Here is the berry of the Madrone, the very last one on the tree, which I am pretending to pick (actually I left it for the birds-- they need it more than I do).

This is a Pacific Madrone, beloved by the wildlife whom it shelters and feeds (some trees in the foothills are as big as four story buildings!) and used by Natives for a strengthening and healing tea. Modern herbalists use the leaves much like its relative Manzanita, for treating urinary tract infections, and in post-partum sitz baths.

 She is appealing to the artist's eye, with her red bark like peels like a beautifully distressed barn door to reveal a silky smooth surface underneath:

 

I have always felt a special affinity with this lovely tree, and she is one of the beings of the Sierra Foothills that makes me childishly happy every time I see her, like a dear old friend. Celtic Tree Lore mentions Madrone's symbolism as a "Mother Tree, protector", and in fact this grove of young Madrone trees is the favorite place for me and the cats to hang out on the hillside behind our house. I recently learned that Madrone's relatives in Ireland (where she is called the "Strawberry Tree", and is indigenous) grow most profusely in my mother's homeland of County Kerry! So perhaps there is a genetic connection...? 

I happened to come across a store on Etsy, Gilded Quill, that makes magic wands, and they carry a Madrone wand! Hello Harry Potter.

The "Mists of Avalon" caftan, by the way, is for sale in my Etsy store! Happy magic-making!