This project was fun and has a double meaning, a spiritual aspect and a physical. It took a few years to accomplish due to weather situations and not wanting to use photoshop. I wanted it as natural as can be; especially with the meaning behind it; to portray the queen you are. I wanted real snow for one aspect of it and living in Southern California that is sometimes intangible. Specifically when life happens and needing to coordinate with weather, other people's schedules, and location. Nether the less, we made it happen and I'm so thankful for all my models who participated and helped me capture my vision.
 
I paid extra attention on the type of models I chose for this shoot. To help convey the message I made sure that I had a variety of models based of skin tone, backgrounds, ethnicity, body shape and sizes, hair textures and colors. Because, we are all beautiful in our own ways.

There are four different models for each natural element; that is air, earth, water, and fire. Ice/Snow Queen represents the air element. Ice and snow comes down from the atmosphere so that is how I choose to portray the air. I made sure to shoot with the snow to depict that. It would have been awesome to photograph when the snow was falling to get some snow flakes in the shot, but the location was closed for safety reasons, so we had to wait till it was reopened. Earth element is characterized as the Flower Queen. Flowers come from the ground, so that is self explanatory. We went up on the hills in our hometown and captured the beautiful scenery and the native plants in that area. Sea Queen is the water element and the Fire Queen is the fire element. We went to Laguna beach to do this portion of the shoot, it was gloomy and mid tide which help set the mood. For the fire segment, I really wanted the fire to be the focal point but also wanted to do it safely, so we went to our local lake at night to shoot. Each queen  needed a unique crown to distinguish herself so I created each crown myself using components related to their representation, some hot glue, and polish. The crown for ice queen is pure hot glue with polish. Sea queen's crown I utilized different sized and color seashells as well as pearls. And iridescent red-ish pink crystals was used for the fire crown.

All of this created help illustrate the true meaning behind the project...
Portray the queen you are. Every women has a crown on their heads, so wear it proudly. There are princesses looking up to you...show them to be confident by setting the example of being uplifting, loving, encouraging, and not tearing each other down. And to be your beautiful self that God has created you to be, with flaws and all. 



P.S.
Yes my model for Ice Queen sacrificed her comfort and warmth for the sake of the shoot. It was freezing cold and while everyone was bundled up in their snow attire, she was in thin fabric. I am grateful that she was more than willing to freeze her self to say the least.