Happy Quarantine Easter!

I do photography work for a local Catholic magazine.  The publishing deadline has me shooting images almost two months before the magazine is finalized and distributed.  This can be tricky if you need to shoot a spring photo and it is the middle of winter.  It takes some thought and planning.  In January, I realized the April edition will be Easter (not just any spring photo).  My brain immediately thought - crosses and water (lake or ocean).  I really wanted to do a shoot of a cross in or around water. (Don’t get me wrong – the Easter Bunny is welcome to stop by the house with some chocolate goodies too!  But I thought a cross image would be better for a religious magazine.)
 
As I started forming my idea for the shoot I talked with my husband about my vision and he offered to help.  He does woodworking so I naturally enlisted his help with making a cross.  He has a variety of wood pieces, stain, and twine available for use.
 
I described the type of cross I was wanting to my husband so he could make it for me.  The vision was to have it look roughed up and aged with some rope or twine at the center to appear as if it was holding the cross together and to stand several feet high.  I was then going to get some flowing white material to wrap around it and wanted to find something to reflect a crown of thorns.  If you google any cross images, you’ll see some version of what I just described.  But instead of buying one, my hubby was able to make it with some materials he had on hand.  His shop is well supplied!
 
It took a couple of days to make the cross and stain it.  Getting the stain to dry was tricky since it was in the 30s outside in the shop.  We knew the stain wouldn’t set quickly in the cold so we brought it in the house and locked it in a room to dry out.  We have two curious kitties so we had to keep the room closed so they wouldn’t climb all over it and stain their little paws.
 
Photo shoot day arrived!  It was a cold Sunday morning.  The cross was done, stain was dry, and I had the other props for the photo.  I wanted a sunrise photo, if possible, but it seems fog wanted to hang around so we just went for it.  We headed out to a couple of Clark County Parks to find our perfect spots.
 
I had my coffee, cross, and crew (thanks hubby!) – let’s do this!  We found a couple of spots and played around with staging, angles, and lighting.  I truly enjoyed taking these photos and working with my husband on this project.  I hope you enjoy them.
 
This year Easter will look very different due to the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine.  People will not be able to attend church services to celebrate, but people are finding a way to stay connected and keep their traditions and faith.  #stayhomestaysafe
 
Happy Easter!

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