lani (and let me help you, off the bat… her name is pronounced LAH-nee. like lonnie. it’s hawaiian. mahalo.) and i met while i was shooting at my brother’s pet rescue center’s annual year-end event in 2011. she was doing a ‘live painting’ there during the course of the evening. some creatives like to use the term ‘creatives’ to describe themselves. i don’t do that a lot, but i will now. it can be good for creatives to be good and friendly with one another not only because it is the good human thing to do, and we need more humankindness in this world… but because you never know what might come out of it for either one of you. so here we are… with another one of those “this happened and then this happened and this other thing had to happen and i photographed this person and they knew that person and they said this to that person…” kind of stories. if i try to explain it, well… you may as well go watch the entire series of Lost or the movie Memento. because it will confuse you. just know that this is another one chocked up to “things happen for a reason”. i feel and believe that intensely.
we had a good amount of time to get to know each other before our shoot, as we did what is now becoming my very customary back and forth for shoots like this of helping my ‘client’ style themselves for the shoot. we also had a decent-sized drive to LA for the actual shoot, so i got a good feel for the multiple purposes for this day. lani expressed an interest in what we undertook with tara’s photoshoot. lani has somewhat recently undergone a transitional period in her life. and how do you say ‘blossom’, ‘bloom’, ‘evolve’ without being too cliché? well, whatever word works for you, that’s what lani has done… breaking through from some dark places, breaking out of what seems to have been a fairly claustrophobic and paralyzing cocoon to become the woman she was always meant to be and take flight anew, in a colorful world not only void of the darkness that had surrounded her, but a world that she is now adding amazing colors of her own to with her artwork. ** by the way, dear readers… that …to the left of this sentence? the words “her artwork”… that is a link. a link to lani’s art website. go there. i’ll link it again at the end of this post for those of you who are so invested in this blog post now and don’t want to derail the train of your mindset… but look for it again and go there after this so you can see her work. ok? ok. it’s a deal. as the indians said to kevin costner — loo-tentant — in dances with wolves: “it’s a good trade”. **
i know… there are a lot of words here so far and not any photos. am i a photographer or a writer? have i pulled the old bait and switch on you? no no… they’re coming. i promise. just some of these need a little set-up and back story. so you feel more informed. when i popquiz you on this stuff, you don’t want to be caught unaware, do you???
hair: val hulme who works at legends ladera salon 949.218.7600
mua: chelle volta who can be reached at volta.chelle@gmail.com
so we started the day at the old la zoo. a little hidden gem of a place that was perfect for some of what we wanted to do.
when people want to step out of the box, try things, humor my “hmmmm… maybe this would work?” ideas… it bedazzles my brain a little. lani made this tree hers!
we shifted gears in a major way when we climbed some hills and made our way under and through some fences for the next part of the shoot. and these shots below are so lani, to me. a joyful spirit, to say the least.
lani is a huuuuuge star wars fan. huge. at some point during our many preparation conversations, lani asked me if she could bring a light saber to the shoot. if you know me, you know i am a huge nerd or geek for all things star wars. you also know that my start in photography was almost solely based on tongue-in-cheek and goofy photos of myself. so, that side of me lit up when she mentioned the light saber. then i settled myself down for a bit… paused… mulled it over… and said: “really?” haha. i was pretty skeptical. i didn’t want this to become a completely silly shoot that just anyone could have done for her on their little point-and-shoot camera. wanting to try the challenge, i agreed. and, thusly, i give you jedi lani:
in researching photos of this location, we both were in love with the thought of these big open spaces with graffiti all over the walls. perfect for her and what we were looking to do. so we kept walking around and looking for these big rooms that we had seen. and then it hit us. we never saw people in those areas. nothing ever to show the scale of the space. and we also realized all of those photos may have even been taken with fisheye lenses. well, we got lani in there anyway. so, here you go folks. now there is something on the internet to show the scale of that (tiny) space. you’re welcome.
we went to a different staircase to explore the ‘dark side’ of lani’s life force. without any necessary or unnecessary build-up, i now give you sith jedi lani:
i’m used to working organically… and though i like to plan out as much as possible before a shoot, i still take a lot of things as they come during the shoot. including unplanned location changes. we left the zoo and headed downtown basically as the sun set and as some rain started to fall. so, we found ourselves headed for the urban lights at lacma.
do you know me? another bit of insight: i love hair in motion. love it. i don’t make everyone do it. almost everyone. and i can see the skepticism in some people’s eyes before we try it. but i like to think most of my subjects become fans afterward as well. i love the extra kick her necklace gave to these.
to complete the day of shooting, lani changed into this amazing dress. it was the perfect dress for where we were and any frustration of not being able to shoot the entire time at the old zoo was completely removed.
i love that last photo above. that was the last frame of the day and i saw it on my camera and announced “oh yeah, we’re done” without hesitation.
lani… i have loved hearing your story. you are an inspiration with your art, as well as with how you live life. i hope you continue to inspire so many others as i see you doing pretty much daily. i cannot wait for us to shoot again (yes… y’all read that right… there are a few shoots being talked about already…).
make sure you all head off to her site and check out her work… www.laniwoods.com. go there.
in the meantime, you can cast a vote here… should lani remain a good jedi, using the force for the benefit of others and to fight against the ill-will of the empire? or should she turn to the dark side and use the force to crush the rebellion??
by Tim
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