The Traveling Dress Collective 2018 || The Champagne Skirt

1 Dress.
7 Photographers.
A Trip Around the World.

In 2016 there was 1 dress and 7 photographers. In 2017 there were multiple dresses and upwards of 68 participants, each with their own individual creative vision and voice.

I was super fortunate to participate in the second round (2017) of the traveling dress, in a group led by one of the original dress participants. It was a fantastic experience and one I was so excited to participate in again! (if you’d like to read more about my first go around on the dress project, please visit THIS blog post!) Knowing I wanted to do this again, I decided that I wanted to create my own group for 2018!

Thus, The Champagne Skirt began it’s travels across the US and then across the WORLD in 2018! Our skirt started in New Albany, IN, traveled across the United States (with several stops) to me, before heading to Tasmania! Please visit my recent skirt post on my Instagram account to view a loop of my entire skirt group! I have to say, I picked some of the most talented ladies I know and each one of them brought their own magic to this skirt!! They blew me away!! To view just a few of these talented ladies time with the skirt, please please visit my friend Leslie next and see the magic she created!! (then follow the circle around back to me!)

In my last project, I was the first to shoot in my group. I knew how hard it is to wait to share your images until the end of the project. So this time around, I was happy to shoot at the end. To hopefully lessen that wait time! Wellll….you know when you plan things like that, things do not go to plan! So in a completely un-expected turn of events, I ended up at a photoshoot with THE SKIRT, our SKIRT!! So there I was, we were only mid-way through our rotation, and again, I was unable to share images! This photoshoot was held at Powell Butte outside of Portland. We had some crazy storms roll in, creating super dramatic skies and clouds. Wind, rain, lightning, double rainbows…it was an amazing day!!

So for my official turn with dress, I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to do, however, again life wanted to throw me curve balls. When my turn came, I had recently been collaborating with the Washington Dance Creative on a mural dance photo shoot. Afterwards I got this idea that it would be fantastic to have a dancer in this huge skirt. (and let me tell you this skirt is HUGE) And guess what, it was fantastic!!

I met with the super talented Amara and Josh and we spent the evening at Frenchman’s Bar. We played in the golden light, made our magical skirt float in the tall grasses, hung out with super friendly furry second shooter, and then Josh and Amara humored me and danced in the water during low sun set and blue light!! Oh it was amazing and so much fun! On to the images…there are a lot!

At this point in our session, Josh had an idea to lay on the ground and hold Amara up to create the illusion of her floating! It turned out so well and my, how I admire both of their strengths! While we were hanging out the grass we had a furry little friend who kept weaving between my legs and sitting with Josh on the ground.

Next we went down to the river. We started on the beach and soon they hopped in the water! The light was simply some of the most amazing light I’ve ever been able to play in!

After all of the skirt images were taken, I also took some of just Josh alone. Now, he is obviously not in the skirt, but this felt like the most appropriate blog post to share these. And since they are also some of my favorite creative images of the summer, I’m sharing them here too!

If you’ve made it this far, I sincerely thank you! I’ve put so much time and effort in this dress (skirt) project and this particular session, so it means a lot if you’ve taken the time to view it. I hope that you’ve enjoyed what I’ve shared and please let me know if the comments if you have!! Also don’t forget to travel over to Leslie and see her time with this amazing skirt!