Megan: Victorian Trenchcoat

Following our first photoshoot together that combined Steampunk corsetry in an old textile mill, Megan and I incorporated some of our foggy graveyard photoshoot idea that never materialized into a similarly moody morning photoshoot, exploring the same textile mill’s grounds in a Victorian trenchcoat.  Although there wasn’t fog like we’d aimed for, the crumbling and overgrown stone walls paired with Megan’s ivy earrings and black lace heels brought mystical vibes to the overcast grounds, with the din of water coursing through generation equipment in the mill’s spillway immediately behind our wall drew us even further out of the 21st century in our secluded corner originating in the industrial revolution.

Having now shot with Megan twice, I can only think of a handful of people I’ve shot with who have run through poses so effortlessly; it’s a blessing in that everything we shoot looks incredible, and a curse in that EVERYTHING we shoot looks incredible (so it’s difficult to narrow down in post): a struggle Megan and I gleefully lamented going through the photos following both our shoots together.

If you don’t already, you can follow Megan’s spooky and spectacular photography of storms, cemeteries, and astrophotography on Instagram.

Like all proper creatives with pent-up artistic energy, Megan and I continue to have shared, evolving ides for photoshoots, and hopefully the next time we see each other the stars will align to bring another passion project or two together.

Until next time,

The Queen of Halloween & The Duke of Spook bid you well in 2022!

Behind the Scenes

Because of the lighting setup on our fist shoot, I didn’t even attempt any Polaroid captures, but since this photoshoot was captured simply with the same run-and-gun fill-flash technique Polaroids traditionally lean on, it was seamless freezing a few moments in time on the classic instant format; all it required was pausing for each moment for the very mechanical image capturing process to work its analog magic.

This is only the second selfie I’ve taken with a Polaroid. Polaroid selfies are both easy because the camera is so light and the shutter release is in an easy spot, but more difficult because of the tighter framing and inherent time-delayed unknowns of film photography, even on an “instant” film - modern Polaroid chemistry takes 10min to display an image, and over 20min to fully develop. It’s a format I didn’t get the chance to play with until just as the Pandemic began, but I’ve fallen in love with its beautiful imperfection and mandatory physicality.

Megan: Steampunk Textile Mill

Megan and I have known each other for over half a decade at this point, and have always shared a kindred connection thanks to our mutual love of all things dark, spooky, and nerdy.  As a photographer with a knack for makeup and modeling, Megan and I share a creative brainwave. When she’s not shooting the Moon and capturing the Milky Way at night, you can find Megan chasing storms and freezing lightning bolts by day.

We’ve bounced photoshoot ideas back and forth for years, but the distance between DC and Rhode Island has hampered our opportunities.  On my last visit in 2018, we had planned a foggy graveyard shoot, but this never materialized.  This Summer we made more firm plans for photoshoots in advance of my trip to Rhode Island in July.  Unfortunately our foggy graveyard plans fell through yet again… but we were able to finally have our first photoshoot together after all these years, and it definitely isn’t our last!

Over the years I’ve come to love Rhode Island’s mix of oceanic leisure and venerable rural antiquity; the small New England state is rich in history and photogenic backdrops.  At a super-secret location, Megan and I held our finally-first-ever photoshoot in a former textile mill, incorporating our mutual love of steampunk to coordinate with some of the antique equipment surviving from the industrial revolution.  We used this first shoot as an opportunity to experiment - Megan had a wardrobe first, sporting a steampunk-styled corset, and ran through poses while I took advantage of the creative flexibility and added some dramatic color I don’t usually get to include in many of my other photoshoots.

This was a photoshoot we were excited for months, maybe even years in advance, but we ended up even more excited about it after seeing the results as they offloaded onto my computer - dark, bold, and dramatic.

So today, on “The Queen of Halloween’s” 30th birthday (born on lucky October 13th!), I hope you enjoy the first creative project my Rhode Island Muse and “The Duke of Spook” finally collaborated on together.

The Queen of Halloween & The Duke of Spook will return!

Behind the Scenes

Well, less behind-the-scenes, and more selfies during the shoot and afterwards at a cookout - have to keep our super-secret shoot location super-secret somehow!

Museum of Work and Culture

Foreward in 2021

These photos in this post are from 2018; long before SARS-CoV-2 was a concern or worldwide problem.

As with the photos I recently posted from my 2017 trip to Rhode Island, the following is a collection of photos shot in 2018 which I’ve had in my personal backlog to edit and write about for several years.  I only recently finished editing and composing this post alongside others from the same trip due to the sheer volume of images.

Museum of Work and Culture

In 2018, I went on a roadtrip to visit with my friend Alyssa and explore more of her home state of Rhode Island.  I’ve been several times before, but as with any trip to a place you’ve been before, you discover something new every time.  This time, one of those discoveries was the Museum of Work and Culture, a Smithsonian affiliate museum in Alyssa’s hometown.

After hearing about The Museum of Work and Culture for years after multiple visits to Woonsocket, I made sure to devote a morning to give it a full runthough.  This seemed to surprise the small staff there, as I was the only person there the entire time I went, and on my way out the door several hours later the front desk attendant commented, “Oh, wow, I thought you’d left already!”  It may not be the most popular, but this Smithsonian affiliate museum is home to a ton of Rhode Island and New England history.

The Museum of Work and Culture shares the history of French-Canadian and Québécois immigrants who traveled to New England in the late 19th century at the end of the industrial revolution, where Rhode Island had a large textile industry.  As a result of the mass migration to New England, Rhode Island still to this day has an abundant French heritage; in fact, to this day, Woonsocket, where the museum is located, has the largest concentration of French and French-Canadian population in the US, dubbing itself La ville la plus française aux États-Unis, meaning “the most French city in the United States.”

Visible through out the museum windows is the Blackstone River, one of the dams utilized by the surrounding textile industry, and some of the few remaining mill buildings that have mostly been converted into apartments.