In my old life, I lived in a little house on the edge of a park. In the early evenings I’d walk with my dog on a trail that lead from my backyard through the woods, and in warm months we’d hear the wood thrush singing. The sound echoed through the trees in this magical, kind of haunting way, it hit me right in the heart every time. So of course ever since then, I’ve loved thrushes.
This photoshoot had been in my head for a while (inspired by Wyeth’s Helga paintings and his use of light / browns / whites / texture) and the stars finally aligned when I found this beautiful little thrush from a seller on etsy. Currie Lee was the perfect talent for the project, acting as both the model, MUA and wardrobe stylist. Shout out to her vintage shop Standing Ovation.
As usual, every detail was carefully considered. I’ve always been drawn to magical realism, especially a joining of the mundane + something surprising. A laundry scene, somewhat romanticized, slightly strange, a little sweet.
Zach Thornton was our Thrush-wrangler here. I looped wire around the bird’s legs, then edited it all out in post.
You’ll notice in the above image the “outside” world is gone. I wanted this to be an open door to a backyard in the final images (in real life, it’s my kitchen). To get the outside world, I took lots of photos at Cromwell Valley park, then brought them home and experimented with composition and color toning to make it feel right. It was a little trickier than I expected but I ended up loving the final result.
One thing I love about Andrew Wyeth’s paintings is the sense of light in his images. I wanted to bring that in to these photos – a white background with bright window light streaming in. I used a strobe with a snoot attachment and tried holding up different leaves in front of it, the goal was a subtle “sun through the trees” look.
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