Fantasy

Photo Manipulation & Concept Photographic Projects

Featuring Actress, Model, Write, Director, Producer & Blackbelt Martial Artist - Jennifer Linch

All Images Photographed and Post Processed by Kenneth L Montgomery

In the beginning, I reached out to Jennifer to see if she would be interested in collaborating with me on a fashion photography shoot. She accepted my invitation and we begin to brainstorm what type of shoot that we would like to do as well as a suitable location. She knew of a venue in downtown San Diego, CA that had a wall of artsy graffiti. Our plan was to go there and take some fashion photos, using the graffiti wall as a backdrop. Jennifer reached out to the venue to ascertain their permission for us to have our photo session. Later, she shared the news that the venue would not give us permission. During our conversation, Jennifer asked, "Hey, do you like fantasy?" I replied, yes, it's one of my favorite TV and movie genres. "I have some dresses that have long trains. Seeing that the holidays are right around the corner, perhaps we can do a fantasy shoot instead." I agreed and we shifted our focus.

Being a huge fan of fantasy movies and artwork, I was excited about the opportunity to do something really special with Jennifer. Ahead of our first shoot, we exchanged ideas back and forth as well as researched various venues. Our goal was to do something as she likes to say, "legend...ary!" We nailed down a game plan and a venue. Just two days before our first shot, the forecast called for heavy rain on the day before and day of our shoot. Fortunately, it only rained the day before, so we moved forward with our plans and did our first shoot. The images of Jennifer in the pink dress (left, below) are from that first session. We had so much fun on that first outing that we decided to keep it going. We collaborated on several other shoots, having loads of fun on each of them. The feedback that we received from our peers was awesome. and our work got featured in a magazine (see below). Although our shoots took place years ago, Jennifer and I remain good friends to this day. She refers to me as her photographer and I refer to her as my princess! To add to the cool factor of this fun filled photography series, the actual name of one of the venue is called Elfin Forest, located in San Diego, California!

The Fiery Princess

As the saying goes, "Location...location...location!" For our fantasy shoots, we wanted to find a location that had various elements that we could utilize. Would you believe me if I told you that the place that we found is actually called, "Elfin Forest"! That's the actual name and it is located in an unincorporated community in San Diego. It has lots of tree cover, a running stream and various other elements that we fully incorporated into our shoots. We would carefully travel deep into the forest, lugging our gear, to find the ideal location. Once we found a good spot, the fun began!

Below Left: Oftentimes, I have ideas to take various poses with the intent of enhancing and/or adding to the scene in post-processing. That was the case with this capture. I wanted to add a fiery sphere. I have to say, that damn fire spere took me quite a while to design in Photoshop. Yep, I did it from scratch. It's composed of layers upon layers of various elements. This is just one of many examples. You can see other examples throughout this collection. We were both thrilled with the final outcome. This particular image was featured in an issue of "Gorgeous Freaks Magazine".

Below Right: We had some fun exploring nefarious characters as well. This particular one was cleaver. She would use her charm to lure in her victim with a damsel in distress look. Before they knew what happened, they were in trouble. For this particular capture, Jennifer wore white contact lenses, accent gloves and horns.

The Dark Forest

"Should you trust a beauty in the dark forest ??" Given how she's looking at me with that fiery sphere nearby...nope...no trust at all! I'm out of here!

The time of this shoot took place around 3:00 in the afternoon. However, we wanted to give the illusion of darkness. I was able to achieve that by using a small f-stop of around f/11, f/13. In addition, I placed my off-camera flashes strategically in front and behind Jennifer to produce the lighting for these scenes.

Enchanted Elegance

What makes our photoshoots so fun is our wholesome interaction and willingness to think and act outside the box to achieve our objectives. Neither of us were shy about getting down and dirty. We physically did a lot of that, in order to get the shots that we were looking to get. While lying on the ground, Jennifer had to contend with some ants that didn't take too kindly to her invading their space. For a couple of the captures in this series, I wanted to add a glowing light vibe to them. To achieve this as part of the shoot, I placed a radio triggered speedlite behind her and pointed it straight up. This gave me the glow from behind that I was seeking.

On Location

Left: I'd like to say that Jennifer and I celebrated after a successful photoshoot. But we didn't. Oh we had a successful photoshop and we did celebrate. However, the celebrating took place before we even got started.

Right: This is a behind the scenes our our Lonely Princess series. A finished image from that sequence is featured below. My go to gear here was my Canon 5D MII, Canon 24-105L, 2 Canon Speedlite 430EXs, 1 Canon Speedlite 550EX and my Hexagon Softbox Diffuser 60's. That combination has served me well over the years.

The Lonely Princess

On this project, Jennifer and I wanted to portray a lonely princess that was abandoned deep within the forest. Jennifer is very skilled at acting, so getting into character at a moment's notice was a piece of cake. One moment she would be laughing at something that I said while I was behind the camera and 2 seconds later she'd be in lonely princess persona. In post-process, I adjusted the color tones to give a cool, lonely tone.

The Evil Princess

Jennifer and I would often come up with poses on the fly while on location. We explored a gambit of emotions--happiness, sadness, evil intent, etc.

On the Fly Collaboration

For the shot above, I had Jennifer hold out her hand and pretend to be gazing at something hoovering above it. I had the idea of adding a magical sphere later in post-process. As I often do, I positioned my radio triggered flashes to produce the desired lighting at image capture. This is the finished scene.

"You dare to enter my domain! You will be sorry that you did!" Yeah, whatever lady! What are you going to do about it? By the way, what the heck are you doing way out here anyways--all by yourself?

[A few moment later] ...Oh sh**...'em, can we talk about this! Don't hurt me...I'll be on my way, just don't hurt me! "I'm afraid it's too late for you!"

For this grand pose, we wanted to fully showcase this hand-made dress with expandable cape. I placed a remote flash behind Jennifer pointing upwards. That produced the initial back lighting. In post-process, I added the light sphere.